the last time usually tutti. During a Sousa march, the full band played sparingly throughout. Those moments were limited to the introduction, which was usually orchestrated in unison and octaves, and the final section of the march where he wanted the most impact. It should be noted that there was no set style of how Sousa would change orchestration. These orchestration changes depended solely on the character of the march itself. 6 Fortunately, the articles“ My Years with the Sousa Band,” 7 and“ More of My Years with the Sousa Band,” by Dr. Frank Simon outline these patterns and practices in many of the Sousa marches.
Note Length And Articulation
The differences between the style of Sousa’ s time period and today provide yet another obstacle for conductors and ensemble musicians when performing the Sousa Marches. Frederick Fennell referred to what he called the“ band style” of the time period that simply every musician was expected to fulfill both automatically and correctly. 9 Specifically, Fennell was speaking of how the musicians treated note length and articulation. In the Sousa Band, any note that was a quarter note or longer in either 2 / 4 or 6 / 8 time should be played long. In addition, any dotted rhythm whatsoever should be played long as well. On the other hand, any rhythm that was smaller than a quarter note in those time signatures should be played short and light. Furthermore, if a short note precedes a long note, it was given added weight and length( agogic stress). In addition, a short note that was preceded by a long note was played even shorter and given extra emphasis to make it“ pop” out of the texture. 10 According to Sam Harris,“[ Sousa ] did not use the term‘ staccato.’ He called it‘ spacing of notes’. He stressed articulation as well, and often mentioned that many players get careless …” Many of Sousa’ s former musicians mentioned how nothing bothered him more than players becoming careless with the length and spacing of notes. 11 The late Paul Bierley noted that:
Except for sustained passages the Sousa Band played their notes slightly shorter or crisper so as to create an impression of cleanly separated rhythmic patterns. The separation between short and long notes makes long notes seem even longer and gives additional rhythmic emphasis, taking advantage of the agogic accent.‘ Spacing the notes’ gives a lighter character to the marches and emphasizes the dance like qualities. 12
Brass
John Philip Sousa was a strong supporter of the instruments made by the C. G. Conn Company. In exchange for his endorsement, C. G. Conn made all of the brasses and saxophones in the Sousa Band. With the exception of cornet soloist Frank
Simon, who played on a Holton in his later years with the group, every musician in the Sousa Band was required to play on a Conn. 13 These instruments had a much smaller bore than those we generally see today and, in turn were brighter in tone quality and did not produce the same amount of volume as modern brass instruments.” There were a number of other practices that were unique to the Sousa Band as well. Sousa never once used a string bass with his band, relying only on the tuba and bass drum to provide rhythmic and harmonic support. 15 Throughout Sousa’ s years on tour he also insisted on bringing two trumpet players with him on tour in addition to a full cornet section. These players played on every song even if there was no part written out for them. In the event there was a march that did not have a trumpet part, they would simply double the principal cornet. 16
It is common knowledge that Sousa would drop the brass section out of the texture to change the color of certain sections of a march. However, most people do not know that when Sousa waved off the brass, he was specifically referring to just the trombones, trumpets, and cornets. While there was no set pattern to all of the marches it was very common for Sousa to have the brass drop out the first time through a strain. 17 Additionally, Sousa felt that the horns and euphoniums added a mellow tone color that contrasted with the other brass instruments and in turn would increase their volume slightly when he waved off the other brass instruments. 18 Woodwinds
In all of the years that Sousa toured with his band, he always used alto and bass clarinets even though there were no published parts for them. For these instruments he would use other parts in the same key signature, like baritone horn or E- flat cornet to add the alto and bass clarinets into the texture. Not only did Sousa insist on having those instruments in his woodwind section, but he also insisted on having a woodwind
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