A rather lightweight article on Sousaphones...

[David Richoux]

Online Brass Muisician magazine but the rest of the front page looks OK!

[toobagrowl]

Very interesting
I had forgotten that Conn invented the sousaphone for Sousa.
I have and treasure an old King "Raincatcher" Eb souzy. I bought it not too long ago from a possible?? Tubenet poster. This raincatcher plays and sounds like a mix of tuba and sousaphone (round sousaphone body, upright 'tuba' bell). It is pretty cool to own and play on one of the original sousaphones. It's amazing that many of these 90+ year-old American tubas and souzys sound and play better than these expensive $10k+ tubas out today. These ancient horns just need some TLC and sometimes a little custom work to get them to optimal playing condition.

[toobagrowl]

^ Maybe that's why I forgot......because it was invented by Pepper: http://www.sousaphone.net/sousaphone-history.htm It's hard to keep up with all this mess when certain companies claim something. Maybe Conn has "conned" us all this time
Does anyone know anything about Keefer sousaphones? I believe they were also made in Philly.

[David Richoux]

Ian,

You should register at Wiki and edit that Sousaphone page - it is a mess! I have tried to make a few corrections here and there but I still cannot figure out what the original intent of the full entry was - are Sousaphones bad, good, silly, a waste of time, poorly made, OK, useless or desirable?

(and any "journalist," on-line or print that would use Wiki as a prime source for an article should be poked at, just a bit )

[imperialbari]

The page that the OP links to has some video samples. The first one has been discussed in this forum earlier. I wondered why the sousaphone row aligned so badly sideways, and one poster told this being a band combined of several Marine bands possibly without rehearsal. The disproportional large number of percussion may point in the same direction.

What is the name of the march they play? I know it, but forgot the name.

Klaus

[David Richoux]

The page that the OP links to has some video samples. The first one has been discussed in this forum earlier. I wondered why the sousaphone row aligned so badly sideways, and one poster told this being a band combined of several Marine bands possibly without rehearsal. The disproportional large number of percussion may point in the same direction.

What is the name of the march they play? I know it, but forgot the name.

Klaus

I recall from the announcers that the band was assembled from 6 western regional Marine Corps bands - the march is the "Marine Corps Hymn" (From The Halls of Montezuma, etc.)

[imperialbari]

From the very back of my memory comes a title somewhat like: Roll out the caissons.

Is that another march or another title for the same march?

Klaus

[David Richoux]

"As the Cassions go rolling along" is part of the early lyrics
to the US Army marching song.
The US military theme song that has changed lyrics the most is
The Air Force - I still prefer the Army Air Corps version.

All of the US military themes can be heard on their related websites, but finding sheet music for all of them is a bit trickier.

[imperialbari]

IMSLP67377-PMLP135617-Offenbach_-_Genevi__ve_de_Brabant_pno_vocal_score_Page_1.jpg

IMSLP67377-PMLP135617-Offenbach_-_Genevi__ve_de_Brabant_pno_vocal_score_Page_2.jpg

IMSLP67377-PMLP135617-Offenbach_-_Genevi__ve_de_Brabant_pno_vocal_score_Page_3.jpg

[imperialbari]

An old 1921 recording of Sousa’s arrangement of the U.S. Field Artillery march:


http://frontiers.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/ ... D+edison))