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Ask for a copy of the piccolo part and try it. Now that's fun!

Jonathantuba wrote:

Will wrote:Ask for a copy of the piccolo part and try it. Now that's fun!

The other tuba player in the band, an ex-Royal Marines bandsman was telling me he has done just that - yes, it would be fun!

I did it in college and I must agree...it is fun.

bloke wrote:Then, there is the composer's orchestral version in D major.

I've also had the pleasure of doing that as well....

Funny how ones view is different. I don't even give S&S a second thought. It closes each of our brass band concerts and I have played it literally a thousand times. In all three military bands I was in it was a required memorized march that we played on every parade we did. I am glad you enjoy it, but I would much rather play or conduct "Standard of St. George" or "British 8th". Cheers.

Chuck'who on a dare played the tuba part backwards to S&S, with repeats, for a case of beer when I was stationed in Korea"Jackson

The question was, "do we play the Stars and Stripes Forever on the march?" The answer is yes. I played it in high school on the march and also as a member of the Army band. In high school we played it at 108 beats per minute, a little slower than the usual 120. In the Army, everything was 120.

I thought the tempo for almost all of the Sousa marches was 124...where did 110 come from?

Thomas Maurice Booth wrote:I thought the tempo for almost all of the Sousa marches was 124...where did 110 come from?

Where did you get this from?

I stole this link from another post. This is the Cal State Long Beach Marching Band from about 22 years ago...

The Stars & Stripes Forever

Thomas Maurice Booth wrote:I thought the tempo for almost all of the Sousa marches was 124...where did 110 come from?

Well, here's the Sousa Band from 1901. I make it out to be about 118:

http://www.tinfoil.com/cm-0207.htm

This isn't with Sousa directing--somewhere I've got one of Keith Brion's New Sousa Band CDs with a 1929 performance of the same with Sousa conducting; I'll check it out, but I don't think it was 124 either.

Will wrote:Ask for a copy of the piccolo part and try it. Now that's fun!

I've got a copy that the director wrote out for us to do a section solo on in April. It's for the Ab version. Goes kinda high, but it's fun to be challenged!

Alas, I played it by my lonesome. My director at the time was the one buying the beer.

Chuck

I've heard that when Sousa performed his marches that the tempo was around 130-134 bpm.

Arkietuba wrote:I've heard that when Sousa performed his marches that the tempo was around 130-134 bpm.

130 sounds more like a Karl King tempo. I think Sousa was more like 110-120.

Lew wrote:

Arkietuba wrote:I've heard that when Sousa performed his marches that the tempo was around 130-134 bpm.

130 sounds more like a Karl King tempo. I think Sousa was more like 110-120.

I know that's what was notated on the music but I believe Sousa PERFORMED his marches at around 130...at least that is what I was told by a very famous composer/conductor (Stephen Mellilo)

Check this out.
http://www.ita-web.org/festival/itf2002 ... ones01.wmv

Arkietuba wrote:I know that's what was notated on the music but I believe Sousa PERFORMED his marches at around 130...at least that is what I was told by a very famous composer/conductor (Stephen Mellilo)

Offhand, I'd say that Sousa conducted marches somewhere between 68 and 220 bpm.

If I were ever to depend on someone's word abuot Sousa tempi, it'd be Keith Brion's, who has made a career of Sousa's music.

But we don't have to take anyone's word. Get a copy of Delos DE 3102 "All American Sousa". It contains recordings of 7 marches conducted by Sousa himself. One (S&S) is from a radio broadcast in 1929, two years before Sousa died. The remainder are acoustic recordings made between 1916 and 1923. The 1929 broadcast of Stars and Stripes is around 124 (as contrasted with the 1901 version at 118). The remainder vary between about 116-120. Is it reasonable to think that Sousa conducted at different tempi? Why not?

But 130 sounds excessive unless it's Sousa on drugs.

I would imagine that the earlier recordings conducted by Pryor wouldn't be too far off, either. The band played them then all the time...

Will wrote:Ask for a copy of the piccolo part and try it. Now that's fun!

yeah this year at all county band i tried to pull it out on the conducter....he was a traditional conducter and didnt want to have a tuba play the solo.

But hey it was worth a try

Chuck(G) wrote: This isn't with Sousa directing--somewhere I've got one of Keith Brion's New Sousa Band CDs with a 1929 performance of the same with Sousa conducting; I'll check it out, but I don't think it was 124 either.

If you have a recording with Sousa conducting, it would be extremely rare. Having spent a few years doing research with researcher Paul Bierley, he mentioned many times that it wasn't really Sousa conducting. I cannot rememebr why that was, but it was.

Sousa hated recording. He thought recording technology would be a passing fad, or of limited use, and noone would replace a live concert with a recording. So most of the band's recording sessions he turned over to Arthur Pryor, who thought recording technology was the thing of the future.