Guiseppe Creatore: Colourful Genius of the Concert Stage
Contributed by Jack Kopstein

Born in Naples, Italy, 1871-Died in New York City, 1952

Giuseppe Creatore’s fame rivaled that of his contemporary, John Philip Sousa, during the first two decades of the twentieth century. By combining showmanship with musicianship, he and his concert band performed to huge and enthusiastic audiences in the United States, Canada, and England. Creatore was born in Naples, Italy, in 1871. He studied with Nicola d’Arienzo and Camillo de Nardis at the Conservatory of San Piestro a Majella in Naples and became an excellent trombonist and conductor. He reportedly became conductor of the Naples Municipal Band in 1887 when he was seventeen–some researchers believe that Creatore conducted a less well known band. He migrated to the United States in 1899, playing trombone in Ellery’s Royal Italian Band for a time and becoming an overnight celebrity when he replaced the conductor Minoliti, who had become ill. By taking the members of the Italian Band who were dissatisfied with their conductor and hiring several more musicians, Creatore formed his own band early in 1901, performed at the Atlantic City Steel Pier from February through July, and concluded the season with a 5,000 mile tour.

In spite of the rave reviews during the tour, Creatore was not satisfied with the quality of his musicians. Returning to Italy in the fall of 1901, he recruited sixty outstanding musicians who accompanied him back to the United States in 1902 for a series of triumphant concert tours. His cornet soloist from 1903 to 1906 was Michael Cupero, brother of the composer-conductor Edward V. Cupero. Creatore’s success encouraged the immigration of other Italian bandmasters, such as Marco Vessella, A.Ifredo Tommasino, and Don Philippini, but none had the phenomenal success enjoyed by Creatore. In his book Bands of America, H. W. Schwartz devotes several pages to the controversial Italian whose conducting mannerisms hypnotized some concert-goers and insulted others. In 1983 Leonard Falcone, a famous euphonium soloist and former conductor of bands at Michigan State University and Wayne University, wrote a letter which included the following personal description of a Creatore Band concert:

The one and only time I saw and heard Creatore and his band play was in Detroit some fifty or so years ago. The band stood up in a circle around the conductor–like the old way in Italy. Creatore was an imposing figure–tall and well built. He wore a white uniform and white gloves. His conducting style was still flamboyant. Occasionally he would walk over and conduct an individual player or section–in other words a great showman. Nevertheless, the band played beautifully–very artistic and with a very expressive style.(the Detroit Free Press was not as kind calling Creatore’s performance ‘Comic Relief”  for Detroit autoworkers)

There is no doubt that Creatore had an animated style of conducting with contortions, leaps, darts into the middle of the band, flailing arms, jerky head motions, pleading gestures while he knelt down, cajoling his players with all manner of finger and arm movements while circling the baton, and all kinds of gymnastic techniques-exciting audiences to a frenzy of clapping, bravos, and other signs of approval. (Swartz p214)

During his heyday Creatore’s Band was booked solidly; his fee reportedly reached $5,000 for each performance. Although he made many successful tours on the Chataqua circuits between 1910 and 1916, the unstable wartime conditions and the competition from other business bands gradually reduced the number of concert opportunities. In 1917 Creatore formed an opera company which opened with a ten-week tour and continued for five years with longer seasons. The twenty-week 1918 tour opened in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and included the cities of Philadelphia, Chicago, Montreal, Quebec, Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Buffalo, Toledo, Toronto, and Detroit. The company’s repertory included such favorites as Rigoletto; Barber of Seville; Carmen; Cavalleria Rusticana; Pagliacci; Il Trovatore; La Traviata; Martha; Faust; Lucia di Lammermoor; La Gioconda: and Aida.

In 1931 Creatore began conducting a symphony orchestra in a series of open-air concerts and by 1937 he was conducting both the New York State Symphonic Band and the New York City Symphonic Orchestra in a succession of programs sponsored by the government Works Progress Administration. However, Creatore resigned his music post in 1940 after a disagreement with officials of the WPA Music Project. The rift developed when the officials refused to pay the conductor while he was guest conducting in other cities, and also because they felt he was not spending enough time on an arrangement for a combined band and orchestra concert. Creatore was quoted as saying, “I am a musician, not a bridge-building project. So I resign.” After a seven-year retirement, Creatore made his final public appearance in 1947 as guest conductor of the New York State Symphonic Band in a “pop” concert at the Tri-Boro Stadium on Randalls Island. He died in 1952 at the age of eighty-two, leaving his wife, Rosina, and children: Tommaso and Peter (of an earlier marriage), Ezio, Carlo, Luigi, and Alba.

