So I was working on E/M homework this evening in the office. I wrote up a problem and let myself take a break by going onto physicssongs.org, one of my more favorite Internet tools for procrastination. I listened a bit, worked on some more E/M, wrote things, listened, got stuck, listened some more, and then decided I was really stuck, at which point I sort of stopped working.
Now, Walter has some recordings on his site from The Physical Revue, a physics parody musical put on by a young Harvard professor and Tom Lehrer, then a math graduate student, in 1951. I listened to some of the show's rather entertaining numbers, in so doing coming to the finale, "Any Questions?". And the moment I heard Lewis Branscomb start singing this, I realized that the tune was the Mozart drinking canon in Rounds Galore.
I read about the performance history of The Physical Revue and learned that it was first performed in Jefferson 250. Yes -- Jeff 250, down the hall from the G1 offices, the big lecture hall where we have the Monday departmental colloquia and where the lectures are given for the large introductory courses. It's not locked separately...
So what I propose is this: we ought soon to have a Boston-area Roundsing, certainly when
areyououtthere comes up. The music of the round's in the pink book, the Professor's and Students' lyrics are on the web, and Jeff 250 is open. There's no reason we couldn't reproduce this version of the round, in the very same space it was first performed. This canon, due to its length and melodic complexity, is definitely of the Advanced variety, and would certainly require some time to teach, but that is a problem that can be overcome.
Now, Walter has some recordings on his site from The Physical Revue, a physics parody musical put on by a young Harvard professor and Tom Lehrer, then a math graduate student, in 1951. I listened to some of the show's rather entertaining numbers, in so doing coming to the finale, "Any Questions?". And the moment I heard Lewis Branscomb start singing this, I realized that the tune was the Mozart drinking canon in Rounds Galore.
I read about the performance history of The Physical Revue and learned that it was first performed in Jefferson 250. Yes -- Jeff 250, down the hall from the G1 offices, the big lecture hall where we have the Monday departmental colloquia and where the lectures are given for the large introductory courses. It's not locked separately...
So what I propose is this: we ought soon to have a Boston-area Roundsing, certainly when
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