Northampton Area High School - Amptennian Yearbook (Northampton, PA)

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50 HE!-XHTSTHINHS

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YMPHUNY PUB

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TEMPU it has otten iaeen said that there is nothing quite so ioeautiiui as heautifui music, and rightiy so. Yet, music is more than heauty'-I it is a means of expression that perhaps tran- scends ati others in universaiity. Unfettered hy the chains of circumstance which hind man to the puny niche he occupies in this oid world, music is everywhere, is ciaimed hy aii, and heiongs to none. To each, music has a meaning ati its own. in the daric recesses of history, the savage heat of the drum matched the savage heat of the primitive heart. When civiiization dawned, the chant ot the stave tightened the hurden on his aching hack and suppressed the nostalgia that wrenched at his aching heart. As men,s minds broadened, the merrie ditty of the minstrei evoked the mer- riment of damsel and yeoman aiiice, and the sweetiy soiemn liturgy attuned the souis of men to God. Today, as in the past, music lifts us to dizzy heights of rapture, or drenches us in the dregs oi despair. We pray with it, piay with it, sing it and swing itg it makes us cheer or brings a tear, we adore it and aiahor it. We find a song in the hahiaiing hrooic, or in the rustling ot ieavesg we teei harmony in the metaiiic ciang ot the hammer, or in the whirr oi machinery. Niusic is so entwined in our tives that we can- not escape from it. Recognizing the tremendous part of music in the iusty, ioustiing growth of Americana, the Northampton hoard of education. this term ex- panded the scope of the music program offered the student. NVith the new accent on music in mind, it was hut naturai for the 1948 Ampten- nian staff to note, and iater adopt, music as a P11906 theme for this voiume. Qnce the suiaject of the theme iaecame a cer- tainty, came the prohiem oi interpretation. After serious thought on the matter of appiying music to the schooi system, as portrayed herein, it was Found that the symphony provided the ideai soiution. The symphony orchestra, in its pres- ent day organization, intended harmoniously with composition pians as they evoived, white the music oi the masters, acknowledged hy aii as the acme in iaeauty, tent a iiiting emheiiish- ment to the score. Arrangement ioecame a simpie matter. The hoard of education was transcribed into the trustees or sponsors oi' the modern symphony: the superintendent was iiicened to the conductor: the principal, the con- cert-meisterg the ciass advisors, section ieaciers, and the teachers, musicians. As tor the students, they hecame the sym- phony itseit, Littie chiidren, who grow to schooi age so quicidy and merriiy skip oiii to kindergarten, were transformed to the aiiegro movementg the iong, measured, eiementary period ioecame andanteg ioiossoming youth in junior high schooi naturaiiy modulated into the dainty strains ot the minuet, and the inevitahie progression through high school and gradua- tion, ending oniy too soon, crescendoed to the maestoso oi the iiinaie. However, taicing iuii advantage oi the iiherties aiiowed the com- poser, the movements oi the symphony have ioeen reversed so that the Senior ciass might he enaioied to sound the grandioso heat of the overture. Here, then, is the 1948 Amptennian. We hope it striices a responsive chord in your heart.