Conn really was the first - sort of

To this day, Conn claims to have created the first Sousaphone, but we have determined in numerous posts below that this is simply not the case. That honor belongs to J. W. Pepper, as Sousa himself declared.

However, as historian Margaret Downie Banks clarifies, Conn really was the first - that is, the first to build a "commercially available bell-up 'raincatcher' sousaphone." Pepper's horn, built around 1894-96, apparently never went into production, but Conn took orders early on for his four-valve "Monster Sousaphone," first built in 1898. By April 1900 there were ten of those horns being played in bands.

Two years later, Conn had come up with a slightly smaller, three-valve Sousaphone, which is seen for the first time in this advertisement in the December 1902 edition of C. G. Conn's Truth (vol. 5, no. 4, p. 27):

Image courtesy of Mark Overton at saxophone.org

This design was apparently a winner, for it remained unchanged at least through 1910 - with Conn even using the exact same photograph in his advertisement that year (and, presumably, all years in between):

Image courtesy of Mark Overton at saxophone.org

A few of the horns from this era can still be seen today. For example, the National Music Museum, in Vermillian, SD, owns one with the serial number 84672, which places it around 1904 (this Sousaphone is currently on loan to the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, CA):

Photo taken by author

And the wonderful people at the Sousa Archives at the University of Illinois graciously sent me this photo of their oldest Conn "raincatcher," serial number 99845, which dates it around 1907 (could it perhaps have been used very early on in the Marching Illini Band?):

Photo courtesy of the Sousa Archives

By 1916, if not a bit earlier, even Sousa added one of these smaller, three-valve Sousaphones to his bass section, as can be seen on the far right of this photo (C. G. Conn's Musical Truth, April 1916, vol.9, no. 19, p. 30):

Image courtesy of Mark Overton at saxophone.org

And, interestingly, this basic Sousaphone design by Conn - with the exception of the bell direction - remains to this day, over one hundred years later, as the Conn 20K, which can be purchased for about $7,000 (roughly the same value as the original cost of $175 back in 1902, although one might rightly argue that the horn is less well-made now than it was all those years ago when Conn instruments were admired throughout the world).

Happy Birthday, Mr. Sousa!

While today is election day, it is also John Philip Sousa's 158th birthday, as he was born on November 6, 1854. Here is what the namesake of the Sousaphone looked like right about when the first Sousaphone was created by J. W. Pepper (1894-96):

Photo courtesy of the Sousa Archives

But since it is indeed election day here in the U. S., let me also include this photo of the Marine Band, led by Sousa, marching in the inaugural parade for President Grover Cleveland in 1885 (dress those ranks, boys!):

Sousa led this Band, which is known to this day as "The President's Own," from 1880 to 1892, serving under five Presidents - Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland, and Harrison. Who will be our President after today? Make sure you vote!

The key to winning the election

With election day coming up in a few days, this is a good time to share that one U. S. President actually played the Sousaphone - Warren G. Harding, our 29th President (1921-23, having died in office). Here he is reportedly at the Republican Convention in 1920:

And here is the New York Times article, dated June 18, 1920, that talks about Harding's background as a tuba player. Note the last paragraph, which states, "one of the first men to congratulate him on his nomination was John Philip Sousa":

Was ist das? Ein Sousaphone?

A handful of posts ago, I wrote about Sousa's first European tour in 1900, and mentioned that I had not yet come across any reaction on the part of Europeans to that crazy new instrument called a "Sousaphone." But now I'm making some progress.

I have found that in The Music Trade Review dated June 23, 1900 (vol. 30, no. 25, p. 20), there is a brief article on "Sousa in Berlin" that mentions "the German Times, a weekly newspaper printed in English and circlulating throughout . . . the European continent." In it, Sousa's success in Berlin is confirmed, but there is no specific word about the Sousaphone.

But then I found the following translated quote from the paper Nachrichten, published in Dresden, dated June 16, 1900, and appearing in C. G. Conn's Glimpses of Wonders and Scenes of Their Creation, which came out in 1902:

The tone color of the Sousa Band differs materially from that produced by German brass bands, due to its visible difference in constitution. This is most marked in the case of the brass instruents which give out a softer and less blaring tone than is heard from our German musicans. Mr. Sousa is himself a skillful designer of instruments, and is - for instance - the inventor of the monster helicon, which is named after him, the "Sousaphone." To this better equipment and to the masterly art with which the musicians control and subdue the volume of sound at their leader's behest, is due satisfying tone moderation of the orchestra. The result is that it is possible to listen with delight to the band's performance of compositions usually played only by string orchestra.

