The Memorial Hall Murder Read Online Free PDF

and Jack Fox, the manager of the chorus, talked about the quartet trials that were still to come. Newcomers who had passed their preliminary auditions trembled. Jack talked about attendance. Ham stepped back on the podium and talked about the music, turning slowly to face the orchestra on the stage and the chorus on the benches.
    â€œThere are some things I’d like to say about Handel’s Messiah before we begin. As usual we will be performing it at Christmastime. But it was never intended solely as a Christmas piece. The text is concerned not only with the birth of Christ, but with his suffering, death, and resurrection, and the resulting redemption of all mankind. It could just as well be a Good Friday or an Easter piece. Handel himself first performed it in Dublin on Good Friday. Now, the soloists will as usual be drawn from our own forces. Mrs. Esterhazy, of course, will sing the contralto arias.” (Cheers for Mrs. Esterhazy.) “Mr. Proctor will be our bass.” (Cheers for Mr. Proctor.) “The tenor part will be sung by our own Tim Swegle.” (Whistles of amazement for Tim, whose voice was still a little thin and shaky.) “And last but not least, our soprano soloist will be Betsy Pickett.” (Applause mingled with insane shrieks from Betsy.) “Now, before we begin, I have a poem I would like to read.” (Shouts: “Oh, no, spare us!”) Ham took a piece of paper out of his pocket and read aloud.
    â€œThere once was a young girl named Vick,
Whose favorite expression was ‘Ick.’
Whenever you kissed her,
She said, ‘Listen, mister,
Don’t touch me, you make me feel sick.’”
    Vick reached out past her cello with her foot and kicked Ham in the shin, and the chorus and the orchestra laughed loudly, even the newcomers who didn’t know who Vick was. Ham said “Ow” and rubbed his leg, and then he made a joke about Vick’s striped shirt, and lifted his stick at last.
    The noise died down. The thick volumes of music were riffled open. “All right now, you good Rats,” said Ham, “let’s begin from the beginning with the overture. The chorus can just sit there and enjoy it. We’ll get to them in a minute. We’ll do as much of Part One as we can get through this morning, but we’ve got to finish up right on time. I’ve got to meet somebody promptly at eleven-thirty.” He stroked a great upbeat, and the orchestra struck the E-minor chord and sailed serenely up, the violins trilling mournfully on D sharp and then landing on the G for three solemn dotted notes. “Upbow, Miss Plankton,” shouted Ham.

    Vick’s music was part of the bass-line carried by the harpsichord. Moving her bow across the D string, drawing from it steadily the half note on E from which the voices of the other instruments sprang, she smiled up at Ham. It was good to be starting again. He knew what she meant, and smiled back.
    â€œHe had to meet somebody at eleven-thirty,” said Vick. “Isn’t that right, Mary? He said he had to meet somebody.”
    â€œHe did say ‘somebody’?” said Homer. “Not ‘I have to meet a man,’ or ‘I have to meet a woman,’ or ‘some people’?”
    Vick and Mary shook their heads. “No,” said Mary. “He said, ‘We’ve got to finish on time, because I have to meet somebody at eleven-thirty.’”
    â€œAnd the bomb went off at eleven thirty-five,” said Homer. “I know, because I’d just made a joke, and the students all laughed, and I began to relax for the first time, and I wasn’t scared of all those kids any more, only I was horrified to discover that I had less than half an hour to cover nine-tenths of the lecture. And then there was this big noise and the whole room shook and everybody started yelling and I ordered everybody to go outside.”
    â€œAnd then, you big dumbhead, instead of