Composer Into Cab

No one has written a symphonic poem which sounds so admirably like a locomotive as famed Arthur Honegger, head of that ultraModern group of Parisian composers, Les Six. But last week Composer Honegger was struck by the thought that his "train symphony," Pacific 231, only interprets a locomotive from the standpoint of pedestrians or others not in the cab. "How," asked Arthur Honegger excitedly of himself, "how does a locomotive sound to the engineer?"

Next day, since he chanced to be in London, Composer Honegger arranged with indulgent Britons to pilot a locomotive for some 20 miles. He returned from the adventure well nigh ecstatic, plunged at once into a symphonic composition which will take romantic music-lovers out of themselves and into a robust locomotive cab.