Secret Mountain Publishing is a musical books publisher with a nice catalog of options. Some of their books have appeared in my AAPIHM round ups and the books are all listed on www.theultimatemusicedbooklist.com. Summer Moonlight Concert is a sweet book with a very musical central story. This is a great book if you are looking for something that feels summery! Let’s see how this musical book can be used in the classroom.
Full disclosure: Some affiliate links. Won’t change your price and I get a small kickback. No pressure!
The Book
This book is the story of a power outage and what a family did for entertainment. Xiaomi’s parents bring their erhu and accordion outside. Their neighbors hear the music and come outside to see the impromptu concert. The neighbors join in and dance until the power comes back on.
This book is from Secret Mountain Publishing, so it also contains a CD of the narrated story and the theme music.
Author, Illustrator: Han Han
ISBN: 978-2924774878
Buy the book on Amazon
The Music
The two instruments featured in this book are the erhu and the accordion. In addition to introducing these instruments, I think another part of this discussion can be instruments that don’t typically play together can still make beautiful music together.
Erhu
A bowed, two string Chinese spike fiddle that originated during the first Tang dynasty (618-690). There is no fingerboard, and strings are not pressed against the body of the instrument.
- The Ehru – Danwei – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhic2cE57iM
- Jasmine Flower” (“Mo Li Hua”) – Musum of Fine Arts, Boston – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thqUc1bf8IU
- Golden from Kpop Demon Hunters – https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7nQCYTNNM0Y
- The Sound of Silence – NiNi Music + Joy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOm1-PFsLv0
- Liuyang – https://www.tiktok.com/@liu812yang – a TikToker I stumbled across who has a substantial ehru page.
Accordion
Likely invented in Berlin, the accordion has been adapted all over the world. While I’d love to find a visual example of German folk music with an accordion, every good quality video I found was either at Oktoberfest or included B3er Barrel Polka, or b3er references. Or was AI people playing accordion. (Edited for school web page filters)
……….. sooooooo ……If you find a good example, please let me know!
- Instrument: Accordion – Philharmonia Orchestra – Ksenija Sidorova – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usoBcNXsN_8
- Caddie, valse parisienne – Madlyn Music – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRgQslcA4Xw
- Oj Sanpjero Misto Moje – Paulo Belanich – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaMWGIWR3-4
- Mr. Ford with Class https://www.tiktok.com/@fordwithclass a friend of mine from college, math teacher, TikTok accordion player.
Other Things
Author Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CahqsGhG0E
Student Reflection Questions:
- How do the ehru and accordion sound together even though they are instruments from different parts of the world that were not intended to play together?
- What have you done for entertainment when the power has gone out?
- What Western instrument does the ehru make you think of and why? How are they the same? How are they different?
- What kind of coordination does the accordion take to play?
I hope this gives you a lot of ideas on using Summer Moonlight Concert in the music classroom!
