Cannon-Tutti

Conductor Howard Mitchell of Washington's National Symphony Orchestra decided to give his open-air concert audience a noisy treat last summer by playing the 1812 Overture as Tchaikovsky had scored it, with real cannon blasting away in the finale. The cannon-tutti, performed by soldiers from nearby Fort Myer on four 75-mm. howitzers, went off without a hitch, was a big success with capital concertgoers.

Last week, amid clouds of red smoke, Mitchell's shots were still echoing on the Danube. According to the Budapest trade union daily Nepszava, "Composer" Howard Mitchell had provided "rhapsodic variations" for 16 cannon and orchestra at the urgent request of "Minister of War" Louis Johnson, who wanted some "martial and blood-stirring" music to honor U.S. armed forces.

Nepszava's own improvisation on what happened:"The Washington Concert Hall was filled with . . . acrid, choking smoke. The public bolted for the exits, the musicians threw away their instruments and Mitchell, the bold and path-breaking composer with the true American spirit, groped on the floor in complete darkness, coughing and spitting with tear-filled eyes--he was trying to find the baton he had dropped."

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