Strictly Oompah: From ITEA article to documentary

Thursday, October 22, 2015

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).

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Sousa on the Sousaphone

"The Sousaphone received its name through a suggestion made by me to J. W. Pepper, the instrument manufacturer of Philadelphia, fully 30 odd years ago. At that time, the United States Marine Band of Washington, D. C., of which I was conductor, used a double B-flat bass tuba of circular form know as a 'Helicon.' It was all right enough for street-parade work, but its tone was apt to shoot ahead too prominently and explosively to suit me for concert performances, so I spoke to Mr. Pepper relative to constructing a bass instrument in which the bell would turn upwards and be adjustable for concert purposes. He built one, and grateful to me for the suggestion, called it a Sousaphone. It was immediately taken up by other instrument makers, and is today manufactured in its greatest degree of perfection by the C. G. Conn Company, of Elkhart, Ind." (John Philip Sousa, Christian Science Monitor, August 30, 1922, p. 8)