All That Glitters Ch. 58

Hallan had readily agreed, especially when she found out the price, which was quite reasonable. What was more, the comps were turning out to be popular amongst the students because of there ease of use.

Putting massive data loads into and retrieving parts of them piecemeal from the Asocan tablets was not exactly easy to do. When the students had realized that they could put their entire course load into their comps and retrieve it in whole or in part with incredible ease, dozens of students began to purchase the new devices.

Hallan had noted this and ordered the university to purchase hundreds to make them available as part of the student entry package to those students not already owning a comp. Unsurprisingly, there had been a run on the available stock at the university which was now waiting the next shipment from the Union as the current shipment that the House of Ur Trading Company had brought to AsocAR had entirely sold out...

The Faculty of Music was frantically setting up the university's largest presentation hall for the Palda's event, which was to be the next morning. Hallan had been surprised to learn that all of the leaders of the Greater Community had asked to be present at the lecture, including the Asoc!

Never before had a sitting Asoc been present at the first lecture of a new graduate. The Asoc had even asked to have the lecture recorded live. That had prompted Hallan to make contact with the only Interspecies media specialist she knew, Cynthia Stewart, who assured her that she would be able to do justice to the presentation.

Cynthia had contacted the scientist Hradk to help with the media portion as Hradk was the only person that Cynthia knew who could make sense of the musical requirements of each of the individual species. Hradk did not disappoint.

Hallan's team worked hard overnight to ensure all would be ready...

************

Junelliya came in an hour before her scheduled presentation time to make contact with all the participants for her lecture. Due to the amount of material she was working with, the lecture would be more than three hours long and she had to coordinate the timings of her guest presenters via ICS with Cynthia. Junelliya was nervous and pushing herself into her work to forestall a serious case of panic.

"Hi, mommy," the children called out as they came to the enclosed area she was working in prior to her lecture.

Junelliya went down on one knee and gave her children long hugs. "It is going to be a long lecture, little ones. Are you sure you want to watch the whole thing?" she had asked when the children told her they would be out front with everyone else.

"Yes, mommy. Music is fun for us," Ikekiya had informed her, getting a smile from Junelliya.

The Costann came in. "It is almost time, Palda. Are you ready?" she asked.

"I am now that I have received hugs and kisses from my children," Junelliya smiled.

"Are hugs and kisses that good?" Hallan asked with a surprise look.

The children giggled and raised their arms up forcing Hallan to bow low so that they could rub their tiny faces against hers and give her kisses. Laughing, they left the room.

Junelliya noted the surprised look on the face of Hallan. "Costann?"

"Those hugs and kisses make me feel surprisingly warm, like when I was with my clutch before they became Ultar or Shamot," Hallan had replied.

"The Asoc and Asost had noted the same thing," Junelliya replied with a grin.

The Costann entered the stage area and asked all present to prepare to receive the lecture. The hall was huge and could easily hold eight thousand. Hallan noted that it was crammed packed.

"Good day to the Asoc and Asost, to the leaders of the Greater Community and their entourages, to the Asocan Ministers and Ministers of the Greater Community, to you our students of music, and others who are here just out of curiosity, which includes those watching all over known space via the ICS interface," Hallan began.

"Today, we have the great fortune to be present during the first ever lecture from Palda Junelliya Mutt Herlan, Doctor of Music, in her chosen area of expertise, the differences in music between the species of the Greater Community.

"For the Asocans in the room, for humans a Doctorate is a specific level of learning, the top tier, and not necessarily a profession such as medical doctor, which is why we Asocans are confused when we hear the term 'Doctor of Music'.

"I have bought a copy of Palda Junelliya's dissertation and made it available to the University's Library in electronic format which we are currently translating. That means you can feed it directly to your comp for your use.

"I strongly advise those who do not have a comp, to purchase one when the new shipment arrives, they have become indispensable tools as is indicated by the fact that all of the leaders of the Greater Community and their ministers who had attended the Second Denders Summit, had purchased their own comps. I am told that they are eagerly awaiting on their planets the new servers that act as an interface between their own computer systems and the comps," that got a laugh from the students.

