Brahms Piano Trio Nr1 B major op8

Brahms has composed a number of excellent pieces of chamber music. Among them, it is his sextets or quintets with strings or strings plus another instrument which is famous and often performed. His tendency in composition for dense and thick harmony and for counterpoint may work well with those genres with multiple instruments. However, his piano trios including the famous clarinet trio are jewels as well. I have loved those trios since young days. Here is another trivial memory on his Nr 1 piano trio OP8. It is well known Brahms has first composed in 1854 and has revised it in 1889. The revised edition is more famous and always played like the trio uploaded in the last of this post. Its matureness in the style or composition technique is prominent but the breathing of youth could be audible especially in its beautiul melody.   

It was in my early twenties when I first heard this piece; the 1st piano trio by Brahms. It was the hall of Hibiya in the middle of Tokyo on an evening of early summer in '70s. The piano starts the 1st movement with grand theme which is passed on to cello. For a young cellist, this melody was haunting. I can't recall the pianist or the violinist but the cellist was, I remember, Kenichiro Yasuda in his late twenties. He has made brilliant debut as a cellist not too long before that. Placing the instrument in almost vertical position, he played it really as if dreaming. After listening it, I went for a small journey to an island. All alone. I could not recall this piece without that wandering spirit. It is still a music in youth for me.　

Almost 30 years later, I asked a violinist to play it with me. The development section was a bit tricky for an amateur cellist like me. But I got it through. The pianist was one of my old friends since orchestra days, a professional pianist as well as a teacher. She has spent time to come to Tokyo from Shinshu to make rehearsals with us for a few times. At a small concert with other amateur players, we have played it before audience. The pianist used to tell me Brahms had composed it with the chords so "heavy and thick" that she found her forearms got more "muscular" than ever. I am sure it was a kind of joke. It might mean she has made some effort for us. Still moved to hear that.

I wanted to rehearse and play it, including the other movements, again with the same gang someday . But it seems no chance for me to do that. The 3rd movement is sure poignant, calm and beautiful. I still thank two of them for letting me play the 1st movement.

I believe this trio played it bestl; Pires, piano, Dumay, violin and Wang, cello. Each musician has own unique personality in performance, quite different each other. Pires sounds seriously profound while her husband Dumay is sharply penetrating music. Singing broadly is Wang's cello. Their mixture is a kind of fascinating ensemble. I have listened to them playing this trio so many times when I was practising it 20 years ago. At my room of the office late at night. Wang played cello smooth and beautiful. I have tried to learn his rendition so far as I could from the recording. Bowing, expression, dynamic or agogigue etc. I still could picture myself practising it in my room of the office. It was quiet evening in late summer.

This is that trio. Pires has announced to put an end to her career as a pianist last year. 

While looking for this recording, I have found even hundreds of renditions by different groups. I should correct saying it is not popular. It seems pretty familiar among classic music fans and players. It is noted a lot of Japanese and Korean ensembles are playing it. This piece may resonate particularly in people of East Asia, even though it is not proven at all.  

Conclusion of the effect of acetaminophene on the fetus

This systematic review and metaanalysis have given the decisive conclusion on the effect of the exposure of acetoaminophene in pregnancy making no effect on the fetus as for autism and related diseases. 

Why and how does such as RFKennedy Jr try to change the medical findings already authorized? No background of medicine or of epidemiology with him at all. 

He and his faction seem to be entrenched in unscientific views and conspiracy. They might get certain economical and/or political interests from such behaviour.

It is a comedy as well as a tragedy for the US people as well as the world that such a person is taking the seat of Secretary of Health and Human Services. Certain proportion of the people in the US is still approving him as the Secretary. It is the issue of those people.

 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanogw/article/PIIS3050-5038(25)00211-0/fulltext?fbclid=IwY2xjawPYxa1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe8I6p4T2APC3XmzJ_71FC1sLGp2Z-EFbDQ9mgF-GKjBKTi7uCX2zvd6nY8IM_aem_oafs7TquLYP6z9C-TIt9mg

What corruption!

Trump is imposing new tariff on the countries which are against his attempt to occupy or invade Greenland. Needless to say it is completely wrong against the international law. On behind such tariff deals, he is accepting such a bribery from Qatar as this news tells. Qatar was excepted from tariff thereafter. Could a president make such corruption without any accusation? Not in a developing country but in the US.

