Euphonium thirds in The Rifle Regiment?

[imperialbari]

The (US) Army Ceremonial Band has uploaded what might equal all of their 2000 American Spirit recording at

http://www.army.mil/armyband/audiovideo ... pirit.html

Even if my hook-up allows me to take down around 115KB a second I haven't listened to all of it yet.

So far I have been amazed by the musicianship. These players are not just military musicians, they are musicians by any standards.

Sousa marches often are rushed off over here. In that light The Washington Post is played quite moderately in this presentation.

Also Hail to the Chief is taken surprisingly, and very dignifiedly, slow here, even if I sense just a bit of rushing in a very few places, probably the inevitable bow towards military clichés.

I didn't know the Rifle Regiment by Sousa. I am not totally convinced, when he more or less quotes himself in some transitional passages. But there is some extremely beautiful melodic lines, often with the euphonium as the main carrier.

Sometimes I seem to hear thirds in the euphonium line, but I cannot be sure. I downloaded the MIDI file from

http://www.dws.org/sousa/works.htm

and opened it in Finale. This did not point towards thirds written in the euph/baritone part, even if that would not have been too surprising. Sousa's mother after all was a Bavarian, where ovals in thirds are quite common.

My ears may have been cheated by some instruments often ridiculed on brass lists. But the ceremonial band actually has some very beautifully playing saxophonists, also when doing quite simple harmony parts.

I would guess that some of the ceremonial band players may be around here. Could they tell me if the original Sousa score has been rewritten, or were the euph thirds I heard actually euph and sax thirds?

Klaus