The Cavalcade of America presented by DuPont. The orchestra of today and how it grew is the title of this evening's chapter in the Cavalcade of America in Music presented by DuPont featuring Don Voorhees and his distinguished orchestra. Another feature of our program is the brief story of chemistry which shows how the work of the research chemist touches the daily life of every man, woman and child by creating new products and improving old ones in a constant effort to provide better things for better living through chemistry. Before we open our musical history book for a look at its fascinating orchestra pages, let's hear Don Voorhees and his men do a number that gives the orchestra full scope in a 1936 arrangement of a 1936 hit, Irving Berlin's Let's Face the Music and Dance. Let's face the music. Let's face the music. Let's face the music. Let's face the music. Let's face the music. Let's face the music. Let's face the music. The special arrangement which you hear mentioned so much is what made the orchestra grow into the highly developed thing it is today. As conductors and musicians experimented in new arrangements of notes, the combinations of instruments within the orchestra had to keep pace. Twenty-five years ago, orchestras didn't have the style that they have today. Here's about the way they sounded. A few years later, the saxophone made its appearance along with the increasing popularity of dance music. This was an important step. Remember the orchestra when it had just one saxophone? As dance rhythms became more popular, orchestra leaders tried for a greater variety of effects. Novelty groups became popular, groups such as the Six Brown Brothers with their six saxophones, and the All Star Trio, piano, saxophone, and xylophone. They contributed a lot. Fifteen years ago, everyone was playing the All Star Trio's phonograph record of Canadian capers. Then orchestra leaders cited that three or four saxophones were better than one. And the saxophone section has been a standard part of the popular type of orchestra ever since. Then piano soloists came along and gave the orchestra a still wider variety of rhythms. Zez Conkwy composed a series of revolutionary piano solos, transferring the syncopation of the drummer to the piano keyboard. The favorite was Hinton on the keys. Here's the way the piano is featured in Don Voey's arrangement of two of George Gershwin's songs, I Got Rhythm and Embraceable You. Phil Wall is at the piano. OK. many refinements have made in the instrumentation of the orchestra since the early days. Fifteen years ago, every popular orchestra included a banjo. Today, most orchestra leaders prefer the softer, more colorful guitar. Whoever first began experimenting with different kinds of mutes for the brass section certainly started something. These mutes give brass instruments a wide variety of tone colors. Listen. There was a time when all the drummer did was play drums and trams. Today, he is a very busy man. He plays celeste, the vibraphone, and bells, as well as xylophone, cymbal, drums, and symphony. That shows you very quickly some of the steps that developed the modern orchestra. One of the influences that perhaps had more to do with that development than anything else is radio. Before radio, an orchestra was definitely only a dance band, a salon group, a symphony orchestra, or some other distinct type. Broadcasting brought forth orchestras that could do all of those things without changing a man. Let's hear what this versatile radio orchestra of today can do. First, Don Vordie's concert arrangement of Roses of Picardy, full of the showmanship which makes the modern orchestra a real attraction on stage, screen, and radio. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Now, a turn of the page, and Don Vordie will conduct his versatile musicians in a composition for symphony orchestra. The Capriccio Espanyol by Rimsky-Korsakov. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Now another turn of the page, and we hear an example of restrained, refined orchestration of the orchestra. Again the mood changes, this time to one created by Arthur Schwartz when he composed Dancing in the Dark, a mood which is intensified in the interpretation of Don Vordie on his orchestra. Dancing in the Dark. Dancing in the Dark. Dancing in the Dark. Dancing in the Dark. Dancing in the Dark. Dancing in the Dark. Dancing in the Dark. Dancing in the Dark. Dancing in the Dark. Dancing in the Dark. Dancing in the Dark. You have heard repeatedly on the DuPont Cavalcade of America program the phrase, better things for better living through chemistry. Those seven words sum up the DuPont Company's record in serving human needs. This phrase also represents a pledge for the future, a promise of more and more better things to come from DuPont's research laboratory. It might even be said that the phrase, better things for better living, symbolizes the progress of American history since the days of candles, ox carts, and hand looms. A growth closely paralleled by the progress of the DuPont Company. America's chemical industry, of which DuPont is representative, has played a leading part in creating a higher standard of living and greater opportunities for employment in this country. And authorities agree that we're only on the threshold of the chemical age. For generations we depended almost entirely upon natural materials to fill our wants. We knew wood only as wood, cotton as cotton, coal as coal. Even the chemist began to take nature's materials apart and put them together again in forms better suited to our needs. He found the universe to be composed of 86 basic elements, either gases like oxygen and nitrogen or solids like carbon and sulfur. He found that it was by combining elements that nature made things, everything in fact. Working patiently and diligently, the chemist has discovered new ways of combining these elements to develop entirely new products, some resembling those found in nature, but others entirely different. People are always asking, what are the good things that chemistry holds in store? The chemist may have his own ideas, but he never makes promises. But he can point to what has been done as an indication of the future. To improve motor fuels, safer, longer wearing tires, lovelier and more durable fabrics, new chemicals to combat plant pests, better finishes, faster colors, new plastics and packaging materials, literally thousands of new products, all of which have their origin in the laboratory. He can show you that this work of discovery is still going on, and he can assure you with the greatest confidence that organizations such as DuPont will continue to create better things for better living through chemistry. Next week, the Cavalcade of America in Music, presented by DuPont, will bring you Don Voorhees and his orchestra playing Music of the Movies. And two weeks from tonight, the Cavalcade of America resumes its popular fall and winter series, reenacting authentic episodes from the brilliant pageant of American progress. The first of these dramatic performances, two weeks from tonight, brings you the colorful story of that famous showman, P.T. This is the Columbia Broadcasting System. Thank you.