STANLEY tells it all – Musicians in the Sousa Band: Gus Helm
The most beautiful stories of John Philip Sousa’s band, are those of his interaction with the musicians. One of these was the German percussion player named August Gustav Helmecke a.k.a. Gus Helm (1872-1954). He came to the USA for a tour and decided to stay. After several years playing gigs, Gus auditioned for Sousa. This was the beginning of a professional and personal friendship.
Like Sousa, Gus was a second generation musician. This brings certain advantages, such as heightened understanding of musicianship. Gus showed an awareness of music, the orchestra and musical instruments on another level. He played percussion, just like his father who worked in an opera orchestra and a military band.
Since percussion players are multi-instrumentalists by nature, a lot is expected of them. The Sousa Band started off with 48 musicians and grew in size towards 84. However, the number of percussion players remained just 3 and yes, they had to play several instruments.
The job opening was for bass drum, but Sousa had a request regarding the use of cymbals. So, Gus drilled a hole in the drum, attached one of the cymbals to it and took the other in his left hand. Now he could play the drum on the beat and the cymbals on the after-beat: boom-ksss-boom-ksss.
All of us who have played in a stage orchestra, pit orchestra and or marching band, know by experience what a bass drum can do. Positive: play the beat. Negative: attack eardrums, destroy upper partials, etc. How so?
Percussion instruments are divided in two groups: tempered and untempered. The first are tuned a.k.a. pitched, the second not. Timpany belong to the first group and all other drums to the second. The challenging part: dynamics.
Sousa’s remark that he felt Gus playing, but didn’t hear him, is the highest compliment ever. This requires a level of discipline we hardly see nor hear. The use of dynamics is all important as is balance. Gus was able to play the same volume with his right and left hand. Some stories state he even prefered the ksss to be louder than the boom, meaning he knew how to discipline the stick. How did he do that?
Gus used a special technique. He did not play in the middle of the bass drum, where a loud boom deafens everybody for two seconds, but at the edges. Either north-south-east-west or north-northeast-north-northwest. Result being, the carefully build up of upper partials as created by the wind instruments, were not dampened nor destructed when Gus played the bass drum. He became the best payed musician in the Sousa Band.
Now, where is my Gus Helm?
Stanley E. van Wel MM – Music Director
Posted on LinkedIn.com dated 18 July 2024