(chirping sound) (ringing sound) >>♪ Oh, how lovely is the evening, is the evening ♪ ♪ When the bells are sweetly ringing, sweetly ringing ♪ ♪ Ding, dong, ding, dong, ding, dong, ding ♪ Hi friends.

>>We're so glad you're joining us tonight.

>>We are.

We're staying up late to discover the musical magical sounds of night.

>>So come stay up late with us.

>>♪ Come play with me ♪ ♪ Won't you come play with me ♪ ♪ Come on, come on, come on ♪ ♪ Come play music with me ♪ Yeah.

Welcome to Songs and Stories >>With Mary and Mike.

>>(chuckles softly) Where we tell the stories of music.

>>And we share the music of all people.

So what are we doing out here tonight?

>>Friends, we have stayed up late tonight so that we can learn about, discover, be inspired by the sounds of nighttime.

>>I love the sounds of nighttime.

>>I do too.

We are going to sing a song inspired by the night.

We're going to have a biologist, teach us about what happens to animals and plants at night.

And we have a young pianist who's gonna play a beautiful piece of music inspired by the moon.

>>Oh my goodness, this sounds like so much fun.

>>Well, let's get started.

>>Let's do it.

>>Let's make music!

>>Friends do you remember the song that I was singing right at the beginning of the show.

It's called, oh, how lovely.

And it reminds us of, oh how lovely is the evening.

I know that some of you might feel scared sometimes in the dark or at nighttime, but I'm sharing this song so that you might think of it if you get scared and think, oh, how lovely is the evening.

It's a time of peacefulness, and calm, and some magical sounds.

So I'm going to sing the song again.

I'd love for you to stand up with me so you can sway your body to that lovely steady beat while I sing.

And I want you to be thinking about the words and the melody and how it all comes together and how it makes you feel.

Are you standing up?

Here we go.

(ringing sound) ♪ Oh, how lovely is the evening, is the evening ♪ ♪ When the bells are sweetly ringing, sweetly ringing ♪ ♪ Ding, dong, ding, dong, ding, dong, ding.

♪ That song makes me feel so peaceful and reminds me that there's just so much beauty and loveliness about the evening.

Now I also love (ringing sound) the sound of this bell, my resonator belt.

Now you might have a bell at your house that you can listen to in the evening or maybe you don't, but there's a lot of magical musical nighttime sounds that we can discover.

So let's go down to the lake and meet Mike and Dr. Lerdau out to figure out, what are some things that are making those nighttime sounds.

Come on.

>>Let's explore nature.

>>Hi friends.

We're down at the lake, and we're about to go meet our friend, Dr. Lerdau who's gonna tell us a little bit more about the sounds of things at night.

So come on, let's go.

Let's find out.

Hey Dr. Lerdau.

>>Hey Mike, how are you?

>>Thanks so much for being here tonight.

>>Absolutely, I'm happy for this.

>>So can you tell us a little bit about these sounds we're hearing.

>>All right.

Well, let's be quiet for a moment and listen to what's going on.

(chirping sounds) Listen very closely.

There's a background noise of many, many things and those are all insects.

They're kind of called a cricket.

>>Okay.

>>And then if you listen you can hear individual crickets.

And those are the ones who were up close, and they make a little noise and they stop, and they make a little noise and then they stop.

And what we call crickets as a nickname is natural thermometers.

>>Why do you call them natural thermometers?

>>They are natural thermometers because how fast they make their noise and how long they wait between sounds depends on the temperature.

>>Okay.

>>The warmer it gets, the faster they call.

>>Yeah.

>>The colder it gets the slower they call.

You know how they make their noise?

>>No, how did it make their noise?

>>It is very cool.

They are playing a string instrument when they make their noise.

>>A string instrument.

>>Their taking their hind leg, remember they have six legs so they have a lot to work with, and they are bowing across a membrane (buzzing sound) but it sounds nicer when they do it.

So they're, crickets are string instruments.

>>Do we ever hear like, are there birds we might hear at night or?

>>So there were some birds who are kind of, they're not active at night but sometimes they sing at night.

And if you're very lucky, you could hear them.

The one bird, the one that's common around Virginia is the cuckoo will call at night.

And if you hear a sound at night going, (cooing sound).

That's a cuckoo calling at night.

Now they won't fly, they will just sit wherever they're perched for the night and call.

But the most common birds we hear at night are the ones you probably you're thinking of, owls.