"Please rise and greet today's lecturer, Palda Junelliya Mutt Harlen, Doctor of Music." The crowd gave out a roar of approval as Junelliya appeared on the stage and bowed, first to the Costann, then to the leaders of the Greater Community in the first row, and finally to the Asoc and Asost. Everyone settled in and Junelliya began...

"It is now eight o'clock in the morning and this lecture will go until noon. There will be plenty of breaks to allow you to use the facilities and speak with each other about what you have heard and seen today. All I am saying is that this will likely be the longest single subject lecture that you will receive while at university.

"I will have people joining us from all of the member species of the Greater Community to help me show off the items I am explaining. While I could get away with much as a musician, I would prefer that experts from the specific species do true justice to there own music," Junelliya said.

An image suddenly formed on the monitors. It showed humans walking, stomping, and clapping their hands.

"Life is rhythm, rhythm is life," Junelliya stated. "The first music was born of the movement of people as they moved from place to place, searching for food and other items. They needed to inform the dangerous animals that they, humans, were moving amongst them. The sounds they made were formed of the rhythm of that movement."

The watchers saw and heard as the people on the screen made a rhythm of their movements that all could hear.

"As language become a strong feature of the human element, it too was incorporated into the rhythm, changing it into something different."

The dancers now began to chant and sing to the rhythms they were making, adding hoots and shrills making it seem like there were many more of them than their actually were. The group suddenly stopped and there was silence.

"Humans walked across the land, but other species flowed within the water."

Here, an image of a group of Byandi formed on the monitors. They moved through the water, splashing it with open palmed hands and feet turned into tails. The splashes were discordant, often in counter point to each other instead of concurrent with each other as the Byandi flowed through the water, its purpose to confuse large predators that found Byandi a delicacy.

The Mylatrin Adriné heard a sound to her left and saw the Piscium children looking wide-eyed at the monitor as they watched in awe the Byandi playing in the waters. She smiled to the children who turned to look at her and give her two thumbs up each. The Mylatrin laughed. Thumbs up was a uniquely human thing. They could do it because of their flat palms which allowed their thumbs to stick out to the sides of their hands where all other species had cupped palms, making copying the human thumbs up a rather difficult trick for most, though so many tried.

Junelliya continued through many of the different species, explaining the differences in the rhythms of the races, including the stomping actions of the Djinaëte, and the Asocans, which she included at the last.

"The first instruments were likely sticks tapped against each other or against larger sticks and hollow logs."

An image of a Polynesian group appeared on the screen and they began to play with sticks and logs forming unusual sounds and rhythms that the dancers moved to. Many of those who had been to the Second Denders Summit remembered watching this group or a similar one dance for them.

The images moved through the different dance groups of races other. As the Byandi and the Asocans had not incorporated sticks into their musical styles until more recently historically, they were excluded from this portion of the presentation though not without an explanation as to why from Junelliya.

This presentation continued until Junelliya indicated that they would take a short break.

Immediately, there was a flurry of activity as the Asocan students burst into loud debate about what they had just witnesses, getting a knowing smile from Costann Hallan Mutt Beddan. She looked to the Asoc who gave her a short nod of her head. Junelliya was describing music in a way that neither of them had ever seen before but she did it in a way that all those who were watching could easily understand and follow.

That was significant to the Asoc as so many experts had lost sight of the fact that their expertise was not readily understood by the average student. She had seen too many presentations lost to the viewers because of the differences of the levels of understanding between the experts and the non-experts.

The next part of the lecture covered the beginnings of music using more sophisticated instruments and the professional use of the voice as an instrument. Surprisingly, this was the one constant between all the races, the voice as an instrument was paramount between the species.

Junelliya then explained the differences of the musical scales of the different species. Each was unique, each had its own meter and tempo, both naturally and otherwise. The Asocan music students were fascinated to learn of this as they had always assumed that musical scales between the species were identical.

