Happy New Year! And welcome to HighNotes, brought to you by the Evanston Symphony for the senior members of our community who must of necessity isolate more because of COVID-19. The current pandemic has also affected all of us here at the ESO, and we understand full well the frustration of not being able to welcome the New Year with family and friends, take in a movie at a theatre, or even just talk to a friend over coffee or a neighbor down the hall. On the other hand, while we dearly miss performing for our fabu- Musical Notes and Activities for Seniors lous audiences, we certainly enjoy putting together these monthly from the Evanston Symphony Orchestra HighNotes for all of you! HighNotes always has some articles on a specific theme plus a variety of puzzles and often some really bad Music That’s Out of This World! jokes and puns. In this issue we highlight music that’s “Out of This World” and will take you on a musical trip to Outer Space. We’ll give Haydn The Creation 2 you a bit of information about Haydn’s The Creation followed by a lot of information about Gustav Holst’s The Planets (p. 2) and John Holst The Planets 2 Williams’ Star Wars (p. 8). The information on these last two is in the form of “easy listening” program notes, so you can use them Poor Pluto 4 when you listen to the music if you’d like. We also include a sheet called “HighNotes Links” so you can find the music on YouTube. Holst of the ESO 6 Another feature of HighNotes is our “tangential” articles, short Williams Star Wars 8 pieces that aren’t specifically about the music but do fit the theme. In this issue: a scolding from an astronaut, a corned beef sandwich The Real Tatooine of Star Wars 10 on a space mission, how Star Wars borrowed from real life, the demotion of a popular planet, and others. And, Bygones continues The Day I Was Scolded by Neil Armstrong 12 the theme with décor and toys from the “Atomic Age,” fun stuff to bring back memories and start conversations with friends our age Space Deli & Celestial Sweets 14 as well as with the much younger people in our lives! Bygones, Puzzles, Jokes Vol. 1, No. 7 HighNotes January 2021 & Other Amusements 16 Editor ..............................................................................................Kelly Brest van Kempen Technical Advisor..................................................................................................David Ellis January 2021 Puzzle & Maze Checkers …………………………..Connor, Addison, Ryan, Calli, Ciara & Gus HighNotes© - Copyright 2020 - ESOA (except for original authors’ copyrights) ESOA makes no claim to copyrights held by others and uses such materials for educational purposes only under the “fair use” exception to copyright law. xxX scientific study of celestial bodies. For this reason, the movements of his work are not in the astronomical order we’re familiar with, but The idea of music being influenced by celestial are instead in astrological order: bodies has appeared throughout history in a number of instrumental and vocal pieces. Mars, Bringer of War – A heavy march with lots of brass and In Ancient Greece, Pythagoras (he of the percussion. The music builds to almost ear-splitting volume. 2 2 2 A +B =C formula ) believed in what he Venus, Bringer of Peace – Some quiet music after noisy Mars. called the "harmony of the spheres". He wrote that the planets and the stars all move in the Mercury, The Winged Messenger – Mercury was universe according to mathematical equations and very fast, flying with messages from one deity to resonate to produce an inaudible symphony of music. He also another. This music jumps around, just like Mercury, believed that these mathematical equations could be translated into darting quickly from place to place. (FTD Florists use musical notes and thus produce an audible symphony. This idea Mercury as their logo, a symbol for fast service.) has been explored extensively throughout the history of Western Jupiter, Bringer of Jollity – Jupiter is ruler of the Roman gods and music. Here are some of the more recent - and widely different - goddesses – and was known to have a sense of humor. (Another examples of space-influenced music. name for Jupiter is “Jove,” where our word “jovial” comes from.) Joseph Haydn: The Creation This piece gives us both of Jupiter’s moods: a wild dance in three- quarter time for the “jollity” followed by a quieter, more regal hymn. Austrian composer Joseph Haydn visited England twice between Saturn, Bringer of Old Age – Saturn is presented as 1791 and 1795, where he heard some of George Frideric Handel’s Old Father Time, slowly but surely marching along. magnificent oratorios, very possibly including Handel’s Messiah. He returned to Austria determined to write his own