The herald., 1897-10-24

SUNDAY, OCTOBER "a, 1897.
NATIONAL MUSIC

The readers of The Herald-many of
them-had the pleasure some months
ago of listening to the music of John
Philip Sousa. This brilliant young
American has already won reputation
in a specific line of musical composition
rivaling any of his contemporaries. ma
tive or foreign, and not surpassed even
by the great maestros of Germany Il
self This is especially true of his
marches, in regard to which he has
lutionized march music. Rupert
Hughes, the talented musical critic, tells
us of the words of Wagner touching
the waltzes Of Strauss: "One Strauss
waltz overshadows in respect to anima-
ton. finesse and real musical worth most
OF the mechanical, borrowed, factory
made products of the present time"
This, he says, may. with equal
justice be applied to Mr.. Sou
sas marches. There is probably, in
Mr.. Hughes opirion, no composer of
military music in the world with popu
larity equal to that of Sousa
In England it would seem that our
countryman has captured the fancy of
thai stolid and rather non-musical ma
ton AT the queens jubilee. we are
told. that that inspiring production of
his genius, "The Washington Post
March was the music of the occasion.
Says Mr. Hughes: When the queen
stepped forth to begin the grand re-
view of the troops the combined bands
of the royal household brigade struck up
"The Washington POST
This was certainly a graceful com
pliment to the United States, as well as
a well-merited recognition of American
genius. Another of Sousa's marches is
Liberty Bell the very name of which
Seems to revive revolutionary memo
ries A fact connected with this last
named production proves that Mr..
Sousa's musical triumphs are not mere
barren smiles of fortune 1t is said
Post" march outright for s35, his Lib
erty Bell' march has brought him $35,
600 He sold it to eighteen thousand
bands in the United States alone! After
this who will dare to say we are not a
music-loving people? Eighteen thous
and bands! Why this, in the making of
noise at least, surpasses the music of
the spheres.
Mr.. Hughes in explaining the secret or
the popularity Of Sousas marches, the
reason for the Overwhelming appeal
to the hearts of a planet which they
make, says that the music is conceived
in spirit Of high martial zsst; that ''it
Is proud and gay and fierce. thrilled ana
thrilling with triumph" and yet, like
all great music, it is made up of simple
elem snts woven together by strong
personality. "It is not difficult now" he
goes on to say, ''to writ some thing that
sounds more or less like a Sousa marcn
any more than it is difficult to write par
odies, serious or otherwise on Bee
thoven, Mozart or Chopin. The glory OF
Mr. Sousa is that he was the first tn
WTlte AZ tulS Styte, tHdt lie mas Hiduv
himself style; that he has SO stirred the
musical world that countless limitations
have sprung up after him."
Mr.. Sousa was born in Washington, D
c., in 1859, of Spanih- German parent
age. Hence, he is still but a young man
whose future. Judging from his early
success, is full Of Unreasonable possi-
bilities. The American people have rea-
son not only to be proud of but to be
grateful to this gifted son of the sol
for his Invaluable contributions to