John Philip SOUSA (1854-1932)
Music For Wind Band - Volume 16
The Irish Dragoon-Circus Galop (1915) [1:36]
I’ve Made My Plans For The Summer (1907) [2:48]
The Charlatan- Operetta: Selections (1898) [21:52]
Pushing On- March Song (1918) [1:09]
Tyrolienne (c.1880-1882) [4:00]
The Irish Dragoon- Overture (1915) [4:32]
The Star Spangled Banner, arr, Sousa/Damrosch (1918) [1:34]
Homeward Bound- March (c. 1885) [2:35]
On the Tramp- March (1879) [2:11]
Wedding March (1918) [6:37]
The Triumph of Time- March (1885) [2:32]
Marine Band of the Royal Netherlands Navy/Keith Brion
rec. 2013, Royal Netherlands Marine Corps Base at Van Ghentkazerne, Rotterdam
NAXOS 8.559746 [51:27]
John Philip Sousa was a prolific music composer and conductor, best known for his American military marches. During his career he composed 136 marches, 11 waltzes, 15 operettas, 20 band fantasies, and 70 songs. Among his many other achievements, he led the world’s greatest band and toured for 40 years, wrote seven books and was a champion trap shooter. This album presents a variety of his compositions, performed by the Marine Band of the Royal Netherlands Navy, with Keith Brion conducting (reviews of other releases in this series).
The Irish Dragoon is a three-act operetta, written in 1915 but never produced. This fine arrangement for the Overture presents several numbers, starting and ending with a rousing march led by the brass section performing driving rhythmic triplets in unison. Circus Galop is a short and lively march in three parts, led off with a trumpet fanfare and followed by the full band joining in, punctuated by trilling clarinets. In 1907 Sousa wrote I’ve Made My Plans For The Summer as a young lady’s humorous reply to a wedding proposal. The lyrics go on to explain that she might reconsider in the fall, after she spends summer at the amusement park at New York’s Coney Island. The lovely waltz is highlighted by a playful melody performed by solo cornetist Sergeant Major John Curfs. In 1814 Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics to The Star Spangled Banner and it was later set to music. In 1918 Walter Damrosch provided new harmonization and Sousa re-arranged the song for his band. In 1931 it officially became the national anthem of the United States, and is beautifully performed on this album.
The longest piece on this disc is Selections from The Charlatan, an operetta in three acts. Written in 1898, the operetta was known in London as The Mystical Miss. The arrangement is nearly 22 minutes in length long and features a number of choice tunes from the original 24 songs, varying in style and tempo. The shortest number on this album is Pushing On, an old-fashioned march composed in 1918 to lyrics by Guy F. Lee, intended to invigorate the public and boost war-time morale. Sousa wrote Tyrolienne around 1892 and patterned it after the French folk melodies of the same name. The band performs this lovely piece in quick triple meter time and it features outstanding solos and counter-melodies by cornetists Sergeant Monique de Rooij and Sergeant Major John Curfs, and a beautiful light and floating clarinet solo by WO1 Fons Klesman.
Bruce McCollum
