170 PART 2 | FROM THE CIVIL WAR THROUGH WORLD WAR I
steps and thirds—in circular, undulating melodic shapes that avoid the tonic
pitch, A fl at. A touch of syncopation and the largest interval yet, a descend-
ing fi fth, mark the halfway point (bars 14–16). The second half begins like the
fi rst, but the range continues to widen. The tonic A fl at is heard for the fi rst
time at bar 24, and having avoided it for so long, Sousa now fi nds two ways
to emphasize it. First, he sets it at the top of an octave leap (bars 26–27), the
melody’s largest interval. Second, after holding that high note for more than
a bar, he invents a new, fast-moving motive centered on the tonic and moving
in disjunct motion—with more leaps—to bring the tune to a resolute close in a
rush of activity.
Sousa follows the trio with a break strain that is virtuosic for the lower brass,
unusually active in rhythm and harmony, and without a hint of tunefulness—
strongly contrasting with the trio’s lyric mood. When the trio returns, it sounds
all the more fresh with the addition of a new countermelody in the piccolo sec-
tion. After the break strain is heard again, the trio tune returns once more,
this time with percussion in full cry and a new low-register trombone counter-
melody to balance the piccolos on top. The Stars and Stripes Forever goes out with
the band’s full artillery blazing: a deft blend of lyric melody, historical reference
(the piccolo sound recalls fi fes), and military clamor.
With Sousa’s marches among the varied pieces in their repertories, both
amateur and professional bands fl ourished at the turn of the century. Amateur
bands included lodge bands, industrial bands, ethnic bands (German, Italian,
African American, even American Indian bands), children’s bands, and insti-
tutional bands, including prison groups. Around 1913 the young Louis Arm-
strong was playing cornet in a reform school band in New Orleans. Professional
groups included not only military and concert bands like Sousa’s but also cir-
cus bands and even family bands that toured on entertainment circuits. New
Hampshire–born Helen May Butler, a violinist and cornetist, organized and led
a professional Ladies Military Band during the century’s early years. The band’s
concert performances between 1900 and 1913 include 203 appearances in Bos-
ton, 110 in Buffalo, 126 in St. Louis, and 130 in Charleston. Presenting “music for
the American people, by American composers, played by American girls,” But-
ler and her musicians bucked stereotypes of the time by showing that women
could endure the hardships of touring life and please enough paying customers
to survive in the music business.SOUSA AND RECORDED MUSIC
Thomas A. Edison invented the phonograph in 1877. By 1890 bands were begin-
ning to make recordings, and Sousa, as the leader of two famous bands, took
part. By mid-1892 he had conducted the U.S. Marine Band in more than two
hundred recordings, and the Sousa band made more than four times that many
between 1897 and the early 1920s. Yet Sousa disliked the phonograph and con-
ducted very few of his own band’s recordings. As an artist-businessman, he faced
a choice: should he block the band from recording altogether, or should he use
the medium to keep the band’s name before the public? In choosing the sec-
ond course, Sousa recognized the power of recordings to attract audiences to his
concerts. He quelled his own doubts by turning the band’s recording sessions
over to other conductors, chiefl y band members.amateur and
professional bands172028_07_162-182_r3_ko.indd 170 23/01/13 10:19 AM