The Sousa Band

They didn't have their music memorized and they were mostly in step. There were color guard and dancers along with a pit, trombones, trumpets, clarinets, flutes, piccolos, saxophones and sousaphones.

In Paris, the Sousa Band marched through the streets including the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe – one of only eight parades the band marched in over its forty years.

When the question is brought up, “What does band mean to you?” I immediately think of the responsibility, hard work, and dedication and band has given me the chance to learn and strengthen. In addition to these life skills are many others, such as leadership, teamwork, and friendship. The Force has made more than just a difference in my high school career, it has impacted my life and has provided me with skills that will follow me throughout my life. Band means to supporting each other as we work through the hard times and grow closer as a family. Band means working hard and taking on responsibility for yourself. It also means being dependable, that people can count on you and your ability to achieve the unthinkable.

So he decided to start his own band called The Sousa Band. John didn’t really know what type of band he wanted to be so he looked at a lot of different types. From the article The First American Superstar : The Sousa Band, it says that “ Sousa thought about the kinds of bands that were popular at the time: Brass bands, military bands…..and symphony orchestras. Then he combined all of the things that he liked about each type, to form his new Sousa Band.One newspaper called it “a military orchestra” because it had instruments of a military band, but

General Lee once remarked, “Without music, there would have been no army” (Kehoe). The New York Herald concurred with Lee in 1862 when a reporter wrote, “All history proves that music is as indispensable to warfare as money; and money has been called the sinews of war. Music is the soul of Mars...” (Bowman). It is evident from these quotes the important role music played in helping soldiers from both armies cope during the war. The Civil War would have been immensely different without the considerable influence that music had on both the Union and Confederate armies. Music played a significant role in motivating soldiers to overcome their hardships in both the Union and the Confederate armies by entertaining and comforting, bringing back memories of home and family, and strengthening the bonds between comrades and helping forge new bonds.

Jelly Roll Morton was one of the greatest most talented mans to play the pianist at the tempo he plays it’s at. After sitting and listening to for an hour and a half I realized what a great pianist was. I was exotic when I heard him playing; it was nothing to do but flow with the music after hearing it. It really lit a fire under me to actually enjoy music with a nice pitch and a definite tone.

  Comments: Question 2. Question : These small instrumental ensembles were used as military bands in the Revolutionary War:

When J.J. Johnson was 11 years old, his mother, Nina, sent him to piano lessons, and he briefly played the baritone saxophone at school.  At the age of 14, J.J. Johnson’s classmates wanted to be in a band and needed a trombone player, so he took the opportunity and never looked back. Johnson and his friends were really enjoying the concept melody solos from the tenor saxophonist, Lester Young, and he was also drawn to the Trombone work of Dickie Wells. Therefore, around 1941 and 1942, J.J Johnson joined two bands called Clarence Love’s Regional Touring Band and Snookum Russell’s Band. Johnson then received a suggestion to join the band of Saxophonist Benny Carter for an extended tour, so the spring of 1945, Johnson worked with Carter’s band as a trombonist and a staff manager.

The strings were the most important; first violins had the melody, along with clarinet melodic solos, while the lower strings accompanied. The brass filled out the harmony, but did not play the main melody. Timpani were used for rhythmic bite and emphasis.

The Philadelphia Harmonica Band was famous for their military-style uniforms and manners. The uniforms and harmonicas were payed for out of Hoxie's own pocket. Children as young as five years old joined the band and learned to play the harmonica.

Watching Louis Armstrong’s live performance in Berlin during the year 1965 was a pleasure, especially because I am a great fan of his music. Throughout the concert in Berlin, Armstrong and his chamber orchestra played 13 different pieces. With the exception of Jewel Woods’ entrance on vocals for two songs, the makeup of the chamber orchestra did not change throughout the concert. As a result, the cello, clarinet, drums, piano, trombone, and trumpet remained vital parts of each song throughout the concert.

Marching band was one of the most difficult/challenging activity systems that I have ever done in my life. But at the same time it was an inspirational and motivating aspect of my life. The very first thing it taught me was the definition of hard work. This was because I spent hundreds of hours to my dedication and devotion to band marching around the field in the hot sun every day. Even though there were times when I wanted to quit; one such instance was when we were out performed by another school, other times it was becuase of the teacher being a little too hard on me when I first started. Despite setbacks such as these, I had an ardent attraction to marching band, mainly because in middle school I was a part of concert band, which made me love music. The biggest, reason why I chose to do marching band, aside from my enjoyment of music, was because towards the end of my eighth grade year my middle school band director told us about a huge opportunity that we had coming up to become a part of the high school across the street marching band. They were called the Titan Regiment. She told us the difference between concert and

Mr. Bethel from childhood to about eighteen years old had always aspired to become a world renowned musician. When he made it to high school, he played the trumpet within the Charleston High School band. Although he played with a band, the passion of music did not begin here. Music became interesting for him as a small child. On about every Friday night, he and his family would go to a near neighbor’s house to watch a fight. At the end of these broadcasts, the United States flag would wave across the screen and in the background there would be an orchestra playing. Mr. Bethel mentioned, “I always wanted to be a background musician, playing in an orchestra”.

He was the one of the first successful artists to carefully execute the “New Orleans polyphony”, which is when a trumpet, the clarinet and trombone are playing three different melodies at the same time (Burns). After a four year run with his band, he began to travel by himself, making himself a solo musician in order to compete with the new found popularity of artists such as Louis Armstrong and Duke

As the leader of the band Sousa was very busy with his work.He chose the music the music for band.John’s band was made up of diffrent unique instermements.Also Sosusa had to write the music that the musicans could adapt.He also had to