Why the need to arrange Sousa?

[MichaelDenney]

I was just listening to a few marches on the Dallas Wind Symphony's "Strictly Sousa" CD, and I noticed that all but one of the twenty marches had been edited or arranged by someone else--Fennell, Brion, etc.

Why? Because his marches are now in the public domain or some such thing? Because the sound of wind bands has changed with the replacement of cornets by trumpets? Or?

[Z-Tuba Dude]

Money.

[zeman23]

It's my understanding that a lot of the arrangements were changed by Sousa from concert to concert, so the original parts were not always followed to the note. For instance, he may have the trumpets lay out the first time through on a certain strain, where the part wouldn't indicate that at all. Percussion parts I believe weren't written at all by Sousa, but added later by publishers who needed them. I think that the "new" arrangements by people like Keith Brion are an attempt to capture the authentic sound of the Sousa band, as opposed to just having all the parts played all the time. They aren't just rehashed old tunes, but the result of a great deal of research.

It may also be for the money, but I would think that if it were money these arrangers were after, they would have picked a different line of work.

Personally, I think there is nothing wrong with revisiting this music through these new arrangements. It gives you an excuse to play them, and they are, if nothing else, easier to read.

-Zack Zeman

[ThomasP]

Some times "editing" is just putting it on a standard sheet of paper rather than the small quick-step sheets. From my experience the "editing" hasn't really been anything drastic, it simply makes them more accessible, then again some drastic editing could have been done. Those are my reasons for it.

[Alex C]

I enjoy the newer arrangements because they easier to read and some, not all, of the wrong notes are fixed. I don't think many of the contemporary arrangements offer much new musically.

Mark Hindsly's arrangements do reflect Sousa's orchestration changes to the marches (the Hindsley arrangement of Manhatten Beach comes to mind) but I have only seen two. None of the other new arrangements I've seen show much in the way of orchestration changes.

In the rehearsals for the recording session ("Marches I've Missed" which was done at the same time), Fennel did make numerous changes to some marches including the addition/change of dynamics and orchestration changes. He also added measures to some marches including Sousa's "Northern Pines."

Jerry Junkin was much more conservative in his changes to the marches but that was an all Sousa album.

I agree with one of the early responders, most of the new arrangements are done for financial reasons. We will see more as the marches come out of copyright protection.

[MichaelDenney]

Thanks, folks. As is so often the case, the situation is more complicated than it would appear on the surface. As an acquaintance once told his now ex-boss, "It's easy to make suggestions when you don't know anything about the problem."

[Mitch]

If memory serves correctly, part of Fred Fennell's history includes playing cornet in Sousa's Band as a very young man, that being the source of Fennell's pursuit of authenticity and his desire to publish sets of parts that would reflect it.

The argument will unfold without me as to whether Fennell's first-hand experience is in any way better/different/more accurate than Brion's academic research (we all know from our history books that History is frequently determined by whoever puts it in print first).

Mark Hindsley's source would be his years at the University of Illinois. Sousa was (according to history) a close, personal friend of A.A. Harding, Director of Bands at Illinois at the time. Hindsley, if memory serves, worked with Harding. Hindsley was always self-published, which is partially why his arrangements never proliferated the way arrangements do when they go through Hal Leonard, Carl Fischer, et al. I student taught with Bob Hindsley (Mark's son), and the last I knew it was Bob's intention to take over the publishing of the arrangements (but that was the early 90's).

The University of Illinois Bands possess a large Sousa collection, including manuscripts, instruments, letters, and even the last podium and baton Sousa used before he died. Again, if memory serves correctly, a piece of the collection has long been a bone of contention with the US Marine Band; the manuscript to "Semper Fidelis," like many other Sousa marches, is a 2-page, 2-stave score; U of I has one page, the Marine Band has the other...

The 2-page-score issue is another reason many versions of Sousa marches exist; Sousa's manuscripts are often very general, even without dynamic markings. They're written like a piano part, usually without any indications of which instrument plays what, how loud, or how fast, and with no percussion parts written. Unlike other composers, you can't "go to the source" for a definitive answer, as the source may only add to the confusion.

So we're left with Fennell's "first-hand accounts" and Brion's research, but in the end, it's usually just a matter of tradition, which means it will probably always be a matter of opinion.