And around here, we have three owls.

We have the largest a great horned owl who's about this big.

And he calls, I'm not very good at it, but I'll do my best.

He goes, (hooting sound).

The second owl we have is the barred owl, and they were actually the most common.

>>Now did you say barn.

>>Barred >>Barred >>B-A-R-R-E-D 'cause they have bars of color across they breast and belly.

>>Oh okay barred, yeah.

>>And they have a really fun call.

Their song is (hooting sound) .

And we sing that sometimes when I'm with my students.

♪ Who cooks for you, who cooks for you all.

♪ And then when the babies leave the nest they practice singing that and you'll hear (hooting sound) 'Cause they missed the final note, you'll hear (hooting sound).

The third owl that's common around here is a screech owl.

>>Okay.

>>And that one, I'm a bad whistler and they whistle.

So this is gonna be the worst (whistling sound).

A whistle with a little quaver at the end.

And they are, as I say, they're the tiny ones.

They're only about this big and they eat mostly moths.

>>Okay.

>>They mostly eat insects.

>>Yeah.

>>So, they might eat the crickets too, they could catch them.

>>I feel like the more you understand the sounds around you, I tend to feel more relaxed and calm when I understand what I'm hearing around me.

>>Yeah.

The other sounds you sometimes hear when you're in the woods, you hear rustling in the leaves and things, especially this time of year in the fall as the leaves are hitting the ground and there's more.

And those are usually what you hear are deer walking around at night.

They tend to be the loud ones.

The animals like foxes and raccoons, they tend to be very quiet.

And if you think about a deer it has a hoof that's really hard, so it crackles the leaves.

Raccoons, and a possum, and skunks have very soft feet.

So they can walk without breaking the leaves.

>>I also wanted to ask you what is going on with plants at night?

>>Okay.

So plants actually make a lot of noise at night.

>>Plants make noise at night.

>>Plants make noise at night, it's just that we can't hear them.

>>Okay.

>>Eating plants is called photosynthesis.

And when there's no light, they can't do that.

The first thing that happens when the sun goes down is the plants shut down and stop eating.

So they spend the first part of the evening sucking water up out of the ground.

And they use all that water as force to grow.

Plants do they're growing at night, and that growing makes noise.

And there are people, there are scientists who studied this who've invented tiny little microphones that they can attach to plants, to the stems of plants.

And they can actually hear the sounds of plants growing and then when they stop growing.

The little tiny popping noises as they get bigger.

The other thing that happens to plants at night and you can see it already happened to this, oops I'm gonna pick this leaf.

It already happened to this leaf is that's when the insects come out at night and eat them.

And sometimes in Virginia, like when the gypsy moths come out they are enough insects eating all at once and you can actually hear (chomping sound) >>I think I heard that, that you could actually hear them chomping.

>>You can hear the eating.

But almost all insects come and feed on the plants at night 'cause in the daytime that's when the birds can find them and eat them.

>>Yeah.

Well, those are the plants are doing they're growing and making tiny little noises that our ears can't detect.

And then they're also getting eaten.

>>Well thank you so much for being with us today.

>>Absolutely, my pleasure Mike.

>>To teach us a little bit about all of this.

>>My pleasure.

>>Well, we'll see you and we hope you'll come back again some other time.

>>Some other evening, absolutely.

>>Excellent.

>>All right.

>>Let's make more music.

>>You know, I loved learning about the crickets and how they make sound at night.

And as I was listening to the cricket sound, it really started to be like rhythm.

And I was wondering, could we put some harmony over that rhythm and I'll put some melody over it?

And friends will you help me with the melody?

Let's sing the song, star light star bright.

This song is about looking up at the night sky finding that first bright star and making a wish.

Here are the words and listen for the rhyming words.

Star light, star bright.

First star I've seen tonight.

Wish I may, wish I might have the wish I wish tonight.

Now let's add the melody.

Friends for you to learn this song, will you be my echo?

I'm going to sing the first phrase of the song.

My hands will be like this.

I want you to listen and then I want you to be my echo.

I'll do my hands like that which means it's your turn to sing.

So make sure you're listening so you can be my echo.

Let's try it.

(soft guitar music) ♪ Starlight, star bright ♪ ♪ First star I see tonight ♪ Your turn.

Ready, go.

(soft guitar music) Nice job.

The second part goes like this.

♪ Wish I may, wish I might ♪ ♪ Have the wish I wish, tonight ♪ Ready, your turn.

