STANLEY tells it all – Studying Sousa: scores
Ending 2017 and early 2018 finally made me look at the scores of John Philip Sousa’s music. Dig in deep, so to say! Previously, I had frustrated myself a little since this is the part which has the ability to swallow me completely.
At reading a score, I automaticaly analyse the composition. Melody, harmony, countermelody, modulation, form, orchestration, etc., after which I look at the individual parts and look at details in the instrumentation. When listening I do the same, but the combination of sound colors plus tempo are added features. At the same time, I always look, read, study and think at how to realize this and that in a performance. Help is found in the published stories about Sousa and his Band.
The narrative about the publications of Sousa’s marches is well known. Reading statements from the musicians like ‘we don’t play it like that, but the publisher…..’ always brings a smile to my face. Yes, we know Sousa had a theatrical inclination. That’s why we love his music! Result being, he didn’t mind writing the volumes from ppp to fff, meaning extremely soft to extremely loud! That was the way of his day anyway, so why not? However, how to perform these is a different matter. That largely depends on the function, off course.
In ‘Marching Along’ Sousa writes a.o. about his band with 84 musicians. Looking at this serious lengthy row of 12 cornet players divided in 8 first, 2 second plus 2 third, an idea comes to mind. Let only one first cornet play the melody the first time and bring in all the others at the repeat. Done! Well, performing sitting down that is. When marching, this is not the best idea. All cornets play as soft as possible at first and at the repeat, well…..
Many of us would perform it like that. Nothing complicated, except that Sousa’s Band didn’t march more than only once! Therefore, we need to keep in mind these remarks were made at the end of the 19th century and we live in 2023, soon in 2024. It therefore shows us more about the customs of the day than we might imagine!
Stanley E. van Wel MM – Music Director
Posted on LinkedIn.com dated 8 December 2023