That's an odd looking helicon bass!

For the first few years of the Sousa Band, which was before the first Sousaphone had been created, it appears that Herman Conrad played a helicon bass. For example, check out the upper right of this band photo from 1893:

Sousa's band in St. Louis in 1893 (courtesy of the U. S. Marine Band Library)

Sousa was not a fan of helicons, as he felt their sound in a concert band was too "violent." And this is exactly why he had asked J. W. Pepper, back in 1892, to create a new horn that would have a body like a helicon, but a larger bell that pointed straight up, like a tuba, so that the sound would "diffuse over the entire band like the frosting on a cake."

But it took a few years for that modified helicon bass to become a reality, and until that time, Conrad seems to have continued to play the old-style horn. For example, in one of the newspaper notices for the band for its early 1896 cross-country tour, we see that helicon right in the middle of the back row in the drawing:

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 9, 1896, p. 16

While this illustration was used to promote the previous year's stint at Manhattan Beach for Sousa's band (see the fine print in the ribbons at the lower left), it suggests that this was the standard look of the group. The bass section consisted of a helicon and a couple of tubas.

But for at least part of that early 1896 tour, as we now know, Conrad was playing the very first Sousaphone. And yet most people might have simply thought it was an odd-looking helicon, and maybe that's why it didn't create the stir that a huge new instrument should have. Further, perhaps it was not yet known that the modified helicon had a cool new name - a Sousaphone! That would have created a stir, don't you think?

Great concert, no mention of horn

Courtesy of the Library of Congress

The photograph featured a few posts below was taken at the second of two concerts the Sousa Band gave in Salt Lake City on March 6 and 7, 1896. But the first concert received an over-the-top review on page 8 of The Salt Lake Herald the next morning.

Noting that "A Tumult of Enthusiasm Greets the Bandmaster," here's some of what the review goes on to say:

There was a genuine musical love feast at the tabernacle last evening. Military men are indebted to John Philip Sousa for some soul-stirring marches; dancing society is indebted to him for his entrancing two steps; the whole world is indebted to him for Sousa's band. We acknowledge our part of the indebtedness, and render to him our heartfelt obligations for one of the most enchanting evenings ever passed.

It is doubtful if ever in its long history the tabernacle has known a more thoroughly popular night; it was emphatically the night of the masses; by that we do not mean it was given up to trashy music or trivial achievements, but it was pure music, not Algebraic sounds; it mingled the classic with the simple; it got down to the level of our souls and caused our foundations to tremble; it was a night when the audience took no note of the flight of time, but kept on demanding encores and double encores that almost taxed the patience of the most accommodating of conductors.

Sounds like it was an amazing night! And my, did they love Sousa, gushing that "as graceful as he is handsome, he excites a charm that everyone about him feels."

And the concert ended with a bang: "The big novelty of the night was the closing number, 'The Band Came Back,' a medley of popular tunes which introduced nearly every member of the band in solos, duetts or quartettes." This, of course, included Arthur Pryor, "the trombone virtuoso . . . an admirable performer on a difficult instrument."

But was the Sousaphone featured as well? Was it even noticed?! There is no mention of it in the article, and yet, given that it had been created only a handful of months earlier, this had to be the first time anyone in Salt Lake City had seen and heard the new instrument. Strange silence, unless . . . well, I'll address that in my next post!

From the same page as the article, promoting the concert later that day (March 7, 1896)

Why I thought it was never played

The one and only photo of the first Sousaphone,
or so I thought! (Courtesy of J. W. Pepper)

For my first ITEA Journal article, I found overwhelming evidence to settle the question of who made the first Sousaphone - it was J. W. Pepper in 1895. But what I wasn't able to find was any evidence that the horn had actually been played in Sousa's band. Pepper claimed that it was, but I wondered if perhaps he was anticipating something that never ended up happening. After all, . . .

• Why was I unable to find a single mention of the new instrument at that time outside of a few Pepper publications?
• Why did The Music Trade Review, over two years later, announce Conn's Sousaphone as if such a horn had never been seen before?
• Why did Herman Conrad, who we can assume was well-acquainted with Pepper's Sousaphone (that's the two of them above), rave about Conn's horn, calling it "perfect" and "best of all in good tune"? Did Pepper's prototype simply not cut it with the great bass player?
• Why was Sousa himself so ho-hum about Pepper instruments, giving them only a "satisfactory" rating (see his less-than-ringing endorsement below). Did that first Sousaphone not cut it with him either?
  
• Why was I unable to find a single photograph of Conrad and the historic instrument with Sousa's band, whether posing or in concert?
• Why, when the Pepper Sousaphone was found in 1973 (stay tuned for that amazing story!), was it unfinished, that is, raw brass? Would it have appeared in concert in that condition?

All of this suggested to me that perhaps the horn was never played in Sousa's peerless concert band, and that's what I speculated in my article. But all of that changes now with the historic photograph of the band - and the Pepper Sousaphone - in Salt Lake City on March 7, 1896!

