H for Harmonics

Was reading through some thread of discussion on an Imperial Bosendorfer on which has 97 keys instead of the usual 88. I was thinking of the higher registers but in fact the additions were on the lower ends.

Someone was saying he wishes more are built this way. And another question his need for the extra octave. Like what difference do a extra few notes, especially those at the end of the spectrum, make?

A simple reply was because it would be awesome and that it could mimic thunder.

And then another person asserted:

No, that's not the reason at all.
Those extra strings resonate with any other strings being played particularly those in the lower octaves giving a deeper and richer tone. When those keys are actually played as part of a piece they give much deeper resonance. When played alone as in this example, they simply sound a little weird and somewhat pointless. The presence of these strings is as much if not more about the sympathetic resonance they offer, than it is about them actually being played.

Not only is the reply impressive for a reflection of the writer's knowledge of harmonics, but the last line is really food for thought, especially in application to the things and people around us in our lives.

Good Friday

Good friday... it was a good friday last week. No, not about the perfect work of God's beloved Son. Not something that wonderful, but still very good, personally! It was about how I received a free ticket through Jim, and a good day out that followed.

Also met Leonard, Mark Q, Mark F, as well as Kian Hong, and Bala! Throughout the day you can say I Yan Fu Bu Qian, some girls I never knew were trying to look for me in the crowd, and they even knew my name... one of them was a policewoman and another was a lady selling noodles at Terminal Three. All I'd say here is that I really did not mean for such attention... It was quite an eventful day, both Jim and YK must agree!

Yes, YK looks really Leng in those sunglasses. And of course Jim is avoiding the camera because he still owes us 7 bottles.

His Handiwork

A very accurate Chinese translation of a splendid hymn by Ralph Carmichael in the 50s.

救主是我一切

群星閃耀述說主奇工 微風吹動見證主尊榮
陸地海洋在祂掌管中 於我有何義?

救主降生要慶祝歌頌 因這事已記載歷史中
祂來世界使人得自由 對我有何義?

*直到憑信見主面對面 領會救主奇妙大恩典
我才深知真神愛無邊 祂時刻關懷我
並非遠住在高天
每日與我同行肩並肩 常常看顧我免遭危險
助我走窄路勇往直前 救主是我一切

Inspiring Imitation

A sibling of mine was just clearing out old rubbish in the room, and suddenly handed over to me a stack of yellowed foolscape paper I recognised as a few of my composition written at CHS.

The unexpected confession that came along was that studying my compositions had dramatically improved my sibling's performance in English during high school, from an average level to topping the whole cohort! That is either dramatic, or dramatised. Either way, I am truly flattered.

And this just suddenly reminded me of a funny experience I had about two years ago, when I met YL a high school classmate, now a successful investment banker: it was a prata shop at Upper Thomson, and a brief chancing upon each other gave us a few minutes to catch up.

It was then that he actually revealed to me how he had secretly used my compositions to prepare for his O levels English. I was stunned by that revelation, coming from a guy I always admired for his out of the box attitude and incredible intelligence.

It was like a joke to me, for me to have been a source of contribution, preparation or even inspiration to someone like him. It is both a strange and familiar feeling to be inspiring another person. Yet I never thought much about what I wrote. This is like a posthumorous honour, except I'm still very much alive... thank God! Would you not feel flattered by people who kept references or copies of your writings, in preparation to excel for their exams? I wonder what my English teacher would think of this.

Often being surrounded by talented and prodigious cohorts, I did not think that my composition was ever extraordinary or worth mentioning. I also did not care about handing my work in, until I felt it was ready! Haha... hence, many a time, I submitted my essay late by a few days (my headshaking monitor always had to give me his condescending trademark headshaking) and my teacher always had to penalise me by discounting my essay score.

My best friend always felt glad that, after the penalty, my essays still scored reasonably ok (and accordingly, often still beating my monitor...) But with all honesty, the score did not matter to me; neither did the approval (or disapproval) of my monitor concern me.

I just did not write for scores or nods.

If you must judge... yes, I was a very problematic student.