Creatore arranged numerous Italian operatic selections for band–most are still in manuscript form. Some of his original march titles were changed by the publisher Di Bella. Examples include: Maresciallo Cadorna–Marshall (Luigi) Cadorna, which became Marcia Sinfonica in Fa Maggiore–Symphonic March in Fa Major, and La Sincope-Syncopation, changed to Marcia Sinfonica in Do Minore–Symphonic March in C Minor. These two, plus American Aviation; Columbia; March No. 2; and March No. 3, were recorded by the U.S. Coast Guard Band for the Heritage of the March series. Others include: American Navy; Columbus; Royal Purple; and Electric. Now available on NAXOS

Norman Smith march Notes ARSC Journal

(Information from Jeri Anne Cupero, Leonard Falcone, James W. Herbert, Robert Hoe, New York Times, Franz Pazdirek, Carlo Schmidl, H. W. Schwartz, Nicolas Slonimsky, and Frederick P. Williams)

In Search of Tradition
by Captain  Frank Byrne

Contributed by Jack Kopstein

Captain Frank Byrne (retired) wrote the following article while a member of the United States Marine Band, THE PRESIDENTS OWN . He is a noted writer, musician, and symphony executive. His efforts in researching the work of John Philip Sousa are outstanding. During his tenure with the US Marine Band he was chief librarian and also edited a number of Sousa’s works (See below) as well as performing on the tuba. He is presently the Executive Director for the Kansas City Symphony.

***www.MilitaryMusic.com is pleased to announce that with our fall catalog we released the first 4 volumes of The Heritage of the March John Philip Sousa collection. Check our website for these wonderful albums, available on CD and digital download***

The authentic performance movement in music, is a fascinating world where old is new and “tradition” can be a euphemism for musical heresy.

Authentic performance advocates discovered that numerous performance traditions have evolved, which depart from the composers’ original intentions. These discoveries led scholars to restudy original manuscripts and fuelled many “authentic” performances, recordings, and no small amount of controversy. To borrow a phrase from the late music critic Olin Downes, “much ink has been shed over it:’

Some changes attempted to fit master-works of the 18th and 19th century into the framework of the modern ensemble. Some may have resulted when autocratic conductors sought to “improve” on the original. Other changes were benign decisions in an era where the musical score was viewed as a guidepost rather than as holy writ. Still other discrepancies occurred in the incorrect transmission of musical thought via faulty musical editions.

Adding to this advancement in musical instrument design and manufacture, which produced instruments capable of greater intensity, and you have a result which, to some listeners, almost turns Mozart into Mantovani. There will always be audiences for both. But many listeners discover new insights when standard repertoire is presented in authentic performances which attempt to recreate music as the composers intended.

The most pure method blends the use of period instruments (or modern reproductions), ensembles which reflect the style of the period in both size and musical approach, and critically-prepared musical editions created from original manuscripts and other definitive sources. Some conductors apply the same scholarship to performances using modern instruments, believing that composers would welcome the improvements.

Sousa has been a treasured part of the Marine Band’s musical repertoire since his time as director from 1881-1892. In preparation for these Sousa recordings, we considered the various option and examined our own Sousa performance traditions in the light of modern scholarship.

The Marine Band’s history of recording Sousa’s music dates to 1890, and early cylinders made by the Columbia Phonograph Company of Washington, DC. Sousa was then director of the Marine Band, and although he was unconvinced of the value of this new invention, he allowed his hand to record for Columbia. Under succeeding directors, Sousa’s music appeared on Edison and Victor recordings, and on the band’s promotional recordings.

During l974~l976, Lieutenant Colonel Jack Kline (Director, 1974-1979) conducted the Marine Band in The Heritage of John Philip Sousa (now available from Altissimo HERE). This series, the brainchild of band aficionado Robert Hoe, yielded 18 long-playing albums of Sousa’s, marches, songs, overtures, tone poems, operetta selections, concert suites, and miscellaneous pieces. Music never accessible to Sousa enthusiasts was committed to records which were distributed to public libraries, music schools, and educators.

The “total immersion” into Sousa yielded new interest in many of his infrequently performed works, new respect for the difficulty of recording Sousa, and a commitment that this project should he revisited when the repertoire could be considered in more manageable portions.

