Sousa in 1900
US Postage, Issue of 1940
Sousa and his newly formed civilian band (1893)
Sousa in 1900, by Elmer Chickering
Order of Public Instruction (Portugal)
Sousa in 1900
US Postage, Issue of 1940
Sousa and his newly formed civilian band (1893)
Sousa in 1900, by Elmer Chickering
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Sousa was born on November 6, 1854, in Washington, D.C., the third of ten children of João António de Sousa (John Anthony Sousa), who was of Portuguese and Spanish ancestry, and his wife Maria Elisabeth Trinkhaus, who was of Hessian ancestry.
Sousa started his music education by playing the violin as a pupil of John Esputa and George Felix Benkert for harmony and musical composition at the age of six. He was found to have absolute pitch. During his childhood, Sousa studied voice, violin, piano, flute, cornet, baritone horn, trombone, and alto horn.
When Sousa was 13, his father enlisted him in the United States Marine Band as an apprentice to keep him from joining a circus band. In 1874 he left the orchestra, but continued to perform as a violinist, including at home concerts with US Assistant Secretary of State William Hunter. After a brief collaboration with several Washington theaters as a conductor in 1876, Sousa went to Philadelphia, where he took part in the celebrations on the occasion of the centenary of the United States. The orchestra collected for this occasion was invited to lead Jacques Offenbach, and Sousa played the first violin in it.
His work in Philadelphia continued: he performed with concerts and wrote music for theatrical productions. Among his works of this time are arrangements of several operettas by Gilbert and Sullivan, including one of the most popular ones - "Frigate Pinafor," for which Sousa wrote a new orchestration, highly appreciated by the authors themselves. One of these performances in 1880 was attended by the commandant of the Marine Corps, Charles Grymes McCawley. Learning that the music, which he really liked, arranged and performed by his former orchestra player, he wished to meet with him at dinner, and for a short time he offered him the post of conductor of the Marine Corps Orchestra, which was then in poor shape. For twelve years of work with this collective Sousa brought it to the top of brass bands in America. He actively participated in expanding the repertoire of the orchestra, arranging for him classical works and composing new original music (mostly marches).
The 1880s was the time of the beginning of the popularity of Sousa as a composer: his first major success in the genre of the operetta was "Desire" (1883), and Gladiator (1886) won great popularity among the marches. In 1890-1892 Sousa, along with the orchestra, conducted major tours around the USA. By this time he began had a strong sense of that his position as a serviceman of the neofitser rank, contrasted sharply with his fame and popularity, and prevents him from developing further as a conductor and composer. Therefore, he accepted the offer of patron of David Blakely to organize his own orchestra and resigned from military service. The new collective, known simply as the "Orchestra of Susa", from the first season of its existence with great success performed throughout the country, in 1900 - at the World Exhibition in Paris, in 1900-1905 - in European countries, and in 1910-1911 held a world tour. In the 1890s, the peak of popularity of the operetta Sousa, among which - "Captain" (El Capitan, 1895). The saturated concert life of the orchestra was interrupted only in 1914, with the outbreak of the World War I, and after that resumed again. Only in 1929, after the beginning of the Great Depression, the number of concerts was reduced, and the last performances of the orchestra took place in September 1931. In the 1920s, in addition to the management of the orchestra, Sousa dealt with the problems of music education and participated in the jury of competitions.
He died in 1932 from a heart attack in Reading, Pennsylvania, shortly after rehearsal with a local brass band. He was buried in the cemetery of Congress in Washington.
The most famous part of the creative heritage of Sousa was the march for the brass band, he owns 136 works in this genre. In 1987, an act of Congress named "The Stars and Stripes Forever" as the National March of the United States. It was composed by Sousa.
He was decorated with the palms of the Order of Public Instruction of Portugal. During World War II, the Liberty ship SS John Philip Sousa was named after him. The ship's bell is still used by the Marine Band in concert.
Sousa has a star in his honor at 1500 Vine Street on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In 1976, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Great Americans. In 1998, he was inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The band hall of the Marine Band was dedicated as "John Philip Sousa Band Hall."
Quotations:
"America can well expect to develop a goodly amount of composers for she has a goodly number of people."
"American teachers have one indisputable advantage over foreign ones; they understand the American temperament and can judge its unevenness, its lights and its shadows."
"Any composer who is gloriously conscious that he is a composer must believe that he receives his inspiration from a source higher than himself."
"Anybody can write music of a sort. But touching the public heart is quite another thing."
"From childhood I was passionately fond of music and wanted to be a musician. I have no recollection of any real desire ever to be anything else."
"Governmental aid is a drawback rather than an assistance, as, although it may facilitate in the routine of artistic production, it is an impediment to the development of true artistic genius."
On December 30, 1879, Sousa married Jane van Middlesworth Bellis (1862-1944). They had three children: John Philip, Jr. (April 1, 1881 - May 18, 1937), Jane Priscilla (August 7, 1882 - October 28, 1958), and Helen (January 21, 1887 - October 14, 1975).