That tariff would be eventually paid by the US people. It is a kind of domestic tax with high regressivity to the people aggravating cost push inflation. Do those supporting his tariff policy still approve it? It would destroy the world trade as well. Such abuse of tariff could cause another great depression in the world. They say the influence of tariff takes several months or even a year to appear in the market/society. The Marshall Lerner condition is variable according to the country applied with it. 

He has got not only a big private jet plane but also a great sum of money from Qatar. Big bribery!

Quote;

 PAM BONDI JUST WENT TOE-TO-TOE WITH PETE BUTTIGIEG ON LIVE FOX – 62 SECONDS OF SCORCHED-EARTH FINANCE FURY THAT LEFT TRUMP’S “BILLION-DOLLAR BRIBE SHIELD” IN FLAMES

𝙁.𝙐.𝙇.𝙇 𝙎𝙏𝙊𝙍𝙔: https://quixara.info/.../pam-bondi-just-went-toetotoe...

No warm-up. Pam Bondi, Trump’s new personal attorney, sits stone-faced in red blazer.

Pete Buttigieg walks straight past the host, grabs the second chair, and stares her down like she owes him blood money.

Pete opens fire:

“Pam, your client took $2.4 billion in ‘consulting fees’ from Qatar while selling them tariff exemptions. That’s not business. That’s bribery with extra steps.”

Bondi doesn’t blink: https://powerpeak.forum/.../pam-bondi-just-went-toetotoe...

“Prove it, Mayor. Those are legal payments, fully disclosed, and you’re smearing a president because you can’t win an election.”

Pete leans in, voice rising:

“Disclosed? In the Caymans, maybe. I’ve got the wire transfers right here. Keep defending your bribe bag, Pam, while American farmers eat dirt.”

Bondi slams the desk:

“Show the receipts or shut up! You’re a sore loser peddling fake scandals!”

Pete smiles like ice cracking:

“Receipts drop at 9 p.m. tonight. Keep the channel on.”

Sixty-two seconds of studio silence so thick the teleprompter freezes.

Host’s water glass trembles. Ratings spike to 489 million.

Clip hit X at 8:02 p.m.

By 8:30 p.m. #BondiVsPete trending 172.4 billion views.

Trump’s Truth Social: “LYING PETE!”

Pete replies with a single bank transfer screenshot: $487 million, Qatar → Trump Org, dated the day the tariffs vanished.

One showdown.

One shield shattered.

Trump’s money firewall just got torched live on air.

Beyond our common sense, handicapped children are shining brightly

The following episode of Charles de Gaulle and his daughter Anne has reminded me of a family, two borthers and their mother, whom I happened to care for at the outpatient clinic. It was in 2001. I can't remember exactly how old those boys were. The elder was in the mid of an elementary school, possibly, around 10 years of age. He was already diagnosed, with typical synptoms developed, as Duchenne type muscular dystrophy (DMD). DMD is an autosomal dominant hereditary disease with gradual onset of muscular weakness at several years of age followed by mental retardation later on and eventually turns out fatal in their tenth or twenties;at least, at that time. As mentioned later, now anti sense oligonucleotides therapy is bringing hope to the patients. The younger boy has occurred partial palsy of limbs with a noticeable mental retardation then.

The younger boy was examined for the diagnosis at a medical school hospital and turned out to be another DMD. His mother has calmly told that result to me at the outpatient. Always wearing smile on face, she never got excited. She won't scold her sons whatever they did. It was me who got shocked to hear that. She has never been upset but stayed calm with that smile. Her smile was not superficial but came out of her inner. Despite of her and family member's hardship, she remained distinguished and always smiling. I am sure she has had conflict in her mind regarding her sons' illness. She seemed to have accepted their fortune as it was. So courageous from our common sense.

In my career as a pediatrician, I have been on charge of the children with congenital disease or herditary progressibe illness like this DMD. If not all, but most their mothers were eagerly raising their children. Living to the fullest they could. It was always beyond understanding with the usual common sense. Children are a kind of alter ego, physically as well as mentally, for mothers. They must be hope and joy in life. Having children with such serious illnesses won't make themselves depressed, though. Together with the children, they were shining in life as if their children were the origin of that light. 