major oratorio. The Uranus, The Magician – By using a lot of flourishes in Creation depicts and celebrates the creation of the world as the brass section, Holst gives us a picture of a loud, described in the Book of Genesis in the Bible. You can find links to brash show-off! this glorious oratorio on our Internet Links page. Neptune, The Mystic – We usually think of Neptune as the god Gustav Holst: The Planets of the seas, the one who causes fierce storms when he’s angry. Holst, however, gives us another side of Neptune, one that is The Planets has been called “one of the loudest dark and mysterious. The planet Neptune orbits slowly on pieces of music ever written and, in parts, one of the the edge of darkness, while the god Neptune quietest.” When Holst, an Englishman, wrote the rules over the dark and mysterious depths of the music in 1915, there were only seven known planets seas as well as the storms on the surface. The besides Earth; Pluto would not be discovered until 1930. All piece ends with an off-stage chorus of female of the planets are named for Roman deities, including Earth, whose voices that fades into the distance so quietly Latin name is “Terra Mater,” or “Mother Earth” in English. Holst’s that we’re not sure when the piece is actually work is about the personalities of these goddesses and gods as over! revealed in the tales written about them by the Romans. It is thus Pluto - Ah yes, poor Pluto. It’s completely absent from Holst’s work based more on astrology, the study of celestial bodies and the – but with good reason. Read on for the story of its rise and sad fall. belief they affect what humans do, rather than on astronomy, the 2X 3 a planet may have moons because moons are controlled by their “dominant object,” but it can have nothing else in its orbit that The existence of Pluto was suspected by astronomers in the late appears to have an astronomical will 1800s, but wasn’t confirmed until 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh, a of its own. Pluto fails this third test: it 24-year old assistant at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, apparently has a messy yard... To Arizona. The public was delighted at the new planet and Disney oversimplify, there are some objects took advantage of that excitement to give the name to sharing Pluto’s orbit that it does not one of its newest characters, also introduced in 1930: control, and that very fact caused the a loveable yellow mutt that was Mickey Mouse’s pet. IAU to demote Pluto’s status to that The excitement led a lot of people to suggest to Gustav of “dwarf planet”. Holst that he write another movement to The Planets, Reaction was mixed. Some astro- one in honor of the newly discovered ninth celestial body nomers agreed, others did not. The orbiting the sun. However, The Planets was public, however, was in an uproar. A so popular that not many people paid much resolution introduced (with tongue firmly in cheek) in the California attention to Holst’s other music. Holst found State Assembly called the IAU decision a "scientific heresy." The that quite irritating and thus refused to write a New Mexico House of Representatives passed a resolution in piece of music about Pluto. Fast forward 70 honor of longtime resident Clyde Tombaugh, declaring that Pluto years to 2000 in England: the Manchester will always be considered a planet while in New Mexico skies and Halle Orchestra gave a commission to Colin that March 13, 2007, was Pluto Planet Day. Here in Illinois, where Matthews, an expert on Holst, to write the Tombaugh had been born on a farm near Streator in 1906, the “Pluto” movement, which he called “Pluto, The State Senate passed a similar resolution, which also asserted that Renewer.” It had its premiere in Manchester Pluto was "unfairly downgraded to a 'dwarf' planet" by the IAU. on May 11, 2000. The piece lasts for about 6 minutes and is very much in Holst’s style. (See ESO Links.) So, is Pluto a planet or not? Perhaps not to most However, not many orchestras played it, preferring to stay true to astronomers. But for those of us born and raised Holst’s version - which may have been prophetic. during Pluto’s heyday, we will need a giant act of will to say “Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, By the 1990s, the precision of telescopes had increased astronom- Saturn, Uranus, Neptune” – and stop short. Or ically (so to speak) and astronomers began to question Pluto’s not. Maybe we just won’t bother! status as a planet, even though it orbits around the sun and has its own moons. Then, in 2006, the International Astronomical Union (the “IAU”) Fun Pluto Facts published its definition of a planet as ”a celestial ● It’s only 1/6 the size of our moon, but has 5 moons of its own.