Word: violins
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...controlled experiment to see how much chilled sweat could be squeezed from the audience's brow. He uses every weapon in the theatrical arsenal to mount a sustained barrage on the senses. A sound track assaults the ear with insinuation ranging from the wail of a solitary violin to the menacing timpani of wooden spoons. Eerie moans and whimpers fill the air like the cries of lost souls, recorded in limbo. A clownishly decked-out Greek chorus of whores and fools breaks into gritty tunes and cynical ditties on the age's corruption that evoke Brecht and Weill...
...lack of trying. Indeed, the compulsion of amateur musicians to get together for an evening of chamber music is all but irrepressible. An Army officer's wife one day was approached by a stranger who noticed a telltale mark on her neck: "You must play the violin. Would you like to join our group?" A Boston doctor, hearing a man whistling a Mozart theme on the street, whistled back and soon had a date for duets. One desperate violinist pinned notes to trees in his neighborhood...
Today, fortunately, there is a more organized way for these weekend musicians to seek one another out-the Amateur Chamber Music Players. It was conceived in 1947 by the late Leonard Strauss, an Indianapolis incinerator manufacturer who grew bored playing his violin in his hotel room while on business trips. Today the A.C.M.P. publishes a directory that lists 6,000 amateur musicians in 50 states and 61 countries. By consulting the directory, a member can arrange a living-room concert in virtually any city in the world...
...organization out of her Manhattan apartment. The A.C.M.P. directory includes a large number of noted doctors, professors and diplomats, but the only distinctions A.C.M.P. members care about are their musical rankings: from Pro for professional and A for excellent down to D for "et cetera," which, says Secretary Rice (violin-B) "is a delicate way of saying bad." Each member rates himself according to a detailed questionnaire...
Though a member may play badly, the only real requirement is that he play gladly. Dr. E. A. Baker of Edinburgh, Scotland, says that his listing of "violin-D" means that "my talents lie rather in making coffee," but he offers "room with piano, stands, refreshment and car parking." Still, there are drawbacks to being a less-than-A performer. Explains Carleen Hutchins (viola-D), a Montclair, N.J., housewife who makes violas in her spare time: "We Ds don't often get calls; we have to do the calling...