Simmering about Sousa

Jun 17, 2024 07:23

As certain Sousa marches have their copyrights expire, they've come into the public domain. I've noticed that we have gotten several redone marches in band this summer. They're put out by the Marine Corps and have been labeled "in the public domain" with whatever year they became available. There have been some slight changes to some of them, but one, Liberty Bell, was so different I honestly wondered if I was playing a mislabeled oboe part. I've been playing this march for decades, probably about 30 years. I've been playing what I thought was the original Sousa part all this time, so to get this piece of music that is so vastly different has been uncomfortable, to be truthful.

Before Thursday's concert, I went up to ADB and asked him about it; I figured he'd be pretty knowledgeable. What he told me was that publishers published what they thought was correct, but Sousa wanted what his band played to be theirs and theirs alone--he didn't want anyone else to sound like his group. Therefore, the only way you could hear the legitimate Sousa version was to go out and listen to them play live. It sounds like the Marine Band had all the original manuscripts and such, and then put out the true versions once able. I think it's pretty wild how different these songs can be. Since I have other copies of them, I've been pulling out what were my original versions to compare and contrast them--not that I've actually taken the time to do that as of yet, but in case there was some other sort of explanation. I do feel better after talking to ADB, though.

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