Music and Entropy

When studying mechanical engineering at a college, I was interested in thermodynamics, or rather, the professor himself, who taught that subject and was a really theoretical and fascinating person. The concept of entropy in thermodynamics was quite intriguing to me. As entropy increases, the universe heads to quietly static state, it said, I believe. It sounded not only a matter of physics but also of philosophy of cosmology. Isn't it a world of death when entropy is maximized in the universe? I wish I were a bit more keen studying at that subject those days. 

A researcher group in Univ. Penn. has applied the complex system theory to music. The amounts of nodes and edges may determine the entropy of the system, as they say. Apparently, this entropy expresses how variable a music is. The following article guides their research.     

https://phys.org/news/2024-08-network-insights-bach-music.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawEiLL1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHUPgSOeOjPt2VZ2I9VGVWRhbRRo4-9VaI_y6rP9tIz7sqr-UUFY1oQAuTg_aem_mavStzDCLi23gQYMI1b4PA

They have applied this network science to Bach's music. His music turned out to have large amount of inormations while small amout of inferred networks are deviated from the true networks. They conclude the network structures revealed with their method is to make rapid and efficient communication of informations. It is of use to elucidate musical complexities, creativity and questions therein in.

https://journals.aps.org/prresearch/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.013136

It seems their application of network theory into music may help analyzing musical complexities and creativity in subjective scientific manner. Even though moving our minds won't be replaced by this scientific study.

A memory of an old timer, John W5AB ex WA5OLG, through an obituary for him by David N1EA

In the end of last year, I knew an old friend of mine, John, W5AB, had gone SK in 2014. At age 97 years. It was of course expected from his age. Still felt an age has gone for me.

It was back in '60s when I knew him on the radio. I was a teenage newcomer. I have met him as WA5OLG those days on 40m CW. He told me he was using a phased array, which sounded unfamiliar to me. I asked about it in the QSO. In a week or two, he has sent me a detailed info on that antenna by mail. I was living in a small lot in a suburb of Tokyo then and, of course, could not put up such an array. But I was impressed at his kindness to me explaining his antenna. 

I can't remember when it was correctly but most likelily, in mid '80s, I have run across with him as 9V1UY from Singapore. He seemed involved in gas mining business in Asia. Knowing he used to be WA5OLG, I was very pleased to see him and to share old fond memories with him. I can't remember what we talked about. The only thing I remember in QSOs with him is that he told me Cushcraft vertical fed at high voltage point could work well only when it was put up higher than ordinary a quarter wave vertical. He seemed still interested in various antennas.

There had been a hiatus for several years until I met him again from the states as W5AB. He was running with a small loop then. Sometimes it was harsh to chat like before. Whenever we met, we tried to talk a lot. I should look up those QSOs in the note book log where I always made memo, sometimes, over a page in a QSO. The intervals between QSOs have become longer as time passed. It was in 00s when I met him last time. As a habit of this old boy, I recalled old friends and have looked up about him. I have found the following post by another old friend of mine, David N1EA, to QRZ. com. They have known each other through CW and key collection. I could not help smiling at his post. The world is small. All of us have been united with the same hobby. 

 https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?threads/w5ab-john-mallery-sharpe-silent-key.463373/

I am sad to have lost such a great old friend as John but still am pleased to have such a fond memory of friendship with him. 

Second language learning may delay decline of or even improve congitive functions in elderly

I like learning foreign languages, mostly English, since young days. I am not sure what I have achieved with it, though. The other languages than English, like German, French, Russian or Spanish, seem to end in failure with me so far. I still go on struggling with German in order to listen to and understand Matthew's Passion etc.

At this age in mid 70s, unless making efforts to resist it, I feel knowledges of English are lost day by day. It is an aging process and quite physiological. Training with any second language may, however, delay aging or even improve our cognitive functions. The review shown below concerning the papers regarding the aging cognitive decline with learning a second language seems to support the hypothesis told above, even if the results are not consistent and they should be confirmed further with imaging studies. It may be necessary to study this subject with the same cohort longitudinally for years. Of course, comparison with the group without second language learning may be informative.