In the intervening years, The Heritage of John Philip Sousa recordings have come to be regarded as the most authoritative set of Sousa recordings on LP. And with the advent of digital recording, opportunistic commercial recording companies recognized that Sousa is still in demand and both new and reissued Sousa recordings by other musical organizations have been released on compact discs. As a result, there has been a renewed interest in performing Sousa by bands and orchestras all over the world. Aside from the marches that are played almost continuously, Sousa’s other marches and many concert works began appearing on concert programs and in publishers’ catalogs.

The Marine Band has continued its Sousa performances and research to learn about its former director. This research has involved an intense study of the Marine Band’s Sousa collections, literature searches for writings by and about Sousa, study of recordings of the Sousa Band, and an ongoing dialogue with Sousa scholars such as Paul Bierley and Keith Brion. This study has brought forth an incredible amount of information about how Sousa performed his music. It has also generated considerable thought and, occasionally, debate regarding the interpretation of some facts.

Even the most exhaustive research may not resolve every question. In an essay published in The Journal of Musicological Research, musicologist Stanley Howell wrote, “Because of this inescapable element of uncertainty, some music historians have begun to wonder if the entire historical performance movement is misdirected. But our inability to achieve absolute authenticity should not prevent us from trying to understand as much as we can. Historically-oriented performances can afford real insights into period musical style as long as we remember that all such efforts are experimental and subject to criticism and eventually revision:’

This has been our approach to this recording. Considerable effort has been expended to capture performances which closely approximate those that Sousa conducted. The modern equipment and instrumentation of today’s Marine Band were used, believing that those yielded the best musical results and, therefore, best served the music. (It should be noted that the current Marine Band instrumentation is similar to that of the Sousa Band). In areas where there have been the “inescapable elements of uncertainty,” we adopted a conservative approach. When performance techniques could not be distilled to a single formula, we explored several options.

Whenever original Sousa manuscript scores were available, they were studied and compared with first published editions. This proved particularly valuable in the Looking Upward Suite. We compared the manuscript full score from the Library of Congress and manuscript parts from the University of Illinois with the two published editions and discovered numerous differences. We performed Looking Upward from the manuscript edition, undoubtedly the first recording of this version.

The scoring of each march was thoroughly checked to insure that only those parts which Sousa performed were used for recording. Many editions published after his death contain extensive changes, including additional parts not written by Sousa. For example, the 1951 John Church edition of ‘The Stars and Stripes Forever” contains 10 instrumental parts that are neither in Sousa’s original manuscript score nor the first published edition.

Former members of the Sousa Band were aware of this problem. During the 1952 meeting of the Sousa Band Fraternal Society, William Gens (President of the Society) commented on remarks delivered by Edwin Franko Goldman (conductor of the Goldman Band) at that meeting. Gens wrote: “Dr Goldman asked us to do everything in our power to stop publishers from murdering Sousa marches. It Is a crime what they are doing to make a sale. We should all refuse to buy, play, or handle anything but those from the original publishers.”

The performance parts used for these recordings were extensively edited to reflect corrections from the original scores, to standardize articulations and dynamics, and to incorporate authentic Sousa performance techniques.

As Keith Brion has documented in his essay “Sousa’s Marches-As He Conducted Them,” Sousa incorporated many distinctive performance techniques which were his trademarks. Sousa said to his musicians, ‘Any band can play the printed arrangements but we shall play them differently’ August Helmecke, bass drum virtuoso of the Sousa Band for 22 years, wrote, “People have no idea how Sousa wanted his marches played because the tricks and effects that brought them to such vivid life under the big boss’ own direction never got marked into the scores. The notes alone give but the barest skeleton of what a Sousa march can be!”

Helmecke continued, “In some of the marches, not a single bar of rest is written for comets and clarinets (this was done so marches could be played by small bands) but when Sousa led his own hand in these works, he’d simply wave the unwanted brasses into silence.”

Frank Simon, Sousa Band solo cornetist and assistant conductor l9l4-1921, once said, “There are so many things he did to make it colourful, not just a march where you go through and play it. He ‘doctored them up’ to make them interesting to the public. That’s why he became so famous. Not only for the marches but for HOW he played the marches”

Fellow composer and conductor Karl King noted Sousa’s performance style in a 1946 letter to a colleague. King wrote, “Even in his marches, Sousa pulled some strains down to a whisper which always made the last strain sound that much better by contrast. Also, Sousa had a few little tricks on pianissimos that I observed and I always wondered why other leaders who heard him didn’t get ‘hep’ to how he did it but apparently they didn’t.”

In his autobiography Marching Along. Sousa wrote, “The chief aim of the composer is to produce color, dynamics, nuances, and to emphasize the storytelling quality The combination and composition which gives that result is most to be desired” Sousa achieved this through his unique interpretations.