They were shocked to learn the true meaning of the apparent discordance between the music of the different species. It was not true discordance but a simple misunderstanding of the musical scales between the species though some did it better than others.

During the next break, the discussions were even more animated between the students as they tried to make sense of what they had just learned, which was so much different than their own music and the preconceptions of music that they had carried into this lecture hall.

Junelliya came back to the stage and the crowd was already silent, waiting with baited breath for her next words.

"For the next eighty minutes, I will show off some of the more complex music of the different species and the two subspecies, the Pod-Drran and the Maha-Rrin. I will end with something rather special that I believe most of you have never heard before.

She started with a piano recital from her good friend, Professor Aghavni Akopyan followed up by classical music from the Navy Orchestra on Navy One, in orbit above AsocAR.

This was followed by Seeka of the Byandi who sang some of the more sophisticated classical Byandi songs.

The skipping between the species went on until Junelliya pulled out her Luttrell and began to play the ancient Pod-Drran Song of Life, which had become her signature song. As always, she pushed her emotions into the song as she recalled welcoming life herself as a new mother. All heard the sigh of gratification as the song came to an end and people suddenly looked sheepishly at each other at having been caught up so deeply in the song.

"Finally, we have one last song for all to hear. Yes, I know, that was all thirteen of the known people of the Greater Community. However, there are fourteen species within the Greater Community, one known mostly to the Asocans with whom they share a planet, this planet, AsocAR.

"I Speak of the Sandekk...Gentle Beings, Asocans, I give you the Elder Shusshhttookkann, the leader of the Sandekk people."

The curtain behind Junelliya opened and Shusshhttookkann came out and onto the stage beside Junelliya. Fear passed between the leaders at seeing such a large, unknown creature appear before them. The children jumped up and ran to the great beast, raising their arms up. Shusshhttookkann laughed and lowered her huge head to the children who gave her cheek rubs and kisses.

"Ikekkiiiyyyaa, Sharrreniyyya, yourrr hugsss and kisssesss alllwayyysss make me fffeellll ssso warrrm," she said. Shusshhttookkann noted the leadership relaxing as she talked in Asocan to the children.

"To the llleaderrrsss of the Grrreaterrr Communityyy, I grrreet yyyou as one llleaderrr to anotherrr. I am Shusshhttookkann, the Elllderrr of the Sandekk peopllle.

"We arrre the lllongessst lllifffed peopllle of alll of the ssspesssiiieeesss. I myyyssselllf hafffe lllifffed more than 2,500 ssyclllesss. But I am not herrre today forrr pollliticsss. Today, I am helllping a frrriend, Palllda Djunellliiiyyyaaa, who has asssked my peopllle to sssing forrr herrr.

"I willl do herrr one betterrr. We willl sssing forrr yyyou. Lllittllle onesss..." Shusshhttookkann finished, looking down at the two girls.

They began to sing in the Sandekk language, which the language matrix could not translate. Their tiny voices sounded so strange as they sang the song they had learned from the Sandekk.

After a couple of stanzas, Junelliya added her much more refined voice to those of the children. The sweet, bell-like tone of her professional voice showed the difference between the children's immature voices and the voice of a trained singer.

In the next Stanza, Shusshhttookkann added her warm, bass-like voice to the mix in a counter-point harmony to those of the human voices.

As each stanza was completed, another Sandekk voice was joined to the music, each of the Sandekk entering the hall from another entryway until there were a total of twenty-five voices singing in a rather complex harmony that folded over the last layer of song as it was added yet, strangely, remained a separate harmony from though impacting the whole.

Most species had three point, four point, and five point harmonies. Anything more than a five-point harmony was added to a part of the already existing harmonies.

Not so with the Sandekk, who added another harmonic phrase with each voice that joined the song. The people in the hall were astonished by the rich sound of the multiple overlapping harmonies as they listened in awe to the Sandekk singing.