 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34867264/ 

As for my own experience, it is always stimulating to read certain paper or book written in English. When confronting any ununderstandable word or phrase, I would imagine what it means considering the context or the related lexicology. Even when looking up for that in a dictionary, I always go on expecting the answer. It is often not tiring but interesting to me. When I imagined or expected it right, it gives me a rewarding sensation. Intellectual pleasure, however small it may be for me.   

I recently realized that rewarding sensation is identical or, at least, close to that I feel in the QSOs on CW. That process has been repeatedly described in this blog. Morse code is only a system of symbols, but not a language with its specific grammar as often mistaken. But the relationship between certain language, that is, always English, and Morse code is quite strong. Something like abbreviations inherent to Morse code or sounding characteristics of certain words suggestive of its language counterpart etc. There could be inseparable bonding between these two.

If the hypothesis in the previous paragraph is correct, CW conversation might be of help to resist intellectual aging process or to improve our cognitive ability. Simple correspondence of Morse code to the character won't make it, I am afraid.

So too bad I could not practise CW at present. Instead, I would carry on reading papers and books in English. I am reading Merkel's autobio English version titled as "Freedom". Very attractive one. 

This post should be the very last one in this blog this year. Thanks for visiting. Again, I wish you all peace and good health in the coming new year.

Chicken meat cooked with salted malt

Malt is a material made from crops like rice fermented by Koji mold, that is in academic term, Aspergillus oryzae. It is surprising such fermented material could be used as seasoning in cooking etc while other generera of Aspergillus could be higly pathognic for human being especially in critical condition.  

This dish is cooked chicken meat processed with salted malt and potato starch. Lightly salty and thick flavored with malt. In refrigerator, it could be preserved for a few days. A good source of protein. We, old goats, need daily intake of high quality protein like this in order to prevent from frail or sarcopenia in the elderly. If this salted malt is available there, try it!

You, the believer of single malt, this is not the material for whisky! 

 

Former President Jimmy Carter has passed away

I believe Jimmy Carter has embodied the best part of the US as conscience and good will on behalf of the people. He has let us believe politics could be reliable. RIP President Carter.

Barack Obama's words of condolence for him;

 For decades, you could walk into Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia on some Sunday mornings and see hundreds of tourists from around the world crammed into the pews. And standing in front of them, asking with a wink if there were any visitors that morning, would be President Jimmy Carter – preparing to teach Sunday school, just like he had done for most of his adult life.

Some who came to hear him speak were undoubtedly there because of what President Carter accomplished in his four years in the White House – the Camp David Accords he brokered that reshaped the Middle East; the work he did to diversify the federal judiciary, including nominating a pioneering women’s rights activist and lawyer named Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the federal bench; the environmental reforms he put in place, becoming one of the first leaders in the world to recognize the problem of climate change.

Others were likely there because of what President Carter accomplished in the longest, and most impactful, post-presidency in American history – monitoring more than 100 elections around the world; helping virtually eliminate Guinea worm disease, an infection that had haunted Africa for centuries; becoming the only former president to earn a Nobel Peace Prize; and building or repairing thousands of homes in more than a dozen countries with his beloved Rosalynn as part of Habitat for Humanity.

But I’m willing to bet that many people in that church on Sunday morning were there, at least in part, because of something more fundamental: President Carter’s decency.

Elected in the shadow of Watergate, Jimmy Carter promised voters that he would always tell the truth. And he did – advocating for the public good, consequences be damned. He believed some things were more important than reelection – things like integrity, respect, and compassion. Because Jimmy Carter believed, as deeply as he believed anything, that we are all created in God’s image.

Whenever I had a chance to spend time with President Carter, it was clear that he didn’t just profess these values. He embodied them. And in doing so, he taught all of us what it means to live a life of grace, dignity, justice, and service. In his Nobel acceptance speech, President Carter said, “God gives us the capacity for choice. We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace.” He made that choice again and again over the course of his 100 years, and the world is better for it.

