Arizona republican., 1921-08-14

| to spend S50,000 a year in order to bring fine music to city. it has little free advertising coming.
 Musical Snakes
 The power of music is unlimited. | It is the one thing that is fitted for all occasions-from the cradle to the grave. There is music to suit every | situation-if you doubt this just listen to the music in up-to- date pie ture houses,-theres music every minute, and covering every real and imaginary phase of human life and existence.SS Martial music inspires a soldier to fortitude and influence him to offer himself as a target. Music hath power to soothe the saw age breast'--and again it has the power to make tame animals wild. The following article covers the in- fluence of various kinds of music on snakes, an experiment that may be kept in mind by those who attend the annual Hopi snake dance in northern Arizona this month. There is no doubt but that the weird melo- dies accompanied by the tom tom and other instruments of Indian wood wind percussion, are instru- mental in making the snakes per- form during these ceremonies.
 l SHdke 1oeS Wtio ONer JdxZ
 Can a formidable and vicious rep | tile be subdued to a state of tram I quility through the charm of music? {? If so, by what kind of music?
 Naturalists and herpetologists de- l clare that such is impossible, be- cause snake has no ears and. there | fore, could not tell whether one was playing a jazz tune or a harmonious opera air. An experiment along these lines was performed recently by a resident of Richmond Hill, whose. yo- cation is collecting snakes. assisted by Eric Johanson, a young violinist. l The event proved interesting if Lot wholly successful.
 The principal specimen upon which 1 the music treatment was first ef- | fected was a baby South American boa constrictor, several feet in | length. It was somewhere along the tropic waters of the Amazon and un- til it heard the melodies of Johan- sons violin it was indeed a formid- able reptile.
 The music test was made among a half dozen glass cages, each con- | taining a different kind of serpent. The cages were placed on two tables | set in a semi circle, and the two ex- l perimenters sat directly in front of them, each with a musical .nstru- ment. The owner of the constrictor opened the test on a banjo mandolin with snappy jazz tune. The boa coiled himself up in a most fantastic shape and then leaped at the wire cage, striking it full force. then hold : ing fast with it's teeth The player tried another selection, but # only added 10 the fury of the boa. v-ho busted itself by rushing up and down the narrow cage and occa- 1 sionally striking at the glass sides. The jazz portion of the experiment had been a failure.
 Johanson then tried his art to charm the boa He started off with a lively jazz air, and again in rage the boa struck at the cage. Suddenly he swung into "Humoresque' and the boa slowed down a little. He stared at the violinist dubiously, and Johanson then devoted all of his time to opera airs. and the snake re- mained perfectly tranquil through out the whole concert. While Jo- hanson was playing. the snake S I owner cautiously removed the tor of the cage and picked up the boa For the first time since it was taken into captivity the snake manifested no vicious tendencies. It permitted ! us OWDeT lO COHtoEll II lntO many shapes without making an attempt to break away. When the music stopped it remained perfectly quiet
 Prodigies Again
 The announcement of a new pro- dizzy generally brings a picture of a child who does exceedingly well for his years, but seldom anything worth while in comparison of the work of a mature artist A wonderful singer from Mexico. advertised as being able to sing higher than the keyboard of piano, gave a specimen of hei ability in Phoenix few months ago To the writer, her voice was simply shrieks, squeals and squeaks in hei ascent to the dizzy heights of ,the farthermost ivory. In prodigy pian- ists we have had a few whose per formances were positively pitiful Lapses of memory. absolute lack oi control of technique and the manner of one attempting circus stunt rather than musical performance were the general results. And so WV find all prodigies about the same. Il
 is true that prodigies have talent but aside from Josef Hoffman ana a few others known to musical his tory, such as Mozart, the life of th' prodigy is short, and as soon as the. have grown to maturity their talen l is lost in comparison to those who have not been blessed with the de
 vine gift of talent. and who have la T