In the spangled twilight, on the West Lawn of the Capitol, the conductor points the baton. Cellos and violas create a pastoral scene that is interrupted by horns competing with cymbals. The culmination is an explosion of percussive sound, sound that descends into ringing victory bells. With the dying of the final thundering victory sounds, a counter point appears in the sky, first as a hissing sound that becomes a sprinkling of lights, and then a whizzing sound that becomes a light splay of multi-colored clusters, and finally a thundering as the crowd below “ah”s at the dome of light. This is a “Capitol Fourth” enjoyed on the Mall of our Nation’s capital city.