Maranatha Baptist Church will be a little quieter on Sundays, but President Carter will never be far away – buried alongside Rosalynn next to a willow tree down the road, his memory calling all of us to heed our better angels. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to the Carter family, and everyone who loved and learned from this remarkable man.

Again the ancient tomb named Bentenyama

I have had a few chances to visit my former office in the next town south to ours for the past week. 

On the way, there is an ancient tomb named Bentenyama among the farm fields. I used to see it everyday on the way to and from the office. I have written about it once or twice in this blog. It will have been 30 years next spring since I first started commuting to the office, even though I put an end to it 12 years ago. Time sure flys fast but also I feel it was dauntingly long time ago.

The tomb is believed to be built by a powerful family in this area even though the name is unknown. It was 4th or 5th century, they say. There are a number of same kind of ancient tombs around this area. This one is rather a small one. The diameter is about 10 meters. A few meters high. A small shrine is on the top to enshrine the ancestors, which must be placed there later. 

Whenever I see this tomb, two things come up in my mind.  

                                                            

Firstly, the man of power might want to convey his power to the others in the area. At the same time, the guy might be concerned about the world after death and prepared for that with this tomb. He must owned some kind of religiousness, even though it is a question if it was right attitude or not. 

Secondly, the people, the descendants, in this area must first worshipped the anscestor buried in this tomb and then started worshipping as an object of their primitive religion. This ethos must have been delivered from generation to generation. The tomb is well maintained by the people in the area. The grass grown on it has been cut and the tomb still looks neat. Even though the worshipping is declined. They sure has lost faith in ancestors but still may have a religious attitude toward this tomb.    

Thinking of these, I am kind of relieved as if I were told I would return to the soil as the ancestors have done. There is a serene and quiet stage waiting for me. I am not sure what it is but would let me rest away from all the worries and anxieties in the world. 

On the way commuting to and from the office, I often kept the roof window wide open and listened to this piano trio by Ropartz. I might have already mentioned aboout this music before. Listening to it, I felt as if I were flying freely over the rice paddies. 

 

On Christmas

On Christmas in 1979, I and my wife have headed to a festive reunion with family and those who had been involved with the sanatorium my aunt managed around WWII. A couple of dozens of people have attended it at parent's home, maternal, not too far from this present place. 

We have just started our residency at a med school hospital nearby. It took only 20 minutes to drive from the dorm we lived to that parent's home. We didn't have a car those days and should come there by train and bus. It took almost a couple of hours. I would like to attend that meeting in order to introuce my wife to them. We were in honey moon period. I was a kind of proud of her and of starting career as a doctor.

We should walk about 15 minutes from the bus stop to maternal parent's home on a street, unpaved those days. Walking on the way, we could see the mountain range in Nikko area, about 40 or 50km west of there, over harvested farms. This photo was taken about 20 years ago, much later than that trip. I believe the mountains were snowed like in this photo.   

We didn't expect what would happen to us then. Only describable in more than tens of pages here. We were rather optimistic and hopeful for our future. 

Even reaching the last chapter of my life, in this season, I always recall that beautiful mountains shown on the photo. Even if our lives have not been as what we dreamed of those days, I am overwhelmed with gratitude to family, people around me and the supreme being. Even if I would writhe on the ground from now on, I would not forget what I thought in Christmas in 1979. 

In Christmas, another thing I always remember is the famous Christmas Concerto by Corelli. I have mentioned of this concerto grosso in a previous post. I have played this music a number of times. In some occasions as a solist of cello. In a year or two since I started practising cello, I have had a chance to play it with some orchestral members. It was a Christmas party at a women's university, with which our orchestra cooperated. At the student hall, the trees in the campus and a few buildings were seen in the darkness. Very chilly without heating or with inefficient heating, I believe. Of course, our mind was invariably warmed. When the last movement of pastorale was over, having cleaned up the hall, we went back home in clusters of close friends. 

Again, I wish you all the best for this season, either in good shape or not. Let's believe something good is prepared for us next year. Even without it, let's remember anything blessing us. Thanks for visiting this blog in this passing year. You will be welcomed anytime here.