Sousa's Marches - Tuba (Basses) parts

[MDORVAL]

Hi Colleague,
Does anybody knows where to get all the Sousa's Marches (only the tuba - Basses) parts? I found a couple OF web siteS but it is only for small books with about 10-15 Marches. Sousa's composed 136 Marches, so there should be a full book of it somewhere!! Thanks for any help from you folks,
MD

[PMeuph]

I don't think any one has compiled a book with all the marches. I might be wrong...

However this could be a nice undertaking...

Here are some places to start.

http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Sousa,_John_Philip

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/searc ... =titlesort

I haven't checked thoroughly, but I think that with both sites you should have close to all the Sousa marches.

[David Richoux]

The one place I know of is http://www.bandmusicpdf.org/library-notice.php - they have 18 PD folio size PDFs - you will have to pick them out of the pile. Most other Sousa compositions are still under international copyright held by Carl Fisher, so it will be harder to find reprints or collections.

[PMeuph]

Most other Sousa compositions are still under international copyright held by Carl Fisher, so it will be harder to find reprints or collections.

Are you sure there is still an international copyright?

Carl Fisher might hols a copy right to it's edition, but some version should be under public domain...

http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm

[David Richoux]

Well, I m not sure how much it might be enforced, but http://www.silverclefmusic.com/Sousa/listings.htm had this message:

IMPORTANT NOTICE: NO MORE ON-SITE DOWNLOADS of the SOUSA'S FAVORITE MARCH BOOK MARCHES.

On October 10, 2005, we received a polite letter from Mr. Kris Kazaka at Carl Fischer informing us that while these marches are indeed in the public domain in the U.S., they are still protected in some territories. Therefore, because the internet is an international medium, we have removed the PDFs of these marches from the Project Sousa site.

Please email us for more information.

Note: The Carl Fischer editions are still available, on march-sized music for about $15 each from some distributors, $25 from others. The Project Sousa editions have been enlarged to print on standard-size paper, but you must print them yourself. Bands with younger eyes should probably buy the march-sized editions. Older eyes may have trouble seeing these.

However the other site I mentioned does have PDF scans of 18 marches and conductor scores for some. Some are pretty funky looking.

[Dean E]

A researcher with a few days of time should visit the US Library of Congress and the University of Illinois at Urbana. I assume that both libraries would supply copies of specifically identified works, for their standard costs.

[DonShirer]

Most of them are available in midi form (usually marching band, not concert band arrangements) from

http://www.dws.org/sousa/works" target="_blank

Just open them with Sibelius or Finale to get parts.

[Uncle Markie]

Prior to 1923 is the cutoff current year for determining what's in the public domain.

Sousa had three basic publishers: Carl Fischer & Sons (who were reassigned the rights for the early marches), John Church (Theodore Presser now); and Sam Fox Publishing (1920s until Sousa's death in 1932).

If you look for them, many, but not all of Sousa's marches were published in quickstep-sized books. "Sousa's Favorite Marches" by Fischer, etc. I would start with that. There has been a great deal of "editing" of Sousa's output in the last few decades as publishers like to "freshen up" perennial sellers in their catalogs, plus many musicians and conductors (note I separate the groups) have prblems with the 5.5 x 7 inch format. Some of these editions are specious; the old parts are more practical for a wider assortment of bands. I suggest you stick with old editions, which may contain some engravers' mistakes (as music does today) - but by and large they are Sousa's notes - I've never heard of him using editors. The "kitchen sink" parts (e-flat and BBb tubas on the same staff; drums with both snare drum, bass drum & cymbals on the same part) worked fine for Sousa, and generations of bands after him of many different sizes.

Look around for this stuff on Ebay, and check with local band libraries.

IMHO the hardest Sousa march tuba part is "George Washington Bicentennial" - the dogfight is a real chops splitter - LOW and with some knucklebuster fingerings. Compared to the circus writers - King, Jewell, Alexander, Fillmore, Duble, English, Huffer, etc. the Sousa tuba parts look pretty tame.

Mark Heter

[Alex F]

Sometime during the last year or two, I obtained a set of the Sousa Marches used by the Detroit Concert Band. This is a packet of at least 75 marches (probably more, there is no index and I have not counted them) printed on high quality paper in landscape format. I purchased them from a lady in Arizona who was the long time executive assistant to the director of this once promininent but now defunct group. At that time, she told me she still had some tuba and euphonium part sets available. I received the contact from someone here on TN during discussion of a simiar thread, but can not seem to locate this now.

[Alex F]

I dug up this reply to the thread from last year (which I started). There's a contact in there. I don't know what, if anything, remains available, but it is worth a shot.

. . .

About 25 years ago, the Detroit Concert Band made parts of all the published Sousa Marches available for purchase. Since Leonard Smith is no longer alive, I didn't think there would any longer be any chance of purchasing them. However, I googled the DCB and with a few minutes searching, I found a contact that was current as of last October.
E-mail: deannabourn@yahoo.com" target="_blank. She is assisting Leonard Smith's longtime business manager in disposing of the DCB's inventory.

[Dan Schultz]

If you are just looking for 'fun stuff' to play ... the tuba parts for some Henry Filmore and Karl King marches are a bit more challenging.

[Alex C]

Here are Sousa marches in the LoC. You can find the parts in the pdf's.

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/searc ... =titlesort" target="_blank" target="_blank

It says there are 155 results.

[MDORVAL]

Thanks All,
I think I have all of them now !
Great support from all of you!
MD