Those who suggest that Sousa made performance changes out of boredom with his music are incorrect. His preparation and attention to detail were impeccable. About the rehearsal and performance of marches, Sousa Band clarinettist Sam Harris wrote, “It was Sousa’s belief that a march is one of the most difficult of all compositions to play correctly. He stressed the importance of being alert for all details tempo, accents, dynamics, nuances, breathing, articulation, and proper balance:’

Colonel Howard Bronson, another Sousa Band member, made the following comments in an address to the College Band Directors National Association: “Why did Sousa’s compositions take on different character when played by his band? He knew exactly how he wanted the band to sound and he developed a playing character that expressed it. Each player knew exactly how Sousa wanted certain passages to be played–just the right shading and perfect coordination. His own compositions were played with meticulous attention to dynamics, shading, and tone coloring. The printed scores do not carry the dynamic markings as actually played by the band:’

To document these performance changes, we consulted three main sources:

1) The writings of Sousa solo cornetist Frank Simon.
In 1966, Frank Simon participated in a series of interviews in which he discussed 35 Sousa marches in detail, documenting the performance changes as he remembered Sousa had made them. These interviews were transcribed and published in two booklets with accompanying recordings under the auspices of the American School Band Directors Association.

2) The Sousa Band encore books
The Sousa Band encore books are another valuable source of information about Sousa’s performance practices. These encore books, now in the Marine Band’s Sousa collection were used at every performance. They include the performance parts used by his musicians.

Although most of Sousa’s information to his players was not written down, some markings were made in these encore books which give insight into how Sousa played his marches. These marking support information given by Frank Simon.

3) Recordings of the Sousa Band
Of the six Sousa march recordings actually conducted by the composer two stand out: “Solid Men to the Front” and “Sabre and Spurs.” Both marches were recorded on September 6, 1918, and are perhaps the best picture of the Sousa Band in a concert performance of a march during this period. Among the interesting features of these two recordings are the tempos.

Sousa Band members reported that he conducted his marches from 120 to 132 beats per minute. In his later years, the tempos became faster and at times may have approached 138 beats per minute (according to Sousa biographer Paul Bierley) as if the band had to rush to catch a train to the next city.  Both of these 1918 march recordings are considerably slower:

“Solid Men to the Front” is performed at approximately 118 and “Sabre and Spurs” at approximately 116-118. Other Victor recordings with Sousa conducting range from 122-128 beats per minute. A radio broadcast transcription of Sousa conducting “The Stars and Stripes Forever” is at approximately 120. While it is doubtful that Sousa would have chosen the identical tempo for every march, the slower tempos are particularly striking.

Since most of Sousa’s marches were performed as encores, to the printed selections on the program perhaps he endorsed a faster tempo for this purpose. This theory is supported by Sousa’s remarks in a Sydney [Australia] Evening News article on July 24, 1911, entitled “Sousa Says Good-Bye.” Under the heading “Quick March” a statement is printed, ‘The opinion has been expressed that your march time is too quick” Sousa responded: “If you play my marches for troops to march to in  the streets, they must, of necessity, be played slower than I play them on the stage. But anyone who attends my concerts must, unless there is sawdust in his veins, see that the whole idea is of terrific musical force. Contemplation must be after the battle, not during it. The whole idea is that the musical atmosphere must be brought up to a great tension, as it were. My marches, with the exception of one, are used entirely as I play them at a rather quick step rather than keep them down to a slow patter.  Of course, no one would march to the tempo that I play them on stage. But I try to quicken up the blood, and exhilarate people.  I have heard people say that they would like me to play my marches slower. Well, if I had to play in front of a regiment, I would do so; but never on stage”

We know that Sousa’s march encores were very effective. He played them within 10 seconds upon the completion of the previous work. Nothing interfered with the momentum of the performance.

Sousa apparently preferred to perform his marches briskly when used as encores, but the true marching tempos were an important factor in their structure and creation. An article in a Wilmington, Delaware, newspaper dated June 10, 1924, quoted Sousa as saying, “I do not think that I ever received the inspiration for a march except while I was marching… with my life at stake I do not think I could sit in a chair and write a march”

In an August 1950 article in The Elude entitled “How Sousa Played His Marches,” Sousa’s bass drummer August Helmecke wrote, “Sousa never played his marches as fast as they’re generally taken today He kept to a good, firm, marching tempo. A march, remember, isn’t a gallop. when people march, they don’t run.

