When Naxos get the right collaborator and the bit
between their teeth you are guaranteed that they will stay the course
… marathon or not. So it is with Sousa. This site has been reviewing
their Sousa discs since the early days though it is a very long time
since I last applied myself to the task. Here we are again in the safe
but not routine hands of Keith Brion.
The disc is not exactly over-packed but there is plenty of interest.
The
Sound Off March (1885) injects marching pace oompah but also
a bitter battle skirl suited to US Marines.
Right Forward (1881)
and
Right-Left (1883) marches are out of the same mould though
rather more bland than
Sound Off. The 1883 march even sports
several shouts of “Right-Left” from the band.
Peaches
and Cream - Foxtrot (1924) shares Sound Off’s opulent confident
oompah with the March but otherwise floats along as befits Sousa having
watched his granddaughter at a dance. Feminine subject matter is a loose
titular link for the
Transit of Venus March which marks the moment
when Venus passes between the earth and the sun, becoming visible while
casting a small shadow on the sun seen in 1874 and 1882. It’s
another struttingly self-possessed march. The
Marching Through Georgia
- Patrol (1891) is based on Henry Clay Work’s 1865 civil war
song, written to commemorate William Tecumseh Sherman’s Union
Army
March to the Sea. This time a little less of the oompah
DNA - the catchy song and a freight load of inventive little touches,
some of them
ppp,
make this a little winner.
We know from earlier volumes that Sousa was not just a denizen of the
parade ground:
Maidens Three - Suite is a fragrant little light
music triptych. The central
The Summer Girl sounds like the music
to a high-wire act but, as Keith Brion relates in the liner-note, is
a re-titled version of Sousa’s
Electric Ballet music from
his operetta
Chris and the Wonderful Lamp. Sousa was a great
fan of G&S as you might surmise from the
Mikado March (1885)
which includes a medley of standards from the opera all tied up in Sousa’s
trademark ribbons and bows. He could also turn his hand to funeral pomp
grandeur as he did for the dark and somewhat Beethovenian march
The
Honored Dead (1876) used for the final rites in 1885 of President
Ulysses S. Grant. The
Marquette University March (1924) is out
of Sousa’s standard confident chapbook and will not disappoint
the faithful.
The Revival March (1876) is much earlier and is
another example of a march using a popular tune - in this case the Sally
Army hymn
In the Sweet Bye and Bye. Sousa wrote a fair few musicals
or light operas of which two successes were
El Capitan and
The
Charlatan. After these came the Aladdin-based,
Chris and the
Wonderful Lamp but did not take. Sousa quickly recycled its material
into various marches and suites. The Suite -
Leaves From My Notebook
(1923) is dedicated to the Campfire Girls of America. Like
Maidens
Three and
Peaches and Cream, a lighter female hand is at
work. This is even apparent in the confiding innocent chumminess of
Campfire Girls and - sign of the times -
The Lively Flapper.
The latter perhaps also a souvenir of his granddaughter’s dancing
days?
The Swedish band has the manner off to a tee though given three days
of rehearsal this was probably won at the expense of considerable graft.
The notes are all you could reasonably ask and the sound is excellent.
Rob Barnett
Reviews
of the Naxos Sousa Wind Band series on MusicWeb International
Jeremy Siepmann
interviews
Keith Brion about Sousa
