Saturday, September 29, 2012

Piano Pieces I learned Over the Summer

Over the summer, I learned many pieces that are composed in different periods, of music. The first piece is called Bourree II from French Overture by Bach. Bach is a German composer from the Baroque Period (1685-1750). To read more about Bach, you can visit my sister Miriam's two earlier posts. One post describes counterpoint, which is when you can hear two melodies in one piece. The other post is about Bach's life.

The piece that I am playing is a bourrée, which is a French dance from the 1600's. It is very slow for a dance, but it has a very beautiful melody.

My next piece is called Fur Elise by Beethoven. Beethoven was born in the Classical period (1770-1827). Nobody knew who Elise was, but they believe her name was Therese whom Beethoven loved.  Beethoven wrote this piece in the year 1810 when he was almost deaf, and in 1817 he became deaf. It is sad that Fur Elise was not published until 1865 when he was already dead. Miriam also played Fur Elise.

My final piece is called Valse Melancolique by Vladimir Rebikov. Vladimir Rebikov was born in the late Romantic period (1815-1910). He learned how to play the piano from his mother. This piece has a beautiful melody with a lot of feeling.




Which is your favorite period of music?

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Tide Pools at Leo Carillo State Beach

Sarah on top of a huge rock
On Sunday morning, we went to Leo Carillo State Beach. This is special beach that has tide pools. Tide pools are rocky pools of ocean water.  The only time you could see the tide poles is when it is low tide. Tide pools usually have star fish, mussels, and clams. When we arrived to Leo Carrillo State Beach, it was high tide, and we couldn't see any tide pools. Then, we played and swam in the ocean and I climbed a big rock all the way to the top.













Low tide
A couple of hours later, it became low tide and we were able to see the tide pools.  We found many interesting shaped and colored rocks. On the sand, we also found a long piece of kelp which is a type of seaweed. Kelp grow in shallow oceans. Kelp can grow up to 110 feet tall. That is as tall as a 10 story building! The leaves are called blades and they have gas-filled bladders growing next to them. The air bladders make the kelp float to the top of the ocean so it could get sunlight. My sister and I were jumping rope with the kelp. When it was low tide, we still couldn't find any animals, but we still had a great time at the beach.


Kelp

Gas-filled bladders

Miriam jumping rope with kelp
beautiful rocks








Have you visited tide pools?

What did you see?