Although Sousa marches can be performed faster; we have adopted tempos around 1 l0-120 beats per minute to simulate actual marching cadences. Sousa’s own recordings of “Solid Men to the Front” and “Sabre and Spurs” demonstrate that, outside of the context of his concert encores, the marches could be quite effective at these tempos.

Another distinctive factor in Sousa’s march performance is the addition of unique percussion accents. Helmecke wrote, “I’ve saved the accents for last because, in Sousa, they’re by far the most important. Sousa’s marches gained most of their stirring effectiveness from the crisp, wonderful accents he put into them. As I said, these never got marked into the music and never were published. In giving his material to the copyist, Sousa wrote the drums in the simplest manner-barely indicating where they were to be. But when it came to play those marches, he put the accents in! Sousa didn’t print his accents, and he never explained them-he just made them known through his conducting.’

Helmecke once asked Sousa why the accents were not written in but Sousa would not commit himself to an answer. Helmecke decided that Sousa didn’t want other bands to play the marches the way his band did. In the era of competition between professional bands, such “trade secrets” were very highly valued.

Dr. Leonard B. Smith, conductor of the Detroit Concert Band, knew many Sousa Band members and also performed with Helmecke in the Goldman Band. Regarding the use of accents in the marches, Dr. Smith commented: “The Sousa accents were placed logically, not whimsically. The interpretation is found within the music itself and has nothing to do with sentiment or caprice. Sousa’s accents were so effective because he conceived them. People fantasize that Gus (Helmecke) created them but it is not true. Sousa originated the accents in all his marches.”

Without written documentation, recreating Sousa’s accents is difficult. Some accents reinforce the melodic contour or bring out what is written. Others provide variety by adding rhythmic contrast to the melodic line. Accents in these recordings are a combination of traditional Marine Band accents and new accents which, in the opinion of conductor and percussionists, fit the criteria mentioned above.

Another Sousa percussion technique was to either reduce or completely eliminate the percussion during soft sections of a march. In these recordings, percussion (except for bells) has been eliminated in the trio of “Invincible Eagle.” Interestingly, the published percussion part for “Grid-iron Club” has minimal percussion at the trio and is performed here as written.

In addition to the Sousa accents, many of the marches have unique effects. These include regimental trumpet and drum parts, horse hoofs, the use of orchestra bells, ship’s bell, harp, bosun’s pipe, whistles, sirens, pistol shots, and more.

In performing regimental trumpet and drum parts (“Sabre and Spurs” and “Gallant Seventh”), four trumpet players and two percussionists were positioned to one side of the band. The deeper pitched field drums were used on regimental drum parts to provide contrast to the sound of the concert snare used throughout. Sousa wrote the “bugle strain” in “The Royal Welch Fusiliers” to be performed by the entire cornet and trumpet section. Several marches contain published harp parts (Sousa added a harpist to his hand during the later years). There is a harp folder in the set of Sousa’s encore books which contain mostly piano editions of the marches. Since the published harp parts do not match the piano editions, we may assume that the harpist improvised from the piano edition when no published part was available. We have chosen to use harp only when a separate part was published, as on “Comrades of the Legion” and “Who’s Who in Navy Blue.”

Orchestra bells were added at the trio to double the melody on those marches which had a manuscript bell part in the Sousa encore books.

“Sabre and Spurs” as recorded here duplicates the techniques demonstrated in Sousa’s 1918 recording. This includes a xylophone solo for the first time through the last strain. The use of the xylophone on this part is substantiated by a manuscript part in the Sousa encore books which, unlike the other manuscript bell parts that accompany it, is clearly marked “xylophone” for “Sabre and Spurs.” Former Sousa drummer John I. Heney noted Sousa’s use of the xylophone in this fashion in his percussion text The Correct Way to Drum.

“Manhattan Beach” follows the instructions as noted in the Sousa encore books and also documented by Frank Simon. Among the effects are a soft introduction, contrasting use of the brass in the second strain which is on the repeat, extra emphasis on the clarinet arpeggios at the trio (which simulate waves), and a very dramatic crescendo-decrescendo on the final strain which gives the effect one might hear while passing the handstand during a stroll at Manhattan Beach.

Taken individually, these techniques and performance practices seem a complex collection of formulae: an octave here, an accent there, and an odd xylophone or pistol shot thrown in for good measure. Taken collectively, they represent a particular genius in which Sousa looked beyond convention and saw within his own music the potential for an extraordinary musical experience.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “There is properly no history, only biography” In searching for Sousa, we hope to have discovered not only the essence of the music but of the man himself.

