September 09

THE MUSIC MINISTRY OF COLONIAL HEIGHTS UMC

SEPTEMBER 1, 2009

Music Notes Tone deaf ? Brain pathway may be missing copied !om CNN’s website: Freakynewsaboutyourbrainmaychangeyourmind By Elizabeth Landau “Make a joyful noise to the Lord,, a$ the earth.” (Psalms 100:1 NRSV)

Some people are really bad at singing a song they’ve heard, and scientists are figuring out why. The phenomenon, called tone deafness, refers to people who do poorly at distinguishing between different musical tones. Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, looked at images of the brains of 10 people who tested as being tone deaf, and 10 people who were not. Here’s a tone deafness test similar to the one they used. http://musicianbrain.com/adaptative_pitch_test/pitch-tablower-external-edit.swf Previous research has shown that people with lesions in the brain pathway that connects perception and motor areas of the brain have trouble with language, said Psyche Loui, instructor in the department of neurology at Harvard University. The new study in the Journal of Neuroscience also found that the pathways in this brain area, which usually have top and bottom branches, were implicated in tonal recognition. In fact, scientists could not identify a right-top branch in any of the 10 tone-deaf participants. “The better you can tell the difference between two tones, the larger that particular brain pathway was,” Loui said. The findings do not mean there is no hope for tone deaf people, however. “I think there’s a lot of music training in general that could help enlarge these pathways,” Loui said. In fact, a treatment for tone deafness might also help people with speech disorders such as dyslexia, she said. There has been evidence that people with dyslexia have same auditory processing problems as people with tone deafness, she said. Her lab showed last year that children with musical training performed better on dyslexia tests. On the other end of the spectrum, some people have perfect or “absolute” pitch, and can name any musical note they hear. Diana Deutsch, psychologist at the University of California, San Diego, has found people who speak “tone” languages, with words that change meaning entirely depending on tone, seem to have a greater likelihood of perfect pitch. More speakers of Mandarin and Cantonese, two tone languages, tend to have perfect pitch than English, for example, she said. In theory, in Deutsch’s view, it should be as easy to call a pitch “F” as it is to say that an object is red or blue. “If you assume that there’s something missing in our environment in terms of early exposure to the right types of sounds, and that it is bundled in with speech, then the whole thing makes sense,” she said.



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2 new Mozart works presented in Austria By VERONIKA OLEKSYN Associated Press Writer

S A L Z B U RG, Au s t r i a ( A P ) - Mozart’s momentous legacy grew as researchers unveiled two piano pieces recently identified as childhood creations by the legendary composer. The works - an extensive concerto mo vement and a f ra gmentar y prelude - are part of “Nannerl’s Mu s i c B o o k , ” a w e l l - k n o w n manuscript that contains the Au s t r i a n m a s t e r ’s e a r l i e s t compositions, the International Mozarteum Foundation revealed while presenting the pieces in Mozart’s native Salzburg. “We have here the first orchestral movement by the young Mozart even though the orchestral parts are missing - and therefore it’s an extremely important missing link in our understanding of Mozart’s development as a young composer, Mozarteum’s research leader Ulrich Leisinger said. Mozart, who was born in 1756, began playing the keyboard at age 3 and composing at 5. Before his death from rheumatic fever on Dec. 5, 1791, he had written more than 600 pieces. Leisinger said Mozart likely wrote the two newly attributed pieces when he was between 7 and 8 years old, with his father, Leopold, transcribing the notes as his son played them at the keyboard.

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THE MUSIC MINISTRY OF COLONIAL HEIGHTS UMC

MEMBER & FAMILY NEWS (If you have information to share about yo u o r yo u r fa m i l y, p l e a s e s e n d information in email [email protected]. If we inadvertently omit your name !om the birthday list or omit information you have submitted, contact Jim. )

Happy August Birthdays Jane Adams(9/7), Bruce Anderson (8/25), Shirley Woods (9/27), Rod Barnett (9/30)

Beauty and Intelligence Combine Jim (Bass) and Sandy (Soprano) Roller’s granddaughter Nora Beth Moran is in the news. Nora was a participant in the Miss Kingsport Pageant where she received the Miss Congeniality Scholarship and a second scholarship by raising $450 for the Children’s Miracle Network. Nora Beth is a junior at King College. She is on the dean’s list and received outstanding French student of the year. She recently returned from spending six weeks in France. Reader’s Choice Award McMillin’s Eyecare received this year’s Times-News Reader’s Choice Award in Eye Care. Dr. McMillin and his wife, Conti (Front Porch Singer) are to be commended for their work in eye care and their support of CHUMC.

Letters to the Editor Bonnie Willard (Soprano) had a letter to the Editor in the Kingsport Times-News last month concerning the courteousness of a couple of young men that assisted her in changing a tire along the



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road. Thank you, Bonnie, for showing your thanks to them in our community. Please remember Bonnie as she faces knee surgery this month. In the News Zeke Belot appeared in InfoView on the Kingsport Times-News last month. Zeke is the great grandson of Helen (Alto) and Russell Taylor a n d grandson of Steve, T e r r y Belote and son of Brad and Missy Shelton Belote, Springfield, Mo. He is 21 months old and celebrated his first July 4 in America. The Next Michael Phelps? Dr. Sam (Bass) and Joan (Soprano) Wiles’ grandson is at it again. Last month, he placed 8th in the 200 meter backstroke at the US Open in Washington state. In his preparations for the meet he achieved a pool record, meet record and US Open record. Way to go!

SEPTEMBER 1, 2009

September Anthems September 6 (Holy Communion/ Labor Day Weekend) Sing and Be Not Silent (McDonald) September 9 What a Wonderful World (arr. Miller) September 16 Come, Christians, Join to Sing (arr. Landrum) Lay Your Hand Upon Me, Gently, Lord (Murray) WOMEN’S ENSEMBLE September 23 The Heavens Are Telling (Beethoven/Thompson) All Creatures of Our God and King (arr. Lamb)

This Old House

The Clothes Cottage gets a new roof and long overdue remodeling.

Band Rocks! Pa t R i c k m a n’s ( S o p r a n o ) granddaughter achieved Competition Band status at Dobyns-Bennett High School. congratulations on your achievement! TV Star Linda Thoma (Soprano) was interviewed by WCYB-TV during last month’s Highland’s Festival in Abingdon, VA.

Thanks to Baxter Hood for the photos.

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