As if the parents, most notably the mothers were living the most brilliant moment in life with their handicapped children. The presence of those children in absurdity from our common sense seemed to make them radiate brightness all around. It was often an overwhelming phenomenon even for me.

It was one of such unforgettable cases for me. Soon they have moved to another area and won't come to see me at the clinic. Hopefully, the brothers are getting better with the most modern "anti sense oligonucleotides therapy" for DMD, which was not available those days. I only wish them peaceful and happy days. 

This is the story of de Gaulle, the famous general in WWII and later the president of France with his daughter Anne.

 ·　




　"Instead of hiding his daughter with Down syndrome, Charles de Gaulle raised her proudly, and she became the heart of his life.

When Charles de Gaulle died in 1970, he made a quiet request that surprised many. He did not want a grand state funeral in Paris. He asked to be buried in the small village of Colombey les Deux Églises, beside his daughter Anne. For him, that resting place mattered more than any monument.

Anne was born on New Year’s Day in 1928, the youngest of three children. She had Down syndrome, a condition surrounded by fear and misinformation at the time. Doctors and society often blamed parents and urged families to hide children like her from public view. For families of power and status, sending such children away was considered normal.

Charles and his wife Yvonne refused. They raised Anne at home with her brother Philippe and sister Élisabeth. There was no secrecy, no shame, no separation. She was simply their daughter.

To the world, de Gaulle was distant and unyielding. A leader shaped by war, discipline, and command. But inside his home, Anne revealed a side few ever saw. With her, he laughed freely. He sang songs, told stories, and played games. Friends noticed that the man who rarely showed emotion softened completely in her presence.

He called her my joy. Anne asked nothing of him except love, and in that simplicity, he found peace. She was never treated as fragile or inferior. She was respected fully, included always, and loved without condition.

That love did not end within the family. After the war, Charles and Yvonne founded the Fondation Anne de Gaulle. They turned a château into a home for young women with intellectual disabilities, many of whom had been abandoned. At a time when support barely existed, they chose action over silence.

Anne’s life was short. She died of pneumonia in 1948, just after turning twenty, in her father’s arms. In his grief, de Gaulle whispered that now she was like the others, finally free from the limits the world had placed on her.

After her death, he carried her photograph everywhere. He believed her presence protected him, even during an assassination attempt years later. Whether faith or fate, he never doubted her importance in his life.

Charles de Gaulle found his deepest calm not in leadership or victory, but in loving a child the world did not understand. His family showed that dignity is not about ability. It is about how fiercely we choose to care."

Another meaning of aging

I heard an old friend of mine in young days passed away from a mutual friend. No detailed info yet. It seems he died unexpectedly. 

My aunt, having managed the sanatorium at this place and closing it decades ago, moved to a new place unknown to her. He was a neighbor to her there and always helped her since she had no relatives nor friends at all there. He seemed to have faith in Christianity influenced by her. 

In my teen age days, I often visited my aunt in summer holidays. I have known him then. He was also kind to me. We have driven around the area or have gone for fishing together. It has been a haunting memory for me. I wanted to thank him for his kindness to my aunt as well as to me. My younger brother told me he had met him there also and had been treated nicely by him.

Not much known to me regarding his life after that. He has later worked as a helper at a care facility and as staff at a hospice. That career seems to indicate what a polite and kind person he has been. I should have visited him those days. But the chance has been eternally lost. How has he lived? Any family members survived? I consequently gave questions to the person who let me know of his passing. No answer yet.

In elderly, we are deprived of own capabilities, social status or relationship with people well known to us. The last often comes on as their decease. Getting older is that process of losing things for everyone in the world. 

I almost flinched at that news of his passing. My mind still remained heavy.

 Time would solve such an emotion and sadness of loss making it accumulated it into the depth of memories. The pain would not leave me for a long time, though.  

Among things we lose in elderly, such relationship with friends or with family members should be most important, I learn it from this experience. That is why I feel his death as such a heavy and unbearable loss. The ultimate aim in our lives should be such a relationship. Such as social status, wealth or capabilities are not essential but fleeting in life.   

It might be a bit too late for me but it is worth realizing it. It is another meaning of aging. 

Stan K5AS

It is the 78th birthday for old friend, Ron, K5XK. I have left words to congratulate it on his facebook page. I might have another chance to mention about Ron later. Whenever recalling of him, another guy, Stan K5XK came up in my mind. He was a neighbor to Ron and has shared a lot of ham radio activity with him.

