Just Because — Sousa’s own interpretation of Stars & Stripes Forever
Bookworm on Feb 10 2010 at 11:11 am | Filed under: Just Because Music
This is Sousa’s own band, under his direction. I find interesting how different his interpretation is from modern approaches, which tend to be brassier, crisper, faster, and a little more bombastic. This is almost relaxed compared to modern interpretations, with a stronger reed presence and less brass and percussion:
Just by way of comparison, here’s a modern interpretation:
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8 Responses to “Just Because — Sousa’s own interpretation of Stars & Stripes Forever”
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Guess I’m some kind of fuddy duddy but I like music straight up – as it was written. When I lived in Connecticut my late wife and I attended a number of performances by US military bands. They may be the very best musicians in the land, for a number reasons.
We attended one such performance in Ridgefield, CT with our closest friends. She had been a violist with The Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra. She was blown away by von Suppe’s “Light Cavalry Overture”. It was the first time she had heard it without a string section and pronounced it superb.
During the same performance we heard the “Flight of the Bumblebee” played on a tuba. Stunning. The man had played with the Boston Pops and entered the Army for financial security.
Here is my favorite rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ETrr-XHBjE
That’s lovely, roylofquist. This one of the San Francisco Boys Chorus, has poor audio quality (and the wind was buffeting them), but about halfway through, you suddenly get their lovely three part harmony, and you get to see how nicely boys can handle the high notes at the end. (Very un-Roseanne)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u5C9B-Sg8I
The boys get a little buried behind the girls’ more mature voices, but here’s another nice example of unadorned young voices in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1Qwbudfkl4
I am not a musician, nor am I a trained critic.
But.
I do have a little training in sound systems.
I wish there was a way to re-record Souza using the same equipment as was used in the second recording.
Because in the first I hear a limiter running, and I hear range limitations from the microphones of the day, intermodulation distortion (that is helped by multi-channel recording techniques) and so on.
I have always loved the brassy sound of the modern interpretations. Now all that has been ruined, thank you very much. The warm Sousa sound with the more vocal reeds is absolutely gorgeous. Of equal surprise was the sound of Sousa’s own voice. I’ve always heard Clifton Webb’s voice as Sousa. Even Sousa’s voice is warmer than I had thought.
When I was in Jr High Band my band leader was John J Heney, one of the last drummers in Sousa’s band. He was band leader in DeLand, Florida high school for 35 years.
A louder rendition to cover up for the insecurities of the modern state. It’s much tenser, in an almost metaphorical way for current life. But what was once tension appropriate for set battles or interpersonal honor has now devolved into every corner of every day life.
Disharmony is the order of the day, but being only for a day is also unstable and temporary.
Aaahh Y…
Sometimes music is just music…