12-3-01 JOHN PHILIP SOUSA John Philip Sousa was born in 1854, the third child of ten. He was born in Washington, D. C. His parents were immigrants.
John Antonio Sousa was his dad. He was originally from Spain, even though his parents were Portugese in origin. His mom, Maria Elisabeth Trinkhaus came to America from Bavaria. John was a talented youngster. At the tender age of 6 he was studying music. He learned to play many types of instruments; the violin, piano, cornet, alto horn, flute, baritone.
Like his father, who played the trombone in the U. S. Marines Band, John, too, learned to play the trombone. John also spent time studying voice. John was a rather mischevious teen. At the age of 13 John tried to run away to join the circus.
Dad was not all that impressed with John and made him enlist in the Marines. While in the service he published ‘Moonlight on the Potomac Waltzes’. That was his first published composition and the beginning of a very successful career. After spending 8 years in the Marines, he was discharged. John found the love of his life in 1879. Jane van Middle worth Bellis became Mrs.
John Philip Sousa that year. Together they travelled to Europe four times. On one voyage back, John was inspired to write the ‘Stars and Stripes Forever’. Three of their trips to Europe were for performances, another trip was as a vacation. While they were on vacation Sousa’s promoter, David Blakely died. In 1892 John named his band ‘Sousa’s New Marine Band’.
The Essay on And The Band Played On By Randy Shilts
And the band played on is a true story published in 1987 that illustrates the AIDS epidemic. The AIDS outbreak started in this book around the 1970’s and is still around in today’s society. Randy Shilts wrote this book in order to show the many errors that occurred and killed while trying to find what this virus was and how it was spread. Many people during this time were affected by this virus ...
Needless to say, Washington was not pleased with the name and Sousa had to rename his band. He had a couple of great tours with the Marine Band but was convinced to go into the civilian sector to create another band. As stated earlier, Sousa was a prolific writer. He wrote 135 songs and conducted many, many more. His most memorable song was ‘Stars and Stripes Forever’. It is song that many children remember by singing ‘ be kind to your web-footed friends…
.’ . In his lengthy career he conducted over 100 operettas, 11 suites, and 2 concert pieces. Not a man to sit on the sidelines for long. Sousa joined the Naval Reserves at the ripe old age of 62. He sure was not in it for money. He went in as a lieutenant and only made a buck a month.
It was only World War I. Sousa’s music seemed to inspire patriotic behavior. One often hears more of his talent around the Fourth of July. Sousa died in 1932. He was 77 years old and the last thing he conducted was the ‘Stars and Stripes Forever’. How very appropriate that Sousa’s last piece was the ‘Stars and Stripes Forever’.
It was the song that made him a legend and an inspiration for so many generations. There is nothing like the sound of the band marching in a Fourth of July parade down Main Street USA. The cymbals clanging, the drums pounding out the heartbeats of every onlooker. The little kids marching in time with sticks bouncing up and down like batons.
Sousa gave so much in his music. It was his life, in every way. Today there are bands trying to keep Sousa’s music alive. The ‘New Sousa Band’ was begun in 1979.
They do it the right way. The same style of uniforms, right down to the brass buttons. Very little has changed in the performance of their music which is why they are sanctioned by the heirs of John Sousa. The University of Illinois still maintains the John Philip Sousa Archives. The archives are the place a Sousa devotee can go to learn even more about this great music maker.