The “Pathfinder” referred to by John Philip Sousa in the title of “The Pathfinder Of Panama” March is actually the Panama Canal. Composed in 1915, the march is dedicated to the Panama Canal and the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco where the Sousa Band played a nine week
engagement. The edition by Captain Frank Byrne of the United States Marine Band is the result of extensive research into the specific performance practices of Sousa and his band. Though many of the performance alterations made to Sousa’s marches were never published, interviews and writings of former Sousa Band members provided valuable insight into the creation of this edition.
* * *

The National Game
John Phillip Sousa – 1925

Contributed by Jack Kopstein

With its popular reputation and good wages, the Sousa Band was able to recruit some of the best musicians around.

For 39 years, this large group toured the country by train. A Sousa Band tour would last for many months, often with several performances each day and only a few days off for travel between cities. The band traveled to every corner of the United States and did several European tours and one world tour. Together they traveled more than 1 million miles, and they still managed to find the time for other fun.

The Sousa Band had its own baseball team, and Sousa was often the pitcher. They played against local baseball teams and those of rival bands. Sousa composed the piece featured here, “The National Game.”

Sousa and his Baseball Team

Music and baseball have played an integral role in the life and culture of America for nearly two and a quarter centuries, but it was not until the late nineteenth and early twentieth century when the two forms of popular entertainment became fully entwined as the country’s greatest past times. One of the earliest references to baseball in the United States can be found in a 1791, Pittsfield, Massachusetts ordinance banning the playing of the game within eighty yards of the town meeting house. The earliest music composition dedicated to the sport is J. R. Blogdett’s 1858 song, “The Base Ball Polka.” During the Civil War, it was not uncommon for soldiers from different parts of the country to come together to play games of baseball; this eventually lead to a more unified version of the game and its rules across the country. In 1869, the National Association of Base Ball Players permitted professional play. In 1876, the National Baseball League was formalized, and in 1901, the American Baseball League was created just two years before the two leagues played their first World Series. While baseball quickly evolved into a highly professional sport, the rivalries between followers of both professional and amateur leagues became legendary during those early years.

Sousa and Judge Kenishaw Mountain Landis

Landis was the man with the iron fist that saved baseball after the Black Sox debacle of 1919. Babe Ruth was instrumental in bringing the game back on the field with his mighty clouts.

Sousa wrote the march “THE NATIONAL GAME” at the behest Kenishaw Mountain Landis, the Commissioner of Baseball.
For music and sports scholars and aficionados the years 1900-1920 are considered the golden age of the John Philip Sousa Band and baseball in America. The 1908 World Series is considered the greatest and most controversial baseball series of the twentieth century and the Sousa Band’s World Tour of 1910-1911 is undoubtedly one of the most unique music public relations efforts by a single individual to introduce the early twentieth-century world to American music, culture and baseball. John Philip Sousa’s band also served as his baseball team whenever they had a chance to play a game of baseball against another team from a community in which they were performing a concert. This special exhibition in the Center’s museum combines historical documents, photographs, music manuscripts, sound recordings and artifacts from the John Philip Sousa Music and Personal Papers, Herbert L. Clarke Music and Papers, Paul Bierley Papers, Student Life Archives, University Archives, as well as other newly acquired collections of the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music. In addition the exhibition includes historical documents and rare baseball cards from the Smithsonian Institution’s Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music, Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, and the Ronald S. Gabriel Baseball Memorabilia Collection. Join the staff of the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music as we uncover interesting stories about the John Philip Sousa Band and early baseball.

“The National Game” is available on the Altissimo! album entitled Sousa 3, the third in a series of albums dedicated to the compositions of John Philip Sousa. Click here to see it at the Altissimo website.

With Files from the Smithsonian Institute and Sousa Archives
Contributed by Jack Kopstein

Antoine Joseph SAX – known as Adolphe – was born in Dinant, Belgium, on November 6, 1814, the son of Charles Joseph Sax, instrument maker to the king of The Netherlands. At 14, Adolphe Sax built his own clarinet of fine wood and soon was winning prizes at Europe’s new indus¬trial expositions. Sax was a rare young genius: an innovator whose hands were as facile as his mind.

When the Brussels Exposition denied his instruments a gold medal in 1841, Sax decided to seek his fortune elsewhere. He headed for Paris, penni¬less but rich in ideas. His favourite brain¬child was a matched family of valued brasses. These “saxhorns” were the ancestors of the tubas, flugelhorns, and baritone horns heard in modern bands.

