mad_scotty Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 (edited) John Phillip Sousa, on Theodore Thomas, America's first great symphony conductor: "He gave Wagner, Liszt and Tchaikowsky, in the belief that he was educating his public; I gave Wagner, Liszt and Tchaikowsky with the hope that I was entertaining my public." The rest of the article I got this quote from is available on The Wall Street Journal's Online Edition here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1218831117...us_inside_today Edited August 16, 2008 by mad_scotty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I play the baritone good Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 Exactly. "It's about music education." Music education for what? Aren't we all performers? TAKE THAT CAVALIERS, JOHN PHILLIP SOUSA THINKS YOU SUCK ... lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skajerk Posted August 17, 2008 Share Posted August 17, 2008 Though Sousa has surprisingly little to say about his own compositions in "Marching Along," he does offer a fascinating account of the genesis of "Stars and Stripes Forever," which he wrote in his head during a steamship voyage from Europe to America: "I began to sense the rhythmic beat of a band playing within my brain. It kept on ceaselessly, playing, playing, playing. . . I did not transfer a note of that music to paper while I was on the steamer, but when we reached shore, I set down the measures that my brain-band had been playing for me, and not a note of it has ever been changed." Wow! I think I'm going to have to some reading on Sousa, now. Everybody knows that John Philip Sousa wrote "Stars and Stripes Forever." OK, not everybody -- nowadays there are plenty of cultural illiterates who don't even know that Beethoven wrote the Fifth QFT! Reminds of the dolts who say "Oh yeah, I know that tune. It's the United Airlines song!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
megadrive Posted August 17, 2008 Share Posted August 17, 2008 QFT! Reminds of the dolts who say "Oh yeah, I know that tune. It's the United Airlines song!" Tell me about it, IT'S CALLED RHAPSODY IN BLUE, YOU ######! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stick Stack Posted August 17, 2008 Share Posted August 17, 2008 Exactly. "It's about music education." Music education for what? Aren't we all performers?TAKE THAT CAVALIERS, JOHN PHILLIP SOUSA THINKS YOU SUCK ... lol One word - Edutainment! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCIHasBeen Posted August 17, 2008 Share Posted August 17, 2008 One word - Edutainment! Okay -- slap, slap .... slap -- for the "Drumline" reference (It would have been a great movie if it wasn't about the cheesiest form of marching bands on the face of the planet.) Sousa also wrote light opera ... A piece called "The Freelance" comes to mind. We did it in college, and it was awful beyond the telling of it. So, why did we do it? "It had great educational value ..." ARGH! ... and Sousa wouldn't have thought the Cavaliers sucked (because, the didn't, under any criteria), but he would have probably wondered why they weren't using Sousaphones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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