Evening star., 1951-02-25

to create the Illusion that the
Philadelphia Orchestra. of which
he was then conductor. was
actually performing before the
eyes of the audience. The Or
chestra was. in, reality, in the
Academy of Music in Philadel-
phia. playing under the direction
of Alexander Smallens. In q box
at the back of Constitution Hall
sat DR.. Stokowski before a switch
board arrangement through which
he manipulated the effects he de-
sired. Color has long been as
sociated with music and it was
employed for this demonstration.
While the orchestra played Bach.
a rose-colored window appeared
magically on the stage. For Bee
thoven's Symphony No. 5" a
dimly visible mountain peak was
enveloped by swirling sunset
glow, and for the finale Of Wag-
ner's "Goetterdaemmerung," a
flaming light surrounded the
family seen figure of a recum-
bent Brunnhilda. which changed
through clouds of color to a final
picture of Valhalla.
One heard the different sections
of the orchestra coming from the
spot they would have occupied on
the stage and yet the sound
seemed to invade every portion of
the hall. With twist of his
hand, the conductor was able to
bring out an overpowering mass of
sound or a whisper hardly audible,
yet in both extremes the clarity
of the music was not impaired.
The experiment was made through
the cooperation of Bell Telephone
Co. In its laboratories, scientific
experts had been working in con-
junction with DR.. Stokowski.
Nearly all the chapters of his
book conclude with a paragraph
which begins: I'm the future"
OF the combination of tone and
color he believes, "our understand
ing of the relation of color and
music may be greatly broadened
by the electrical production of
timbres which exist in nature but
which so far we have not been
able to produce with our musical
instruments. These new timbres
may suggest to artists new COM
binations of tone and color and
new aspects of art which are
uncomfortable to us at present"
Belief in Electrical Means.
He has other beliefs, among
which is that through electrical
instruments our music will return
to the untempered scale and still
be able to play in any key" He
has made a profound study of
radio and recording and can give
the how and why of the differ
ences of a performance in hall
and those heard through tranmis-
sion in room, with scientific
figures. He is concerned also with
the limitations of the orchestral
instruments and even of the form
of symphonic music and feels that
I'm the future it is almost certain
that the form of the symphony
will be more unified. The differ
ent movements or parts will be
defined and contrasted but the
whole will be integral-each part
will unfold into the next without
pause and the end will be a sum-
ming up of the whole symphony"
Although Stokowski's mind has
delved into the mysteries of sci
ence, his objective has been to
search out more fully the soul of
music. In his book he grows
poetical in trying to make his
readers see how all of nature
and the emotion of people are
bound up in music. "If we wish
to think clearly" he says I'VE
must distinguish between music as
a profession and music as an art
music is something that we love
that expresses for us all the
deepest, most intense yearnings of
our soul-the poetry-mystery-
the mad. intoxicated impetuous
singing Of life. 1t is free. like a
bird in the mountains-it is re-
mote and untamed. like the wind
and the waves far out in the
ocean,"