During World War II when I almost invariably started proceedings by playing 'The Star-Spangled Banner', I had an interesting point of comparison between the temperamentally different types of audiences by judging the number of seconds it took my audience to recognize the melody consciously and to transmute recognition into action – that is, to rise from their seats. I found this more revealing in the smaller communities, not too familiar with recital routine, than in the larger, where this clinical test (somewhat along the lines of the laughs tabulated in dead earnest by the motion-picture industry) did not apply. I found that the alertness an audience showed by its reflexlike reaction at this prelude to the concert was in exact ratio to the quality its audible appreciation would have throughout the evening. << less