The saxophone may have been born when Sax, while puttering in his shop, fitted a bass clarinet mouthpiece and reed onto an ophicleide, a big bugle-type horn with keys instead of valves. At any rate, by 1842 he had made a bass saxophone, pitched in the key of C. It drew praise from Hector Berlioz, the renowned French composer, who transcribed some of his own music for a demonstration concert with Chamber winds on February 3, l844, and the first time a saxophone was heard in public with Sax himself as soloist.

The saxhorns and saxophones attracted the attention of the French Army, who gave Sax the exclusive contract to outfit their bands. Established music firms couldn’t compete with his superior craftsmanship and modern production methods, so they organized to ruin him, but the charge did not hold up in court.

Sax patented his saxophones, by now an entire family on March 20th 1846. But even his most important friends could not protect the instrument maker from the jealousy of the entire industry, which paid musicians to boycott Sax’s products. Other problems ensued.

After 860 when his patents expired, anyone could copy Sax’s instruments. Deprived of revenues from his inventions, Sax slipped back into poverty. In 1870 his Army contracts were cancelled and his factory went under. Bankrupt he survived as a bandmaster at the Paris Opera until his death at 79 on February 1894.

Early saxophones were all French, Evette Shaeffer and Buffet Crampon. In the US Elkhart Indiana known as “Music City” boasted several firms whom manufactured saxophones including Conn, Buescher and Martin. In later years when the dance band craze began the Selmer saxophones was the instrument of choice of many of the performers.

Saxophones were first employed in military bands, where it was a voice of compromise between brass and woodwinds. The warmth and tonality of the instrument, particularly the alto and tenor, were mainstays in all of the French military bands beginning with its first introduction. But it took several years before it went into full usage in Britain.

Photographs of the Guards bands beginning in 1900 and later indicate that saxophones had not come into use. In the USA, the instrument was adopted by both school and military bands as early as 1880. Other countries such as Canada were very slow to move off the mark and the instrument did not make a showing until shortly before the First World War.

Today every band from High School to the professional level including community bands has full sections of Eb Alto (divided parts 1-2) with Tenor sax as well as Eb Baritone. Saxophone.

The solo qualities of the instrument were recognized shortly after it was introduced. The founders of the tradition of the classical saxophone include French military musician, later world concert performer Marcel Mule. American Cecil Leeson became one of the world’s most prestigious saxophonists as well. Sigurd Rascher a German born concert performer came to the USA in 1939. His amazing sound and magnificent technique made him into a household name.

No article on the saxophone would be complete without the mention of the world’s first modern saxophonist- Charley Parker. He left a legacy that significantly enhanced the instrument’s tradition. Several generations of great players have emerged including Saxophone Colossus Sonny Rollins and the man whom many call the “Last Messiah,” John Coltrane. The man considered to be the present day ‘public marketer” is the personable and magnificent Bradford Marsalis.

The great military bands pf the USA, including the United States Marine band, have strived to keep the memory and tradition of Adolphe Sax alive by developing wonderful saxophone quartets. The brainchild introduced by Adolphe  Sax was indeed an  instrument of the ages.

The United States Merchant Marine Academy band
“GEORGE COHAN’S OWN”

Contributed by Jack Kopstein

During World War II, Maritime Training Facilities were placed in strategic locations around America. These stations included Pass Christian, Mississippi, San Mateo, California, Fort Trumbull, Connecticut, Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn and Kings Point. At the larger locations, professional musicians were recruited to form marching, concert, and dance bands to play for the hundreds of seafarers in training. In 1943, the present Academy at Kings Point was established. With it, a 45 piece professional band, made up of the finest New York City musicians, was recruited and played for thousands of cadets during their intensified wartime training at the Academy. To this day, the raised platform in the mess hall at the Academy, where the present Regimental midshipmen officers sit, and the radio broadcasting booth are vestiges of that professional band. Their duty each day during the war was to play for the entertainment of the troops at all mess sittings and play additional music for dances on weekends, which was broadcast live over WCBS radio. After the war, the professional band was disbanded and music at the Academy became the responsibility of midshipmen. This program had varying degrees of success until 1971, when a full-time Director of Music was appointed and the band members were placed into their own company.

Since that time, the band has represented the Academy at all Presidential Inauguration Parades, as well as the Miss America Pageant, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Cotton Bowl Halftime Show on New Years Day, and countless other national events. In 1994, a 35-piece ensemble boarded the ocean-liner Queen Elizabeth 2 and traveled across the Atlantic to Normandy, France for the 40th Anniversary of D-Day, while entertaining the WWII veterans on board.  In June, 2000, the band flew to New Orleans and represented the Academy and U.S. Merchant Marine at the Opening Ceremonies of the D-Day Museum.