I still have a hard time reconciling much of what I said above, but now we know that Pepper's horn was played with the band for at least part of one tour in early 1896. And perhaps the newspapers didn't ignore the new instrument entirely; perhaps I just haven't found a reference to it yet. It's significant that there is a hole in the Sousa Band Press Books from September 4, 1894 to June 13, 1896, which is where a relevant clipping or two might have been found!

A truly historic photograph (1896)

The whole story will have to wait for my follow-up article for the ITEA Journal (due to be published early next year), but this truly historic photograph was found recently at the archives of the International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers in Salt Lake City:

Photo courtesy of the ISDUP, and used with permission

What can be seen here, albeit at a considerable distance, is the Sousa Band in concert at the Tabernacle on March 7, 1896. There is no question about the date, as it is written on the back of the photo, and it squares with Sousa's itinerary for that year. Plus, the huge flag on the Tabernacle ceiling was only there from January 1896 until the summer of 1897.

From the Deseret Evening News, February 24, 1896, p. 11 (courtesy of the Library of Congress)

And I said this photograph is truly historic because it is now the earliest known image of Sousa and his band in concert! Here's a closer view of the band itself:

But look carefully. While movement in the band caused many of the members to be out of focus (Sousa himself is fully a blur), we can make out some of the instruments and their players. Most importantly, look right above the first chair clarinet. What we can barely see is a man with a mustache playing not a tuba (there is one of those to his left, and it is much smaller) but a Sousaphone. This would almost certainly have to be the horn built by J. W. Pepper the previous year (Conn's first Sousaphone wasn't introduced to the world until January 1898).

This is now proof that Pepper's historic horn - the very first Sousaphone ever built - was indeed "Used Daily in Sousa's Peerless Concert Band," just as Pepper had claimed. Prior to this photo being discovered a few months ago, I had been unable to find any evidence that this new instrument had been played under Sousa's baton. And there were a few clues that seemed to confirm the idea that it was perhaps never played in public at that time.

But that all changes now with this image - the one and only time (for now) that we see the original Sousaphone in action with Sousa's band!

Again, I'll share more of the story in my upcoming follow-up article in the ITEA Journal.

From ITEA article to documentary

The folks at J. W. Pepper have been wonderful to work with these past few years, and they have taken great interest in my research (no surprise there, as they have much to boast about now regarding the first Sousaphone!). This past summer they produced a 24-minute documentary on "The Birth of the Sousaphone." Along with an extensive interview with me, it features Steve Dillon and Matt Walters of Dillon Music in NJ, as they examined the historic instrument and got it ready to be played in concert (more on that later).

Publishing my findings - round one!

A lot has happened since I last posted here, and I felt it was time to get you up-to-speed on everything I've learned about the early history of the Sousaphone since we last "talked."

First of all, about a year ago now, at the encouragement of a friend, I reached out to Ben Pierce, the editor of the ITEA Journal to see if he might be interested in an article on this topic, and he was! That launched me into much more serious research (portions of which I will post on later), and resulted in the following article, published this past May (and showing just the first page):

Here's how I summed up my findings:

For years, confusion and even controversy swirled around the early history of the Sousaphone. But no longer. We can now say with confidence that Pepper, who received the idea from Sousa in 1892, built the first Sousaphone in 1895. But for some reason it quickly faded away, attracting very little public attention. The idea was then picked up by or delivered to Conn, whereby he was able to produce, in early 1898, the first Sousaphone that appears in use by Sousa's band. This horn went through a few modifications in its early years, and remained the sole Sousaphone in Sousa's bass section until 1915, when we see a second Sousaphone added for the first time. Then, from 1921 onward, the entire section consisted exclusively of Sousaphones.

One of the most important pieces of evidence for the Pepper horn being the first was mentioned in a previous post, but here is the actual scan of Pepper's Musical Times and Band Journal, vol. 13, no. 155, which came out in late 1895 or perhaps early 1896 and was graciously shared with me by collector and musician Don Johnson. First, the cover (and yes, this is the original color of the first and last pages!):

And now - drumroll, please! - here's what we find on page 24:

So the horn clearly existed in October 1895. But you'll note that it was the photographs of the Sousaphone that were "a great attraction," making me wonder if the horn was actually being played at that time in Sousa's band. And this, along with other clues, led me to speculate that perhaps Pepper's historic instrument was never featured under Sousa's baton. There was simply no evidence that it was - no mention in newspaper articles, as far as I could find, and no photographs showing the Pepper Sousaphone in action. That is, until now. There will need to be a follow up article!


Additional support for the first Sousaphone being built in 1895:

• Pepper's full-page announcement points to 1895 
• The new horn goes on tour with Sousa in early 1896
• At least one newspaper reports on the new horn
• Pepper's horn is mentioned in The Dominant in July 1896
• Clues from a Pepper journal in early 1896
• Clues from the engraving of Sousa on the bell