Stranger in a Strange Land

by Robert A. Heinlein

Now about honors—You expect to play ‘Hail to Sovereign Peace’ as the Secretary comes in?” “Oh, we must.” “Then you’ll want to follow it with the anthem for Mars.” “I don’t see how I can. Even if there is one . . . we don’t have it. Dr. Harshaw, be reasonable!” “Look, son. I am being reasonable. We came here for a small, informal meeting. We find you’ve turned it into a circus. Well, if you’re going to have a circus, you’ve got to have elephants. Now we realize you can’t play Martian music, any more than a boy with a tin whistle can play a symphony. But you can play a symphony—‘The Nine Planets Symphony.’ Grok it? I mean, ‘Do you catch on?’ Have the tape cut in at the beginning of the Mars movement; play that . . . or enough bars to let the theme be recognized.”