A  singular honor was bestowed upon the band in 1999 by the descendants of the “Man Who Owned Broadway,” the late Mr. George M. Cohan. The Band was instrumental in helping the local community and Park District of Great Neck save his former residence, which was slated for demolition.  Mr. Cohan was honored with a Congressional Gold Medal in 1936, in recognition for two patriotic compositions which have become synonymous with America: “Over There” and “A Grand Old Flag.” Helen Ronkin Lafaso and Ms. Mary Ronkin Ross, the grandchildren of Mr. Cohan, formally thanked the band for their support and gave the band the honour to be called, “George M. Cohan’s Own” for “now and in the future.” Thus, Kings Point became the first Federal Academy Band with an officially bestowed title.

The Band’s membership changes twice each year as the sea splits change. Thus, every fall and every spring a new band is effectively born. Due to this unique rotation, the band is never the same twice.

(website information) contributed by jack Kopstein

In honor of Independence Day, our contributing writer Jack thought it would be nice to give a short history of American march music. The following is an informative article he found for us to present.

A Short History of Marches

The origins of European and American march music can be traced to the military music of the Ottoman empire. The martial purpose of the music was to regulate the functioning of armies in the field by communicating orders, and keeping time during marching and maneuvers. The extensive use of percussion, such as cymbals, was also used for psychological effect as their use, especially in Western Europe, was unknown and had the capacity to frighten opponents. Indeed, the subsequent use of cymbals and other such percussive instruments in European ‘classical’ music was a direct importation from the Ottomans. In the early 1700s Europeans were first exposed to this type of music and interest would continue to build into the early 1800s when a vogue for Turkish marching bands swept through Europe. Pieces displaying this Turkish influence can be found in the works of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven with a notable example being “Turkish March” by Beethoven (part of Op. 113): Overture and incidental music for Die Ruinen von Athen.

The origins of march music began before the Gunpowder Age during which armies would maintain their troops’ morale by marching with music playing, whether that be from the beat of a drum or fife. American march music showed during the Revolutionary War and earlier wartime conflicts, in which a fife and snare drum would play while the troops marched to battle. This is why it can be said that march music is a military’s music.

While the tradition of soldiers playing music while marching into battle had ended soon after the American Civil War (mid 1800s), military bands continued to perform marches during related ceremonies and other events. This actually spawned a whole new tradition of playing marches as a source of entertainment.

Marches and the Concert Band
Around the late 1800s and early 1900s, most towns, organizations, theaters and even companies would have their own band. These bands, currently known today as community bands, would perform their music at special events much like the military band, but would often play at simple scheduled concerts and tours (such as the traditional gazebo concerts). By this time, published marches were plentiful due to prolific composers such as John Philip Sousa, Karl L. King and Henry Fillmore. Marches became a staple in the repertoire of these concert bands and can hence explain how the popularity of the march spread so rapidly across the world.

Marches and the Circus
Marches were further popularized with performances by circus bands. During the same period of the community band/concert band, circuses such as the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Circus would have live music being performed by their own bands. The marches played were often a special variety of the march known descriptively as “Screamers”, “Two-Steps”, and “Cakewalks”. These marches served the purpose of exciting the crowd while circus acts were taking place.

Marches and the Marching Band
Again, during the same period college marching bands were also beginning to form. March composers would often dedicate marches to university bands. Marches were performed during half-time shows and pep-rallies. Marches were indeed heard everywhere.

The John Philip Sousa Revolution
American composer John Philip Sousa did indeed strongly revolutionize the march. His overall prolific writing of said quality marches added that much to its popularity. According to Sousa researcher Paul Bierley, Sousa’s marches were gems of simplicity and understatement, with rousing counterpoint and overall energy. Sousa also is said to have standardized the traditional march form. American march music was forever immortalized with Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever, a patriotic march which became the official march of the United States of America.

March Music Composers
Most march composers come from the United States or Europe, and have some sort of musical background to them. The most popular march composers existed in the late 1800s and early 1900s, mainly because modern march dedicators are hard to come by. The following is list of march music composers whose marches are frequently performed in the United States.
• Russell Alexander (1877-1915)
• Kenneth Alford (1881-1945) “The British March King”
• Edwin Eugene Bagley (1857-1922)
• Hermann Louis Blankenburg (1876-1956)
• W. Paris Chambers (1854-1913)
• Charles E. Duble (1884-1960)
• Henry Fillmore (1881 – 1956) “The Trombone King”

A full article on this topic can be found by clicking here