Strictly Oompah: Hark! The Brass Herald angels sing

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Hark! The Brass Herald angels sing

Pulled this out of my mailbox yesterday, straight from the UK . . .

A few months back, Steve Dillon encouraged me to send my ITEA Journal article on the early history of the Sousaphone to Philip Biggs, editor of The Brass Herald, to see if they might be interested in re-printing it. And here it is - an early Christmas present!

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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)