At the Rotary Bandstand: The Original Hobo Band of Pitman plays John Philip Sousa

John Philip Sousa (1854-1932), the "March King," has always been a favorite of mine. After years of playing his marches in bands, I can tell you that his clarinet parts are always challenging, but also interesting. I usually found myself playing second clarinet which means I was surrounded by clarinets as we played, the firsts playing the really high filigree parts and the thirds chugging away underneath. What I am used to hearing from the second clarinet section is quite different from the blend of instruments the audience hears. This is true for most music, but especially for Sousa's marches. There is a lot going on in there, and each player experiences a different sonic fabric during performance.

I got to experience the audience point of view/sound the other evening at Cape May's Rotary Park Bandstand (known as the Gazebo to most of us). As concert dress, I've been required to wear all black, black and white, band uniforms, school-issue crested green blazers, and evening gowns, but I've never gotten to dress like a hobo (on purpose). Musicians in The Original Hobo Band from Pitman, New Jersey, (since 1946), wear patches on their mismatched clothes and funny hats--what fun. The concert was fun, too, in the American wind-band tradition with an emphasis on military themes. Listeners there to hear the concert bring lawn chairs or sit on the park's benches. These concerts run all summer and turn Rotary Park into Cape May's living room for an hour or so. I watched as the cheerful music lured shoppers and others exploring the town into the park to listen. It's an impossibly cute situation in the 21st century: musicians dressed as hobos playing All-American music on real instruments in an old-fashioned gazebo bandstand in a historic Victorian town. It is not uncommon to see toddlers conducting and octogenarians dancing.

From my chair in Rotary Park

We heard some popular music, selections from "Grease" and a tribute to Rodgers and Hammerstein. I enjoyed those way more than I'd normally admit. What I really enjoyed were the marches, "El Capitan" and the "Congress Hall March" by John Philip Sousa, a non-Sousa march curiously titled "The Women Marines' March" and another by a composer billed as R.B. Hall. I know the Sousas very well, but they were like new to me listening to them from the audience. I bet you didn't know John Philip Sousa composed other kinds of music including fifteen operettas! One of these is titled El Capitan. The march "El Capitan" from 1896 is based on two themes from that operetta. The "Congress Hall" march was inspired by John Philip Sousa's visits to Cape May. The Original Hobo Band director did his homework: he explained that JPS used to lead his band in concerts on the lawn of the popular historic hotel a few blocks away and hundreds attended!

Cape May's Congress Hall: My best shots of it are from Christmas

Sousa composed a total of 136 marches and was a band director for 52 (fifty-two!) years. He conducted (and perfected!) the esteemed U.S. Marine Band in Washington, DC, for twelve (1880-1892), and then his own band from 1892 until his death (in Reading, PA--I have a few friends from Reading who would want you to know that) in 1932. He toured the world with his bands, especially the John Philip Sousa Band, and was known for saying his goal was to entertain his audiences rather than to educate them.

Here's a potpourri of other stuff you may not have known about JPS and marches:

• He started his musical career as a violinist--bands are violin-less.
• His father signed him up as an apprentice with the U.S. Marine Band so that he wouldn't join a circus band instead.
• As its conductor, he standardized the instrumentation of the Marine Band: 26 woodwinds, 20 brass, three percussion.
• Ironically, Sousa's band didn't march. They sat to play all of those marches.
• He composed 15 operettas, 70 songs, and lots of other music intended for band, along with 136 marches.
• His most famous march of all is "Stars and Stripes Forever." (You knew that.)
• He believed that "canned music" (he made up that term for recorded music) was a menace to society.
• With Victor Herbert, he started ASCAP, a performance licensing organization that still exists today to protects composers' interests when others perform their works. Spelled-out, it is the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.
• Marches are made up of melodic sections called strains which are usually 16 or 32 measures long, and each of these is repeated at least once. Strains played by fewer instruments and softer than the others, is called the trio. A contrasting break section is more dramatic and percussive. 
• The form of "Stars and Stripes Forever":
• first strain
• first strain again
• second strain
• second strain again
• trio (third strain)
• break
• trio (with prominent piccolo countermelody)
• another break
• trio (with prominent trombone/tuba countermelody)

Thanks, Hobo Band of Pitman, for inspiring me to think about John Philip Sousa!

Here's one last photo of the Gazebo, this time decked-out for Christmas.