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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1924)
THE BATTALION HOW TO LISTEN TO MUSIC. (By Samuel E. Asbury) Dispose your body and your head so as to face the music, or, if deaf like me, turn your better ear slight ly to the music. And listen to the mu sic with your eyes also; do not close them. A symphony orchestra is something to see; there are the new and strange instruments if there are any such to you; if not, there is the massing of the orchestra, the vio lins together, the second violins over against them, the violas in another group, the ’cellos further back, the flutes, clarionettes, and other wood wind instruments in the centre; and the brass, the trumpets, trombones, horns at the back with the drums, cymbals, and so forth. Much like a brass band; much like the pictures in the record catalogue. Say, this orchestra is an enlarged Ag- gielqnd; some of their stunts, if they play modern music, will sound like good jazz too. But good jazz is not bad. Good musicians have passed by indiscriminating abuse of jazz. And if this orchestra is not ashamed of it self, if they are not playing down to us heathens in the backwoods, you’ll hear a blast or two that will remind you of our A. and M. band marching across the field when the score is 20 to nothing. Then, you will need your sense of touch also, to take in the immensity of sound. Only your taste and smell remain useless at a sym phony orchstra concert. The Slavic March by Tschaikows- ky, which closes the evening’s pro gram, was written in 1876, during the war between Turkey and the Slavic Serbians. At this time there were many demonstrations of Slavic patrio tism in Russia, and Nicholas Ruben- stein arranged a concert for the ben efit of wounded soldiers. Tschaikows- ky (1840-1893), himself deeply pa triotic and responsive to the temper of the times, composed his famous Slavic March for the occasion. The composition opens with a rath er melancholy theme, a dirge-like chant, intoned first by the bassoons, accompanied by the double basses, and elaborated by the other wood winds into a beautiful march, purely Slavic in rhythm and barbaric color. This theme is built upon an old Ser bian folk-song, admirably portraying the deep brooding sadness of the Slavic heart. This part gradually dies away as if vanishing in the distance, and is presently followed by the strains of a gay folk-dance, joyous music of exultation and anticipated triumph. The stirring climax is gained by the rymthmic combination of the strains of this dance music with the moving and stately measures of the Russian National Anthem. The Anthem is again triumphantly shouted by all the brasses in the crashing finale. (Contributed by Mrs. C. B. Campbell) The St. Louis Symphony March, with which the afternoon program opens, was composed by Mr. Ganz, the director of the present orches tra. The position of St. Louis as a border city between North and South is noted in the last section of the march in snatches of “The Star Spangled Banner” (on the horns and trombones) and “Dixie” (on the xylo phone and piccolo). Eighty “Grandpa, why is it that! “What kind of meat have you this you have no hair on your head?” (morning?” said the haggard husband Eighty: “Grass does not grow on j to the butcher, a busy street.” j “We have some steak as tender as Eight: “Oh, I see, it can’t get up a woman’s heart.” through the concrete.” “Guess I’ll take two pounds of sausage.”—Tattler. There was once an armorous mister, who, on meeting a girl, always kissed her; But one night at the gate, He found, when too late, > He’d been kissing the chauffeur’s black sister. The girl walked briskly into the store and dropped her bag on the counter. “Give me a chicken,” she said. “Do you want a pullet?” the shop keeper asked. “No,” the girl replied, “I want to cary it.”—Tattler. “Where did you get your black eye, Pat?” “Sure, it’s in mourning for the guy that gave it to me.”—Tattler. “Did the bank’s failure upset you ?” “Yes, I lost my balance,”? He: “We are coming to a tunnel. Are you afraid?” She: “Not if you take that cigar out of your mouth.”—Tattler. Bank Teller: “This check is all right, but you must be introduced. Can’t you bring in your husband?” Woman: “Who, Jack? Why, if Jack thought you wanted an intro duction he’d knock your block off.”— Tattler. It is not necessary to report every thing you hear your friends talking about. Waiter: “Where is the paper plate I gave you with your pie?” Fish: “Oh, I thought that was the lower crust.”—Tattler. Magistrate: “You are charged with being drunk. Have you any thing to say ? ” Culprit: “I’ve ever been drunk in my life sir, and never intend to be, for it always makes me feel so bad in the morning.”—Tattler. “Polly want a cracker?” “No, old dear, I have dined copious ly,” replied the parrot. “Got a cigar ette about you?”—Tattler. —Tattler. Friend, (rushing- in to tell the news): “Susan, dear, your husband and little Fido were in an accident.” Wife: “G'ood heavens! Haven’t they been able to get a veterinarian yet ? —Tattler. His wife insisted she would drive, He dared not say red nay, Then came the city ambulance, And took them both away. —Tattler. EDMUND HALLEY 1656-1742 Son of a London soap-boiler who became Astronomer- a 1 1 ne comet came back of the Southern hemisphere. Financed and handled the Sinaia Newton ’ 8 immortal The great comet that was seen by William of Normandy returned to our skies in 1910 on its eleventh visit since the Conquest. Astronomers knew when it would appear, and the exact spot in the sky where it would first be visible. As spectacular as a comet has been the world’s electrical devel opment. By continuous scientific research the General Electric Com pany has accelerated this development and has become a leader in the industry. Edmund Halley’s mathematical calcula tion of the great orbit of this 76-year vis itor—his scientific proof that comets are part of our solar system—was a brilliant application of the then unpublished Prin- cipia of his friend Sir Isaac Newton. The laws of motion that Newton and Halley proved to govern the movements of a comet are used by scientists in the Research Laboratories of the General Elec tric Company to determine the orbit of electrons in vacuum tubes.