But special music has been written for the Merle Evans Band by the distinguished composers, Deems Taylor and Igor Stravinsky. The musical scores, _Circus Suite_ and _Through the Looking Glass_, Deems Taylor wrote for the 1945 plot of _Alice in Wonderland_. Stravinsky’s music was arranged for the first elephant ballet ever to be staged. Fifty elephants in fetching ballet skirts performed a dance routine whose music called for elaborate changes of rhythm. For a number of years Evans himself composed most of the original music and made the musical arrangements for the star acts--waltzes, foxtrots, marches, galops, rhumbas, tangoes, cakewalks, or various combinations of rhythms. He did this while the circus was in winter quarters at Sarasota, Florida, where the next years’ productions are prepared. “Music has changed a lot since I joined the big show,” Merle said recently. “Now we have much of it arranged for our band. We also have production numbers--and that is special music.” Aerialists have said that it is rhythm that makes it possible for them to accomplish the seemingly impossible in their flying trapeze acts. Sometimes Evans spends much time and effort finding the appropriate music for them. When Alberty, the “upside-down daredevil,” needed music to accompany his swaying back and forth atop a forty-five-foot pole, Evans finally chose _Pagan Love Song_, a slow waltz. He must combine different melodies and rhythms to make the varied pattern needed for times such as the swooping of _The Famous Ringling 100 Clowns_ into the show. But the music, like a colorful backdrop, sets off these boisterous buffoons as they bustle, blunder, or rush hither and thither in baffled confusion. For the clowns’ entrance, the band plays _High Riding_ and for a clown “walk around” they play _The Anvil Chorus_. Evans spends about eight weeks preparing the circus score, and of course that is subject to change during the thirty-two-week season. The bandsmen must be drilled on the new material and rehearsed on the routine so that they are ready when the circus opens at Madison Square Garden in New York each April. The veteran bandmaster and his men present a splendid picture in their blue uniforms with red-striped trousers. His musicians come from various backgrounds--some even from symphony orchestras. Theirs is a difficult routine as they average seven hours of playing a day. They must be constantly alert and have the ability to adjust instantly to any possible change in rhythm. The band has a repertoire of memorized selections to play at a moment’s notice in time of need. Sometimes death flies along with the circus actors’ thrilling performances. Gay marches are used to cover up accidents. When Sousa’s _Stars and Stripes Forever_ suddenly breaks into any other music, it means just one thing--“All Out!” The circus people call it _The Disaster March_.