The Sandekk then individually ended their portion of the song but did not leave the hall. Slowly, the song diminished until only the two children were still singing. The song finally ended as the children simply stopped singing. It left a feeling of wanting more to the listeners, who had just realized they had heard something astonishing.

"Gentle Beings, Asocans, I introduce to you and to the Greater Community, the Sandekk," Junelliya said, and gave a low bow as the stunned audience slowly came out of their lethargy and announced their approval of the Sandekk song with a throaty roar.

After some time, the noise diminished and finally ended. "I would like to thank all those who assisted me with this lecture, who provided me with their professional musical abilities where their own species music was concerned," Junelliya said as she once again gained control of the hall, the monitors flashing between all those who had assisted her lecture who were waving to the people in the hall who instinctively waved back. "The list of participants will be included in the end credits of the electronic version of this presentation.

"This concludes my lecture today. I hope that you have learned something useful from it," Junelliya ended with a bow.

"Yeah, Mommy! You do good!" Ikekiya said, giving her mommy a tight hug of a leg, followed quickly by her younger sister on the other leg, both beaming up at their mommy.

The Asocan students all rose and gave a resounding roar of appreciation for Junelliya, followed by the leaders of the Greater Community, who recognized an exceptional lecture when they heard one.

Costann Hallan Mutt Beddan came out on the stage after allowing the crowd to show it's appreciation for several minutes and gave Junelliya a low bow.

"Rarely have I heard a lecture this powerful. I have seen many lecturers give presentations before. They have often come up short because they do not understand the differences between their understanding of their material and that of the audience they are lecturing to.

"You have never left your audience behind, Dr. Junelliya, and from the comments I heard during the breaks, I think your audience has appreciated that fact.

"Should you wish to make another presentation at this University in future, I will happily make a place for you," Hallan stated.

"What say you, Dean Wiccans?" Hallan asked of one monitor.

The image of Dean Samantha Wiccans showed on the monitor. "I am very pleased with the results of your first ever lecture, Dr. Herlan. I will be more than pleased to have you provide lectures in music at the Liramor-23 Campus of Malton University, or even here at the main campus.

"I hope that Malton University can hire you as a Professor of Music on a part time or full time capacity. Congratulations, Doctor Herlan on attaining your doctorate and on your first ever professional lecture in your specific field," Dean Wiccans ended.

"Thank you, Dean Wiccans. I look forward to providing the occasional brief to the university. I cannot come to you full time for now as I am being pulled by to many priorities at this point in my life," Junelliya said with a bow that received a smile from Dean Wiccans.

The Asoc came up onto the stage, The Costann, Junelliya, and the children, all bowing to her. She gave a short nod of her head to her friend Shusshhttookkann, which was returned.

"Palda Junelliya. You never cease to amaze me at all that you do. A mother of two adorable and very intelligent children. An unofficial ambassador at large for humans, for the Union, the Atohan and friend of the Pod-Drran and Maha-Rrin, a 'Dame Officer of the Order of the Alliance', a member of the Council of Empaths and the Order of Telepaths, and even a Palda of the Asocans. You are a powerful ally, and a frightening enemy and I, personally, am happy to call you a friend.

"I was not expecting anything like that which I and my fellow Leaders have witnessed this day nor the fact that you introduced a new species to the Greater Community in a manner that gives them distinction. Few could claim such.

"This lecture was a revelation for me where music is concerned as I suspect it was for many of the students at this university. Nah, I shall say students around the Greater Community...you showed us all that music is as distinct as the species that forms it, yet universal in so many ways to all of us.

"I am pleased to say that I was witness to this, your first every presentation as Doctor of Music. Those of us who witnessed it, have no doubts in our minds that you have earned your title. Congratulations Doctor Junelliya Mutt Herlan."

"Thank you for your kind words, Asoc," Junelliya replied with a low bow.

"We, the Leaders, and the members of the Imperial Arl, shall retire to the main dining hall at the >Clot<," the Asoc stated. "Junelliya, I realize that you will have to answer some questions, but I admonish you not to be too long as I am sure the leadership has questions of their own."