“I don’t read that Musiksticheln,” Strauss said frostily, “or write it, either. I use standard notation, on music paper.”
“Alfie, write down ‘Reads notes only.’ ” He laid a sheet of grayly printed music on the lectern above the ground glass.
“Whistle me that.”
“That” proved to be a popular tune called “Vangs, Snifters and Store-Credit Snooky” which had been written on a Hit Machine in 2159 by a guitar-faking politician who sang it at campaign rallies. (In some respects, Strauss reflected, the United States had indeed not changed very much.) It had become so popular that anybody could have whistled it from the title alone, whether he could read the music or not.
Strauss whistled it, and to prove his bona fides added, “It’s in the key of B flat.”
The examiner went over to the green-painted upright piano and hit one greasy black key. The instrument was horribly out of tunethe note was much nearer to the standard 440/cps A than it was to B flatbut the examiner said, “So it is. Alfie, write down, ‘Also read flats.’ All right, son, you’re a member. Nice to have you with us; not many people can read that old-style notation any more. A lot of them think they’re too good for it.”
“Thank you,” Strauss said.
“My feeling is, if it was good enough for the old masters, it’s good enough for us. We don’t have people like them with us these days, it seems to me. Except for Dr. Krafft, of course. They were great back in the old daysmen like Shilkrit, Steiner, Tiomkin, and Pearl … and Wilder and Jannsen. Real goffin.”