Further, in the May 18, 1900 edition of L'Express, published in Liege, Belgium, the reporter simply says, "The cornets are clear, the tubas are enormous."

And in LePetit Bieu on that same day, published in Bruxelles, we find this hilarious comment: "The background bristles with huge transatlantic smoke stacks which could easily swallow the musician or musicians entrusted with their operation." I assume that is a reference to the bass section, which included Conn's "Monster Sousaphone"!

I hope to come across more references in the future, but this is enough to confirm that the Sousaphone indeed caught the interest and admiration of Europeans in 1900.

But before leaving this topic (for now), I was shocked to see the following photo, posted by someone on the tuba forum website "TubeNet":

This is supposedly showing a "Czech Brass Band in Russia (end of 19.c.)," but check out the back row. Could it be that Europe actually had something close to a Sousaphone before Sousa arrived in 1900?

Marching with a Sousaphone

It is a surprise to most people that the Sousaphone was created, at John Philip Sousa's request in 1892, not for use as a marching instrument, but for use in Sousa's concert band. But it wasn't too long before we hear of Sousaphones on the march.

In fact, a few posts below, we learned that one of the earliest Conn Sousaphones, built in 1899 for the A. O. U. W. Military Band in Cedar Falls, Iowa, was used in in the Grand Army parade at Philadelphia on September 5th of that year. This may very well be the earliest reference to someone marching with a Sousaphone.

While I have not been able to find a photo of that horn in the parade, here is what the festivities looked like that day in Philly:

Photo courtesy of the Library Company of Philadelphia

A little over three weeks later, we find the Sousa Band marching in a parade in New York, celebrating Admiral Dewey's victory in the Spanish-American War. The first Conn Sousaphone, built in 1898 and dubbed the "Monster," can be seen in the front row, on the far left:

Photo courtesy of the Sousas Archives

Sousa's Band rarely marched, but here they are again - this time in 1916 in New York - with the Sousaphone right up front, on the left, once more:


Photo courtesy of the Sousa Archives

Today, the only context in which most of us ever see a Sousaphone is a marching band - whether in a parade, or, more likely, on a football field. For example, here is "The Spirit of Troy," the USC Trojan Marching Band, marching in the 1980 Rose Parade (and I am one of those 16 Sousaphonists; later that day, our team beat the Buckeyes 17-16):

 

 

When it comes to marching at a football game, it appears that the Notre Dame Band may have been the first to do so, although the University of Illinois Band, to which Sousa himself had ties, is also claimed to be the first - as well as the first college band to use Sousaphones.

The Marching Illini Band is also said to be the first "to spell words and perform intricate maneuvers while playing," doing do in 1910. But three years earlier, the Purdue Band began forming the letter "P" on the field, as shown - something they continue to do today.

 

Here's a closer look at the bass section, consisting of three Sousaphones (all "raincatchers," as this was 1907) and five Helicons:

 

But when it comes to Sousaphones in college marching bands, there is no tradition more well-known than dotting the "i" in the script Ohio. However, the truth is, it was the University of Michigan marching band who first performed the script Ohio in 1932 (gasp!), while the Ohio State Band didn't adopt the formation until 1936. And - get this - it wasn't a Sousaphone at first that dotted the "i" at Ohio State, but rather a trumpet player (look closely - that's clearly not a Sousaphone):


A Sousaphone was used four games later, and then, in 1938, the Sousaphone player began to perform his characteristic turn and bow. But, hey - what do I care?! The only letters I want to see a marching band form on the football field are these:

Photo taken by my little brother in 2007 - that would be me poking my head in

The Cedar Falls, Iowa, horn today

The Sousaphone featured in the post below, built in 1899 and identified as one of the first ten horns to come out of the Conn factory, can still be seen today - and in the same town in which it was first played! Here is the bass section of the band in Cedar Falls in 1902, showing that horn:

All photos courtesy of Mark Welty of the Cedar Falls Municipal Band

Now fast-forward 110 years. Hanging on the wall of the Iowa Band Museum in Cedar Falls today are five old Sousaphones:

The Conn four-valve "raincatcher" on the far left has a very old serial number, 62238, as well as a rather unusual, but very familiar, valve section. Here's a close up of that horn:

And here's a close-up of just the valve section, first in the photo from 1902, and then in the photo from today:

They appear identical, with the exception that the main tuning slide is longer in the photo today. Between the almost identical look, and the fact that they share Cedar Falls in common (even after all these years), it is highly likely that it is the same Sousaphone.

