Today is the day to march forth. So, I am writing about John Philip Sousa—for whom the sousaphone is named—the March King of America.
Sousa was apprenticed to the Marine Corp band at the age of 13 and given the rank of “boy.” (I kid you not.) His father enlisted him into the Corp to keep him from running off to join a circus band. (An argument could be made that that would have been the better decision.)
Eventually, Sousa became the director of the Marine Corp band and composed some of the best-known and most-beloved marches in the world. I think everyone knows “Stars and Stripes Forever.” We all know its un-official lyrics:
Sousa was apprenticed to the Marine Corp band at the age of 13 and given the rank of “boy.” (I kid you not.) His father enlisted him into the Corp to keep him from running off to join a circus band. (An argument could be made that that would have been the better decision.)
Eventually, Sousa became the director of the Marine Corp band and composed some of the best-known and most-beloved marches in the world. I think everyone knows “Stars and Stripes Forever.” We all know its un-official lyrics:
Be kind to your web-footed friends
For a duck may be somebody’s mother.
They live all alone in the swim
Where it’s very cold and dim
You may think that this is the end
Well, it is.
For a duck may be somebody’s mother.
They live all alone in the swim
Where it’s very cold and dim
You may think that this is the end
Well, it is.
We lived in Germany for seven years on an Air Force base. Every so often, they would run a test of the base-wide loud speaker system. When this happened, it was a John Philip Sousa’s march they played: “The Liberty Bell.” However, to some of us, this is better known as the theme song from Monty Python’s Flying Circus. (Sousa never could get completely away from the circus, could he?) You’d be out shopping on base and the march would come on the system. You could always tell the Monty Python fans! Someone would make the splat sound at the appropriate time, and the other fans would giggle, while non-fans would stare at us, bemused.
Sousa did not himself invent the sousaphone. That credit goes to James Walsh Pepper. But he did so at the direction of Sousa, who was not happy with the sound of the tubas in the Marine Corps marching band. The sousaphone wraps around the player, making it easier to carry. The bell is angled over the head of the player, helping the sound to carry over the rest of the band. So, I guess that what I’ve been calling a tubamy whole life is actually a sousaphone. It is a member of the tuba family, if that helps.
I have been told that as a child, my brother had a recording of Sousa marches. One Saturday, he decided to play this album at 6 a.m. Full volume. The album was destroyed by the time I came along. In a touch of irony, Sousa hated recordings and never directed the Marine Corps band when it was recorded. He feared that people’s vocal cords would atrophy from disuse due to recorded music.
Sousa wrote other things besides marches. He wrote operettas. I am shocked. As best as I can tell, of his nine operettas, only one is still occasionally performed: El Capitan. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about the plot (I’m not even going to try to explain this!):
I have been told that as a child, my brother had a recording of Sousa marches. One Saturday, he decided to play this album at 6 a.m. Full volume. The album was destroyed by the time I came along. In a touch of irony, Sousa hated recordings and never directed the Marine Corps band when it was recorded. He feared that people’s vocal cords would atrophy from disuse due to recorded music.
Sousa wrote other things besides marches. He wrote operettas. I am shocked. As best as I can tell, of his nine operettas, only one is still occasionally performed: El Capitan. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about the plot (I’m not even going to try to explain this!):
“Don Errico Medigua is the viceroy of Spanish-occupied 16th-century Peru and fears assassination by rebels. After he secretly has the rebel leader El Capitan killed, he disguises himself as El Capitan. Estrelda, the daughter of the former viceroy, Cazzaro, impressed by tales of El Capitan's daring, falls in love with the disguised Medigua, who is already married. Meanwhile, the rebels capture the Lord Chamberlain, Pozzo, mistaking him for the viceroy. Hearing that her husband has been captured, Medigua's wife Marganza and daughter Isabel (who is being wooed by the handsome Verrada) go in search of Medigua.
Medigua, still disguised as El Capitan, leads the hapless rebels against the Spaniards, taking them in circles until they are too tired to fight. The Spaniards win, the mistaken identities are revealed, the love stories are untangled after Medigua explains to his wife the flirtation with Estrelda, and the story ends happily.”
Medigua, still disguised as El Capitan, leads the hapless rebels against the Spaniards, taking them in circles until they are too tired to fight. The Spaniards win, the mistaken identities are revealed, the love stories are untangled after Medigua explains to his wife the flirtation with Estrelda, and the story ends happily.”
It is pointed out that his operettas were heavily influenced by Gilbert and Sullivan. Yup. I believe that. And, of course, there are a lot of marches in the operetta. This synopsis leaves me with a lot of questions. Foremost of which is: Who is the handsome Verrada?
Sousa turns out to have been a man of many talents. He also wrote a few books, including his autobiography: Marching Along. He was even an expert trap-shooter! But what we remember John Philip Sousa for the most are his marches. In 1987, “Stars and Stripes Forever” was declared the National March. (I guess it’s not a disaster anymore.)
So, today, be sure to March Forth! (And, do be kind to your web-footed friends!)
Do you have any marching stories? Favorite marches? I’ll be posting some of these on my Minnich Music Facebook page, so check those out.
Until next time!
Sousa turns out to have been a man of many talents. He also wrote a few books, including his autobiography: Marching Along. He was even an expert trap-shooter! But what we remember John Philip Sousa for the most are his marches. In 1987, “Stars and Stripes Forever” was declared the National March. (I guess it’s not a disaster anymore.)
So, today, be sure to March Forth! (And, do be kind to your web-footed friends!)
Do you have any marching stories? Favorite marches? I’ll be posting some of these on my Minnich Music Facebook page, so check those out.
Until next time!
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