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Quote of the Day: John Philip Sousa on Government-Subsidized Music
This quote comes from Sousa’s Memoirs, Marching Along. He is describing what he found on a band tour of Europe in the year 1900.
I have the programmes of military band concerts given in the Luxembourg, the Palais Royal and other places [in Paris]. At the Luxembourg, Massenet contributes two numbers out of five, Delahaye one, Saintis one, and Weber is represented by a selection from his Freischutz. At the Palais Royal there is not a foreign work on the programme. Yet there must be some number in international musical literature that might have been dropped into the concert, if only to flavor it with the spice of exoticism, as it were.
This, again, I attribute to the evil influence of Governmental support, which always creates a tendency to work in a groove, to stop in a rut. As it does not matter financially whether the public is pleased or indifferent, why should the bandmaster waste the gray matter of his brain in building programmes that will arouse interest, why should he grow old in going through veritable public libraries of musical works in the hope–alas! too seldom rewarded–of finding some new or unknown gem with which to feed the unlimited repertory that a concert organization such as my own is compelled to possess?
As he shows in his book, Sousa’s repertoire for his own band was huge, with compositions arranged by himself and others, from all the famous composers of his day and earlier. All of his band’s programs were chock full of compositions designed to delight audiences, and they met with cheers wherever they went. He never, ever got into any kind of rut, even when he was conducting the United States Marine Band.
One comment on French music, that I have observed in my own musical travels. For whatever reason, French players seem to do the best in playing French music. They just respond better, and get the real feeling from music by French composers.
Published in Group Writing
That’s an interesting observation about French musicians. My daughter played a piece of music by a French composer last spring, and it was more difficult to play on her bassoon because apparently French bassoons are made differently than those made by the dominant German manufacturers. The French composer had composed with those differences in mind. I wonder if other differences in instrument manufacturing might explain your observation. Anyway, I’m putting Sousa’s book on my list!
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This post is the last of the Quote of the Day series for September. Other QOTD posts can be accessed here. The QOTD Signup Sheet for October still has plenty of dates available!
I wonder if the same can be said for religious players – not the fervent so much, as that kind of feeling probably gets in the way as much as it helps, but a deep, and abiding love for a source.
One time Sousa was asked to list the three best street marches of all time.
Two of them were Sousa marches – no false humility there.
The other one was by Edwin Eugene Bagley.
French and German bassoons are very different, as are French and Austrian oboes and French and German clarinets. The opening of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (1913) was composed with the French bassoon in mind. Rite of Spring opens with a solo bassoon on high C, passing up to an E-flat in extremis. The part was premiered by bassoonist Abdon Laus, who played in the Boston Symphony after 1916 and whose Buffet (French) bassoon may be viewed in their museum. French bassoons run easily up to C and D in the treble staff; Germanic bassoons (“Heckels”) of the time did not. Rite of Spring was virtually unplayable by Heckels in 1913.
And it’s positively unlistenable on either country’s sopranino bassoon.
You are classical music nerds and I mock you.
Without knowing which two marches, but knowing Sousa well enough, I would venture that no false humility was required.
Years ago, obviously, my brother, now a retired music teacher, had an opportunity to hear a concert by a Soviet – era military band, in East Germany. His observations were interesting. The musicians themselves seemed skilled enough, but the way they played was so rigid and mechanical that it wasn’t especially pleasing.
A particularly gifted Russian composer was constantly in trouble with the Soviet government because his works were brilliant, internationally famous, but they didn’t comport with the rules set by the government. Probably the only thing that saved him from, well, liquidation, was that he became so famous outside the Soviet Union, his disappearance would not go unnoticed. Let’s see, his name. Oh, yeah. Dimitri Shostakovich.
I had to look up that such a thing even exists/existed. @henrycastaigne I can’t claim to be a classical music nerd, or even an aspiring one. Thankfully, my kids are getting much better music educations then I ever got.
The National Emblem is a must in any library. I marched to it in 12 Saturday morning parades at officer training school, the last one was my graduation. Eyes right, ready front.
The story behind the march is pretty cool. Bagley was working on the march while touring by train with his family band. He got frustrated with the ending, and through the whole thing into the trash.
Someone saw him do it. It was retrieved, and the band rehearsed it in secret in the baggage car. Once they had it down, one of the band told Bagley that they would be performing it at their next concert, just before the concert.
And the rest is history. I didn’t know that. Thank you