It was a theme handled, but less competently, in some of his other
compositions. The woodwinds began on a soft, sad note, gradually rising
in power, like the thin winds that moaned across the Martian desert
sands. Into this, almost inaudibly at first, crept the clear piano
notes that marked the cautious, wondering intrusion of humanity on an
alien world.
The drums beat the construction of the domes, the horns blared the
landing of the spaceships, the violins cried the hopes of the men
and women who went to Mars to find a new life. It was a picture in
music, so skilfully drawn that when the first discordance crept in,
every listener could identify it instantly as the age-old greed of man
seeking to subvert frontier freedoms to his own selfish ends.
When the blare of trumpets and the ruffle of drums thundered into the
final militant theme of _The Martianne_, every listener knew it bespoke
the valiant fight of men for freedom against an oppressor.
Every listener knew what he heard was music that had been prohibited
on Earth for a decade--yet they listened. The censors, shocked,
galvanized, started to act, to cut off the broadcast--and could not.
The powerful music had crept insidiously into their minds, and their
fingers were paralyzed above the keys while _The Martianne_ flamed
triumphant through the air of Earth.
When the final note had died away, Cornel stood up at his piano and
said into the microphones:
"That is the music of Mars. Remember it, people of Earth."
It was a brief trial. Cornel was admittedly guilty of violating the law
against inciting the public to military action, but because of Meta's
influence and the temper of the people, he was not sentenced to prison.
He was deported to Mars, freed to return to his own people.
Spurred by the Mars Corporation, the Earth government acted
quickly. _The Martianne_ was the most dangerous of any music the
psychosociologists had banned. Its performance was prohibited on
pain of death, possession of a tape of it was punishable by fine and
imprisonment.
But too many tapes had been home-recorded on the night of Cornel's
last concert. Too many people remembered the basic strains, the theme
of _The Martianne_. Laws could not confine it. It was hummed, at first
secretly, then openly and defiantly.
And too many people had hung on every televised instant of Cornel's
trial and had heard him say, simply and earnestly, why he had violated
the laws designed to protect the peace of Earth, why he had willingly
endangered his life.
"It is right that men should have peace," said Cornel on the witness
stand, "but first, it is right that they should have freedom."
At first secretly, then openly and defiantly, the Friends of Mars grew
into an organization that poured the contributions of the people of
Earth into ships and guns for the free people of Mars.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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