But add to that what is engraved on the bell:

While it is hard to make out on this photo, the word "Sousaphone" appears in large letters toward the rim of the bell, which seems to be a big deal ("That's a 'Sousaphone'? I've never seen one of those before!"). But below that is written "C. G. Conn, Elkhart, Ind. New York."

As Dr. Margaret Downie Banks of the National Music Museum, and an expert on Conn history, clarifies, "Instruments made between 1897-1902 usually bear both the Elkhart, Indiana, and New York factory designations" (online source). This further reinforces 1899 as the likely year the Sousaphone was built.

Until the original "Monster Sousaphone" of 1898 shows up somewhere (and I hope it does!), this horn in Iowa seems to be the oldest surviving Sousaphone built by Conn.

For more on this historic horn, click here.

[Many thanks to Ian Church for first making me aware of this horn at the Iowa Band Musuem.]

By April 1900, ten Sousaphones

In the April 1900 edition of C. G. Conn's Truth (vol. 4, no. 8, p. 29), we find the following article and photo:

Image courtesy of  Mark Overton at saxophone.org

Here we learn that "There are now ten Wonder Sousaphones used in America," and that "the number will be more than doubled before the political campaign opens" (I love it! That's what our presidential campaigns need today - more Sousaphones!).

The horn pictured here is one of those ten Sousaphones - although not the first or second one, as the posts below clarify. It was purchased by the Ancient Order of United Workers Military Band of Cedar Falls, Iowa, and played by B. K. Kilborne (shown with the horn), who helped establish that band, and even directed it from 1891-92.

Kilborne's letter to Conn, seen at the bottom part of the article above, and dated February 5, 1900, has him praising the instrument, saying that "it is quite as easily filled as the ordinary Eb bass and possesses a pipe organ tone of great power and brilliancy. It is a wonder and admiration of all who see it."

He then states that "We used it in the Grand Army parade at Philadelphia last September [the 5th, to be exact], and it was listed by the Press as one of the striking hits and incidents of the big parade." This tells us that the horn was built sometime in 1899, prior to September 5th.

Here's a closer and clearer look at this Sousaphone, showing Kilborne in 1902, when the band had become known as Fitzgerald's Concert Band:


Photo courtesy of Mark Welty of the Cedar Falls Municipal Band

You'll notice two things about the horn in this photo and in the earlier one above: First, the bell is being pointed a bit forward, rather than straight up, which is something we haven't yet encountered; and, second, the valve section is completely different from both versions we see of the original Conn Sousaphone, built in 1898.

Apparently, Conn was still trying out different configurations as it relates to the tubing, in order to improve the tone and intonation of his "monster four-valve Sousaphone."

Conn's second monster Sousaphone

On page six of the January 4, 1899 edition of the Portsmouth (Ohio) Daily Times, we read this:

Accessed online by the author

Given the date of the article, we can now say with confidence that the first Conn Souspahone was built no later than 1898, and the second was most likely delivered sometime the following year.

But did these two horns look identical? We don't know at this point, as I have yet to come across a photo of Prof. Dupere's prized possession. Nor have I been able to learn much about the Prof. himself - other than that he was perhaps at one time the band director at the Lima (Ohio) Central High School, and director of the Methodist Sunday School Orchestra around 1912.

Paul Bierley, in his outstanding resource, The Incredible Band of John Philip Sousa, even speculates that Dupere may have served with Sousa at one time (p. 247).

An interesting question might be where Dupere got the $250 to purchase the second Sousaphone built by Conn, which put himself on the cutting edge of band instrumentation at the turn of the century. One resource for calculating relative cost suggests that $250 in 1899 would amount to spending about $7,000 today!

And before leaving this post, did you notice that the article mentions the Sousaphone "in use in Sousa's band by Conrad"? It would seem that Conrad had become a bit of a "rock star" at that time, being casually referred to by his last name only, as if everyone would, of course, know who was being talked about. Who says that playing the Sousaphone isn't cool?!

Image courtesy of Mark Overton at saxophone.org

Where did the first Monster go?

The last time Conn's first Sousaphone is seen, at least in my research up to this point, is in this photo from the November 1913 edition of C. G. Conn's Musical Truth (vol. 9, no. 13):


Image courtesy of Mark Overton at saxophone.org

 As we will see in future posts, this is not the Sousaphone that Richardson normally played in Sousa's Band, but looks very much like the one built in 1898 (shown below; note the valve section in particular).

Could it be that when Richardson visited the Conn factory to secure his new horn, as noted in the article above, that he found the very first Sousaphone there, and decided to try it on for size, having his photo snapped in the process?

The question is, where is that "Monster Sousaphone" now?

Do you have to be big and tall?

