The Wind Band and the March

At the end of the nineteenth century, professional wind bands made the march a mass music of public parks.

Related

ModernMarchCornetSousaphone

At the end of the nineteenth century, professional wind bands made the march a mass music of parks and expositions.

Time and place

The United States and Europe, 1850 to 1900. Gilmore's band played at post-war gatherings, and Sousa formed his own band in 1892 before touring Europe and beyond. The band wore uniforms, travelled by special train and played twice a day; parks, expositions and station squares were the venues, with listeners standing rather than buying expensive seats. Instrument makers improved cornets and saxhorns for band use, and the sousaphone wrapped the bass around the shoulder for marching.

What happened

A professional band was built from cornets, trombones, clarinets, saxhorns, sousaphone and percussion, loud enough for an open field. It also took benefit concerts, funerals and campaign rallies, with fees settled by the engagement. It played marches and also transcriptions of symphonies and opera excerpts, so a city without an orchestra could still hear the repertory; audiences often knew the tune before the original. Sousa wrote dozens of marches whose shape settled into an introduction, two strains, a trio, a break strain and a return, all within a few minutes. Scores appeared as piano reductions and parts, and amateur bands rehearsed from them.

What changed

The wind band became the most popular musical institution, and free park concerts let people hear orchestral classics without entering a concert hall. The march became part of civic ritual, setting the pace at school ceremonies, parades and sports days. Band instrumentation later entered school ensembles and jazz big bands, and the sound of cornet and sousaphone became the background of the American city. The bandmaster was also a manager, running touring and publishing as one business, while instrument makers and music shops expanded with him.

Listen for the turn

Begin with The Stars and Stripes Forever, its trio first stating the tune in the low register, then adding countermelody before the break strain and full band return. Then The Washington Post, in duple time with clipped phrase ends, written for a newspaper's essay contest and functional to the core. Finally King Cotton, its trio more lyrical yet still moving with a dance-like pulse. The library holds piano reductions, so listen for phrase shape and bass motion, then imagine cornets and saxophones doubling the same line. Before the turn, wind music sounded at court tables and in army camps; afterwards it faced a whole city.

Related

The turn belongs to Modern, with the genre at March and the band's colours at Cornet and Sousaphone.

Sources

• Grove Music Online 的 Band 条目，用于核对职业管乐团与苏萨乐队的活动
• Richard Franko Goldman, The Wind Band（Allyn and Bacon），用于核对管乐团编制与曲目

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.