Keeping the Song
Preliminary:
3770 Finishing That Song
On the way back from Mount Higashi, where father and son had gone to enjoy themselves, the father got into a very good temper and entered the village singing. He went past his own house, and the son said, “But father, there is our house!” The father looked quite unruffled and said, “Yes, but if I go in now the song will be in the middle.”
—Japanese Anecdote
But there are things that stop the music. Brings the song to a premature ending.
3757 Piano-Smashing Fad
Piano smashing was a fad on college campuses. Newsmen and television crews, plus several hundred students, saw fraternity men of Wayne State University smash a piano to bits in four minutes, fifty-one seconds. This bettered the 4:55 mark set at California Institute of Technology.
Axes, crowbars, sledgehammers and other assorted weapons were used in the onslaught. The idea was to reduce the piano to such fragments that each piece could be stuffed through a circular hole, nine inches in diameter.
Songs can be muted by misery
Songs can be muted by memories
Songs can be muted by an over-measure of stress
3763 Upholding Integrity Of “A”
The piano tuners of America have done the nation a service in uncovering a plot to destroy the integrity of “A” above middle “C.” As you probably know, “A” is an unvarying, unshakable, indestructible note of four hundred, forty vibrations per second. For forty-three years, the 440-vibration note has been the only “A” above middle “C” recognized by the United States Bureau of Standards. It is a global pitch, so basic that radio and television and electric companies use it for power calibration.
However, two of the nation’s top symphony orchestras have given “A” a slightly sharper edge. They are tuning their instruments from 442 vibrations per second, simply to achieve more “brilliance” in stereo and high-fidelity reproduction. The piano tuners claim the higher note puts their very lives in jeopardy. Even with a true “A” the tension on a piano’s two hundred, twenty strings builds up to twenty tons, and the stress of added brilliance will make a lot of old, tired pianos explode.
—Robert G. Lee
Songs can be muted by madness
Beautiful Music But No Harmony
The names of Gilbert and Sullivan are well known by all lovers of music. They produced 14 operas together in the period from 1871 to 1896. Gilbert’s words allied to Sullivan’s music produced magic.
The tragedy, however, is that the two men detested each other. The problem arose because Sullivan ordered some carpet for the theater they had bought, and when Gilbert saw the bill he hit the roof. Neither could control his temper, and the two battled it out in court. They never spoke to one another again as long as they lived.
When Sullivan wrote the music for a new production, he mailed it to Gilbert. When Gilbert wrote the words, he mailed it back to Sullivan.
Once they were forced to be together during a curtain call, but they stood on opposite sides of the stage and bowed in different directions so they wouldn’t see each other.
They knew how to make beautiful music, but they knew nothing about harmony.
Songs don’t have to be stopped or muted
When Richter was conducting a rehearsal in Vienna of Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony, the composer happened to be sitting in the back of the hall, enraptured to hear his rarely played work. Suddenly the conductor came to a place in the manuscript score that was difficult to decipher but where the orchestra was working up to an impassioned climax.
Richter paused, turned to the composer and called out, “F or F sharp in that chord?”
Bruckner leaped to his feet, his face shining with excitement and pleasure, and cried, “Anything you like, Herr Kapellmeister, anything you like! But go on! Go on!”
3756 Longest Band
Six Calgary Salvation Army bandsmen set new world record by staying at their horns for a full 25 hours. The big blow was in order to raise funds for new instruments. “It was a big success,” said band director Bill Stunell. “We played marches, overtures, and hymns—a good selection. We had some very tired lips!” The six recordbreakers exchanged instruments throughout the musical marathon to keep their lips awake, and rested five minutes every hour in accordance with the rules set by the Guinness Book of Records.
—Prairie Overcomer
The God Who Sings
Warren Wiersbe points out that all three members of the Godhead sing:
• God the Father sings, according to Zephaniah 3:17: “The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”
• God the Son sings, for we read in Matthew 26:30 that after he and his disciples had sung a hymn, they went to the Mount of Olives.
• But how does the Holy Spirit sing? He sings through His church! Ephesians 5:18ff: “Be filled with the spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody…”*