(soft guitar music) I love it.

Why don't we sing it all together two times.

You're ready.

Here we go.

(soft guitar music) ♪ Starlight, star bright ♪ ♪ First star I've see tonight ♪ ♪ Wish I may and wish I might ♪ ♪ Have the wish I wish, tonight ♪ ♪ Starlight, star bright ♪ ♪ First star I've see tonight ♪ ♪ Wish I may and wish I might ♪ ♪ Have the wish I wish, tonight ♪ I loved that.

>>Me too.

>>And you know, we're not the first musicians to be inspired by the sounds of nighttime, the star light, the moonlight.

So let's go listen to a young pianist play a beautiful piece called Clair de Lune, which in French means the light of the moon by Claude Debussy.

>>Let's listen to music.

>>We are getting ready to listen to our friend, Justin, play the beautiful piece, Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy.

Before we listen, let's take a moment to get our ears prepared for what we're getting ready to hear.

Now, even though this piece is not very long, it does have six different sections where the lines of the music move a little differently, and the feel of the music is a little bit different.

So let's learn about those sections.

The first is called, (speaks in foreign language) means it's not super fast, it's not really that slow, but it has lots of expression in that beautiful line.

The second section is (speaks in foreign language) which means you might hear the music speed up and then slow down, and speed up and then slow down.

It's like a push and a pull between the notes.

The third section (speaks in foreign language), a little motion.

And that little motion starts to build, and build, and build which leads us right into the fourth section.

(speaks in foreign language) which means animated, alive, exciting, they're is a lot going on in this section.

Following that section is (speaks in foreign language), where everything is calm.

It's like a deep breath and a sigh after all of that exciting action from before.

And then the final section takes us right where we started (speaks in foreign language), a little bit of motion and lots of expression.

Friends enjoy Clair de Lune.

(bright piano music) >>Let's be mindful.

(birds chipping) >>I am noticing that the moon has set and the sun is rising.

A new day is beginning.

So to get us ready for this wonderful new day, let's start with deep breath and a big stretch.

So will you stand up with me?

And we're actually gonna start all curled up in a ball like this.

Are you ready?

And when we open our arms inhale, stretch, exhale down.

Oh, that feels so good.

Let's do it again.

Start all tight in a ball.

Here we go.

And now shake it out.

(giggles happily) Oh, that feels so good.

You are ready for a wonderful day.

>>You are a beautiful leaner.

(ringing sound) ♪ Morning is come ♪ ♪ Night is away ♪ ♪ Rise with the sun ♪ ♪ And welcome the day.

♪ ♪ Morning is come ♪ ♪ Night is away ♪ ♪ Rise with the sun ♪ ♪ And welcome the day ♪ Good morning friends >>Good morning.

(chuckles happily) >>Thank you for staying up all night with us.

>>That was so much fun.

>>It was so much fun, and we have learned so many new things about the nighttime.

We let those magical sounds inspire us to sing and make music.

We learned about plants and animals that are busy at night.

>>And we heard such a beautiful piece.

>>Oh, what a beautiful piece, Clair de Lune by the French composer Debussy.

Clair de Lune in English is the light of the moon.

How beautiful.

Friends we hope that the next time you might find yourself a little scared of the dark or scared of the nighttime that you remember some of the things that we've learned about today, and that it can help you feel a little less scared because you know about these magical sounds of night.

So remember what we always say about learning new things?

Repeat after us.

I am brave.

>>I am curious.

>>I am strong because I can do hard things.

>>I am a beautiful learner.

>>Yes, you are friends.

And we will see you next time.

(soft guitar music) ♪ Come play with me ♪ ♪ Won't you come play with me ♪ ♪ Come on, come on, come on ♪ ♪ Come play music with me ♪ ♪ We're gonna sing, yes ♪ ♪ And we're gonna dance ♪ ♪ We're gonna learn to play some instruments ♪ ♪ Oh, come play with me ♪ ♪ Won't you some play with me ♪ ♪ Come on, come on, come on ♪ ♪ Come play music with me ♪ ♪ We're gonna sing, yes ♪ ♪ And we're gonna dance ♪ ♪ We're gonna learn to play some instruments ♪ ♪ Oh, come play with me ♪ ♪ Won't you come with me ♪ ♪ Come on, come on, come on ♪ ♪ Come play music with me.

♪ (birds chipping) (bright sound)