It was '80s when I often talked to Stan. A big gun from Ark. Early in '80s, when I came back on the air, I was at a resident dorm of a med school hospital, I put up only a 14AVQ, a popular multiband vertical from Hygain, on the roof, and was running barefoot there. It was like a miracle for me to be able to chat with Stan in Ark. then. Later, Ron told me in the mail of Stan's passing on Oct 2010 that he had owned two big towers and monobanders. That was the reason.  Soon after sun set, 40m started opening to the mid south US. His big signal came on in such an occasion. It must be very early in the morning there.

I know little how Stan has grown up and has lived. I knew a little bit from our QSOs how he had lived in his last years. When I often met him, he was caring for his wife with certain chronic illness. Having lost her, he all of sudden started attending to universities studying anatomy or psychology to pursue his interests. I believe he had legs amputated due to diabetes as Ron's mail told below. He was on a wheel chair by that time. Whenever we met on the radio, he always told how he had been studying the subjects of his interest. He always told me what subject or theme he would do with in the next semester for the next challenge. His positive attitude toward life always astonished me. 

I had been off the air for almost a decade then and, when coming back after such a long hiatus, was surprised what a joy ham radio could bring me with such a simple set up. Ron told me Stan used to mention about me whenever he saw Stan. That story also moved me not least.

In '90s or so, however, it has become less frequent seeing him on 40m early in our evening.  And in 2011, I have received the following mail from Ron telling of Stan's SK.

Quote;

 Our mutual friend Stan, K5AS, became an SK in October, 2010.

Stan was a wonderful friend and we always talked about you
until the very end. His mind was very keen until his death,
but his body suffered from diabetes and peripheral neuropathy,
which led to the amputation of both legs several years ago.
But he continued to be very mobile, driving his specially
equipped wheelchair, automobile (modified for handicapped ]
driver), and he drove himself to ham club meetings. But,
despite many efforts, he refused offers of help to put up
small "stealth" antennas at his retirement home. After
enjoying two 75' towers and monoband yagis for many years,
he realized that his DXing days were over.

Unquote; 

So that is the story of this great guy. I also thank Ron for letting me have acquaintance with him. It is a memory for me when ham radio was brightly shining. 

An old mother cared for by daughters in Shinshu

I have a distant relative living in Shinshu. She used to live in the old sanatorium our parents worked and I was born, that is, exactly this place, immediately after the WWII. She is a faithful person believing in Christianity and went to get married to another Christian farmer living in a countryside in Shinshu, the mountainous prefecture far away,

at that time, from here, several years after WWII.

My mother and our other family members have been friendly to her and her family Ms, the initial of the family name M. In my university days, it was a routine for me to visit them on the way from or to the orchestra camp site held in Shinshu every summer. I have enjoyed hiking to the mountains nearby with Ms' daughters. The family members were all kind and faithful. The nature around there was so beautiful. I felt time was going on so slow I could forget things going on in ordinary life.

Ms' house is located on a slope of a big valley, a side of Great Rift Valley in Japan. Looking over the valley;  

    

M' old house, with the family having been engagd in farming for generations. This photo was taken 15 years ago. They have lost the husband and his sister since then. Now only that old lady, a distant relative for me, is living there. 

Precisely talking, that old lady aged 102 years now is living with the youngest daughter aged 70 years, who has own family in close neighborhood. The other day, when I gave a phone call to her wondering how her mother had been doing lately, that daughter told me that she had been caring for her mother at this home. I was almost falling from the chair. Her mother is now bed ridden but still is reading books etc on her bed. Three other daughters, each working away from home or having married at different places, are coming to substitute her duty for a day on different days in a month. I was truely surprised to hear that.    

In addition, that 4th daughter is still doing farming by herself. Except for an occasion of such as planting or harvesting rice plants which requires her husband's help, she said she had been doing everything by herself. She won't use chemicals for fertilizerc. Only organic compost. She told me she had been farming that way for 40 years. Of course, we have had the same interests in farming, even though I am much more junior to her. She told this story as if nothing special. She even told me to taste her organically grown rice.

Everything is thanks to those daughters' efforts but basically their mother and her husband have raised them that way. Or should I say their belief in Christianity has worked? I only wish they would spend peaceful days at this beautiful place.