Valley Central High School - Viking Log Yearbook (Montgomery, NY)

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fBelowJ The thought of preparing a term paper for Mr. Kevin McFadden's English class burdens a weary Dove Hanson. fLeftJ Books alone don't comprise Diane Hopl1in's school day. The piccolo adds a new dimension to her education. 'ls :VX ., Q I R. ' . of I fAbovej More used to the wrestling mat than the paper chase, Rich Vono still manages a smile in Mrs. Linda l-leitmann's social studies class. fLeftj A pleasant environment makes learning a pleasant experience. lone Hurt loses herself reading during post-session in Ms. Marion Underhill's room. ACADEMICS 93

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Academics VC never stra ed far from basics he 60'sg a time of changes and rev- olutions in civil rights, values, and education. High schools and colleges demanded 6'relevant courses, courses which opened the times to the stu- dents, which challenged the mind. Unfortunately, in challenging the mind, the courses neglected the basics. Nationally, these past few years have brought a back to the basics movement in education. Some schools have a long way back, but VC doesn't. As a conservative, academic high school, VC never de-emphasized the importance of basic skills. Today, while the national grade-point-average for the PSAT's is dropping, VC's aver- age is climbing. Mr. McFadden, English Department Chairman, said this about the nation's trend back to the basics : All of a sudden people realized, through arti- cles in Newsweek and Time like 'Why can't Iohnny read?', that some stu- dents were actually illiterate. They have spent their time pulling thoughts out of the air, like 'Why is man good?', but they couldn't read. They didn't know the basics. Although VC never strayed far from the basics, we initiated a basic skills test in 1974 to make sure that every- one graduating had at least elemen- tary verbal skills. The state came out with such a test a year later. QAbovej Reading comprehension forms, a foundation for English classes, Mark DeLessio reads The Summit and answers the unit questions in Mr. Lignorils tenth grade class. fRightJ Teachers involve themselves in more than just the classroom. Recently married, Mrs. Nellie Briggs carries boxes of material for her math club. 92 ACADEMICS

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- ' is ' S n technique popular with modern com- posers. Martian voices Don Muro demonstrates a synthetic in auditorium mericans thrive on entertain- ment: they have it broadcast over their living room TV sets and through the ear-phones of their bedroom ster- eo systems. They even have it, occa- sionally, brought into their schools. BOCES and the Regional Festival of the Arts presented Mr. Don Muro at a November assembly. Mr. Muro - syn- thesizer specialist, composer, talented musician - demonstrated what a syn- thesizer can do, and how to make it do it. He interspersed his demonstra- tions with his own original com- positions, which he played to the accompaniment of a slide projector and screen. Mr. Muro demonstrated a synthetic technique popular with modern com- posers - mixing. Mixing,' he ex- plained, consists of playing a certain line of music, recording it, and while playing it back, playing another line of music with the initial line and re- recording it as a whole. When played back the two lines ftwo separate me- lodiesj are heard simultaneously. Mr. Muro demonstrated this by mix- ing five lines of Iohann Sebastian Bach's The Art of the Fuguef' The mixing technique, coupled with the synthesizer, has virtually revolu- tionized the music world. Groups like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Frank Zappa, Electric Light Orchestra, 'SYes, and many others employ the synthesizer with this technique full- time and have helped the synthesizer gain its present popularity. Mixing and the synthesizer also help small groups like Rush and Emerson, Lake, and Palmer to pro- duce full sounding recordings and give concerts that are as well-in- strumented as those given by groups with many more members. Because of a late start and a few problems with his slides' being out of sync with his music, Don Muro's pro- gram was cut short. However, he still found time for audience participation. He invited anyone in the audience who played the piano to come on stage and try his hand on the synthesi- zer's keyboard. Owen Scott volunteered. He said, 'SWell, I was inspired and sitting in the second rowg it was a quick jump to the stage. Mr. Muro asked Owen to play Mary Had a Little Lamb, and then hummed a few bars when Owen ad- mitted he didn't know how. When Owen finally got it right, Mr. Muro directed him to a small lever on the upper part of the synthesizer. The sound produced was notably profes- sional. With a synthesizer, anyone can sound professional, and many of the complex sounds fsoaring, rumbling, thunder, windj heard on albums and TV take no amount of genius - only a synthesizer. Mr. Muro said, A syn- thesizer actually synthesizes or makes sound. Nearly any sound found in na- ture can be reproduced on a synthesi- zer. Mr. Muro then handed Owen the microphone and instructed him to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Using the synthesizer, Mr. Muro altered Owen's voice until it sounded like a Mar- fRightj The new concept in productions is to co- ordinate the audio with the visual for a total effect. Don Muro combined his slide-projected geometric figures with synthesized sound in VC's first assembly. 94 ACADEMICS tian's voice on a cheap science fiction movief' Mr. Muro told the audience, Yes, that's how many of those voices are produced. For his help, Mr. Muro presented Owen with his new album, It's Time, on which he performs all the vocals and instrumentation - he and his synthesizer. Owen said, Mr. Muro is an espe- cially talented composer. His keyboard work reminds me of Ian Kammer's, a keyboard player who cut an album with Ieff Beck and has played locally. After his brief stop at VC, Don Muro and his synthesizer continued their tour to other area high schools, to change other volunteers' voices into Martian's voices.