Strictly Oompah: March 2017

Thursday, March 2, 2017

Not the original, but fun to see!

I stumbled upon a short film that was recently uploaded to youtube by the National Archives. It was produced around 1955 and features the director of the U. S. Marine Band, Lt. Col. William F. Santelmann, walking through through the history of that great ensemble.

What interested me the most, as you might imagine, is the appearance of what was thought to be the original Sousaphone, built by C. G. Conn.

The director mentions that, at that time, this historic instrument (although decidedly not the original Sousaphone, as I've clarified in this blog) was on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. I'm wondering if it is actually the horn that ended up at the Interlochen Center for the Arts, which I saw and played back in the summer of 2012:

Here's the full video, which is worth watching all the way through. But the reference to Sousa, and the Sousaphone, begins at around 15:55.

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)