Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2020 October 25

= October 25 =

beautiful bird on children's TV show
I used to watch Sesame Street when I was a child. Time and again, they showed a segment of a hawk patrolling his natural region. It was set to a melancholy-sounding music score. I can't seem to find it anywhere on YouTube. Could someone help me, please? Thank you.142.255.72.126 (talk) 06:01, 25 October 2020 (UTC)
 * When, at least roughly, were you a child? Was it a forested, grassy, sandy, snowy or swampy natural region? Do you remember which musical instrument(s) played? Sorry for questioning your question, but Sesame Street is a big place. Details help us help you. InedibleHulk (talk) 18:01, 25 October 2020 (UTC)
 * I was born in 1971. The natural region was forested with some grassy areas. The main musical instruments were horns, but there were xylophones (I think) and cymbals. A man's voice saying, "Hawk," was blended in with the music score. I hope all of that is helpful.142.255.72.126 (talk) 19:19, 25 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Well, I can't find it. I don't personally recall something like this, either, but my heyday as a viewer was in the '80s and I was mainly there for the muppets, could've flown under my radar. I hope someone else can help, for both of our sakes, this sounds like a pretty decent segment now that I've grown weary of Cookie Monster and jaded about Kermit. InedibleHulk (talk) 23:39, 27 October 2020 (UTC)
 * I'm only about 5 years younger than the OP, and while I don't remember the specific scene in question, I do remember many like it. Sesame Street used to have interstitial scenes of nature or city scapes or the like with minimal talking and just music and visuals that played between the educational clips (teaching numbers and letters) and the narrative sequences (the interactions along Sesame Street itself).  I don't doubt the existence of the scene, but like you I can't find it on YouTube or anywhere else.  -- Jayron 32 13:07, 28 October 2020 (UTC)
 * I do remember this segment; or should I say: "segments" but I remember them being a bald eagle from a "bird's eye view": Bald Eagle: Islands, Bald Eagle: Roads. Could this be what you remember, too? Maineartists (talk) 17:13, 28 October 2020 (UTC)
 * I remember those segments, as well. But I still wish to find the hawk segment.2604:2000:1281:F1B:E0EC:EB86:6253:5A8B (talk) 23:22, 29 October 2020 (UTC)

Finger number 0 for piano
In b. 538 of G. Henle Verlag's edition of Schumann's Humoreske (you can probably page through it here after clicking "Look inside" and see it on p. 21), there are two finger number 0's in the LH staff.

What exactly does this mean? And is this common notation that I just never happened to see defined explicitly, since Henle does not provide an explanatory footnote? Given that those notes are also in the RH, I suspected it simply meant that you don't hit the key with the LH (only the RH), but I'm not sure. I thought of this hypothesis because there are some odd things in the next few bars that seem to suggest that a redistribution of notes between the hands is intended (e.g. b. 540, with a "floating" finger number 2 in the RH staff that is vertically aligned with no note in that staff, but is aligned with a D♭5 in the LH staff that is in a perfect position to take with the right index finger); both hands are being asked to play in more or less the same region of the keyboard. And maybe there is some significance to whether the finger numbers appear above or below the notes in the LH staff of bars 538 and 539. But that is just my WP:OR guesswork without a source. If it is common notation, I should like a source saying what it means, to add to Fingering (music). Double sharp (talk) 15:36, 25 October 2020 (UTC)
 * I don't think I've ever seen this notation in 60 years of piano-playing. I can only guess that it's because the notes in question (in bar 538) are doubled in the right hand, so are not played by the left. The usual notation for this would be to put the non-played notes in parentheses. (Is there an editorial note anywhere to explain?) As for the "floating 2" in bar 540, I think it applies to the D♭ in the LH, and should be much closer to that note. Excellent though Henle editions are in general, they are not always faultless. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 16:33, 25 October 2020 (UTC)
 * P.S. the only version of the piece available on IMSLP is the edition by Clara Schumann, which gives almost no fingering anywhere, and none at all in the passage in question, so the zeros are presumably an editorial addition. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 16:40, 25 October 2020 (UTC)
 * I haven't seen any editorial notes to explain it (although maybe there is one and I just managed to overlook it). If there really isn't one, then maybe the 0 is an in-house practice only Henle uses, or maybe it is a regional thing that happens not to be understood everywhere, but I'm still guessing. Yes, the fingering seems to be editorial since Henle credits Hans-Martin Theopold for it: maybe the lesson is simply not to take editorial fingerings too seriously, to just use whatever seems to work best for one's own hands, and that editions can have mistakes. ^_^
 * To be quite honest, the more I look at that D♭ in bar 540, the less I understand what Theopold is trying to do here. The held F below it is given a fingering of 5 tied to 3. If the 2 is meant for the LH, then that starting on 5 makes some sense (because otherwise it seems easier to just use 2 on the F for an easy legato down to the C and E on the next beat); but then 3-2 for a minor sixth seems a stretch unless you're intended to let go of the D♭ early and use the pedal to help. But if that's the case, then it seems to me that if one was going to redistribute this passage between the hands, it would've been much easier to simply give the lower octaves of the A and G to the LH, and pass the eighth notes in the tenor to the RH, and not need to change fingers on the F at all. Or one could compromise by keeping the octaves in the same hand, and letting the otherwise unoccupied inner fingers of the RH take the tenor anyway, and that still seems easier to me than what's being suggested (with a quick 2-to-3 on the C in the RH, having slid down using 2 from the D♭, I could get a real finger legato, which should be useful because of the semitonal movement). Anyway, see the lesson I suggested for myself in the previous paragraph. ^_^ And thank you very much for the help! ^_^ Double sharp (talk) 17:02, 25 October 2020 (UTC)


 * @ User:Double sharp: I'm late to the party, but I agree with Andrew W Taylor on both points. I have had this very edition for many years, and this passage is one of the bits I can actually play. I have made no markings in my score, which suggests either (a) I've noticed these things and lost no time in working out what they obviously meant, or (b) I've never noticed them at all. I have no memory of being aware of them, but then, it's been quite a while (years?) since I last played the piece. I've just now gone to the piano to play the page, and if the zeros had not been there at all, I would naturally have omitted those left-hand Ds, so the zeros just confirm that omitting them is the correct approach. The "floating 2" is an obvious typo, meant to be above the left-hand D-flat.


 * Now go to bar 539, where there's another curiosity. The lower G in the right-hand octave is interfered with by two successive Gs in the left hand, marked 3 and 2. Had those fingerings not been there, it would have been tempting to omit the left-hand Gs and allow the dotted minims in the right hand to prevail. But the fingering directs us to raise the right-hand thumb at that point and let the left-hand Gs sound. So, these are very deliberate instructions from the editor, and I strongly believe the zero fingerings are the same: the written notes are played by no finger at all. I've long thought that someone should take Schumann by the scruff of the neck and show him how to properly write out his heavenly music, because his setting out is often a big stumbling block. --  Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  21:40, 25 October 2020 (UTC)