You may have noticed in a couple of the posts below that Herman Conrad, the very first Sousaphonist, was a rather tall man - 6 feet 6 inches, according to the Pittsburg Post article dated September 17, 1899; and 6 feet 4 inches, according to the Illustrated Mail article dated October 12, 1901 (not sure how he lost those two inches).

On the information sheet that accompanies what is (wrongly) claimed to be "The Original Sousaphone" up at the Interlochen Center for the Arts (more on that horn later), Conrad is said to have been "a six-foot eight-inch giant"! He was flexible, if nothing else, it seems.

It is interesting, however, that a number of very tall men followed in Conrad's footsteps. Jack W. Richardson, who was a Sousaphonist with Sousa's Band from 1903 to 1931, was of similar height:

Source: John Philip Sousa, Marching Along, p. 350A

Curiously, Richardson's sub for the 1911 world tour, Arthur L. Griswold, was nicknamed "Shorty" (note typo in article below) - perhaps because he was a mere 6 feet 2 inches tall!

Image courtesy of Mark Overton at saxophone.org
Source: C. G. Conn's Musical Truth, October 1911 (vol. 9, no. 10)

Then, in a January 1924 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle, William Bell, perhaps the most famous tubist to come out of Sousa's Band, is said to have been 6 feet 6 inches himself:

But I'm not so sure that the reporter didn't mix up Bell and Richardson. Here's a photo of the Sousaphone section for Sousa's 1923-24  tour, with Bell on the far right, and Richardson next to him:

Source: Paul Bierley, The Incredible Band of John Philip Sousa, p. 56

They don't both look 6 feet 6 inches to me! Plus, the two on the far left are positively short, so I guess being big and tall was not a requirement to play the Sousaphone (good news for me - I am but 5 feet 8 inches tall).

Conn's Monsters invade Europe

When the announcement of Conn's new instrument, "The Sousaphone," appeared in the January 22, 1898 edition of The Music Trade Review, it explained that "It will be a feature of Sousa's band during the forthcoming European tour."

That tour didn't launch until April 30, 1900, but before they set sail, Conn, who expected to wow Europe with his instruments (which he generously donated to the band for that very purpose!), explained that "The bass section is magnificent, comprising the great Conn Sousaphone, played by Mr. Herman Conrad, the monster American Model and Wonder Double Bb Basses, played by Messrs. Helleberg, Seavey and Del Negro" (C. G. Conn's Truth, April 1900, vol. 4, no. 8, p.17).

Here is the band at the Paris Exposition, either in May or July of that year. The Sousaphone and tubas can be seen in the upper right:


Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress

And here is the band in late May or early June, in Hamburg, Germany:

Photo courtesy of Paul Bierley, John Philip Sousa: American Phenomenon, p. 11

Getting a closer look at the Sousaphone in that photo, we can see that it appears to be the same "upgraded" version shown a few posts below. The valve section matches, and there is even the hint of the "Sousa" engraving on the bell:

Upon returning from this tour in September, many of the prominent members of Sousa's Band sent a letter to Conn declaring the superiority of his instruments. Conn, of course, loved it, and posted the letter in his December 1900 Truth magazine (vol. 4, no. 10), adding that his "Wonder Instruments shone in magnificent splendor to the surprise and admiration of the musicians of the old world."

I have yet to come across any of that "surprise and admiration" in my research - at least from that tour. But a year later, from October 4 through December 13, 1901, Sousa and his Band toured England and Scotland, and the trip caught the attention of London's Illustrated Mail. Here's their article, dated October 12, 1901:


Image courtesy of the Bodleian Library at Oxford University

At one point, they state that "The instruments used in the band include several never seen in an English musical combination. For instance, there is the 'sousaphone,' an immense wind instrument weighing 33lb. It is a modification of the helicon bass, and was invented by Mr. Sousa. It requires a strong man to play it, and Mr. Sousa found him in Mr. Herman Conrad, an ex-German soldier, who stands 6ft. 4in."

Conrad is then featured in a photo, emphasizing his height. But notice that the horn, once again, matches the modified version that Conn built in 1898:

And speaking of 1899 . . .

I'm assuming this circus poster was tongue-in-cheek, but the Library of Congress has the image posted online, and dates it from 1899. And I'm also assuming those are Helicons being "played" by the elephants (including left-handed versions!), as bell front Sousaphones didn't come along until 1908.

But this reminds me - have you seen this seemingly prophetic book cover from the 1930s? Bobo the Elephant playing a Sousaphone (or is that a bell front tuba)? The famous tuba master Roger Bobo was born in 1938. Hmmm . . . could there have been an influence?!