Happy birthday, John Philip Sousa!

Today, we celebrate the 160th anniversary of John Philip Sousa's birth!

A picture of John Philip Sousa from this Chicago Tribune article (which contains more biographical information)

John Philip Sousa was a very famous American composer who is known as the March King since he wrote so many marches. One of his marches, "Stars and Stripes Forever," was voted by the United States Congress to be the official national march of the United States of America! He also led his own band, and he conducted about 14,000 (yes, that's 14 thousand) concerts throughout his life!

His father played trombone in the United States Marine Band, so Sousa was surrounded by music as a child. He began learning several different instruments at a young age. When he was 13, he tried running away to join a circus band. After that, his dad signed him up as a band helper for the U.S. Marine Band. He stayed with the Marine Band until he was 20, then came back at the age of 25 to conduct The President's Own (the premier military band in the country, as well as the oldest continually active professional musical organization in America since they began in 1798). Throughout his 12 years with The President's Own, Sousa continued to compose, took the group on a couple tours, and recorded with the group. Phonographs were a relatively new invention, and Colombia Phonograph Company wanted to record a military band and sell the recordings. Between 1890 and 1897, The President's Own recorded more than 400 pieces of music.

Phonograph from 1899

In 1892, Sousa resigned and started his own band. They toured the world from 1900 to 1910. After World War I (1914-1918), the Sousa Band continued touring and championing the right of music education for all children (PBS). Sousa wasn't only a skilled musician, though - he kept busy in other ways as well. In addition to the 136 marches and 10 operas that he composed, he also wrote 3 novels and an autobiography.

For more information about John Philip Sousa, check out PBS's page on him. You can also check out this public radio article (with audio interview with the director of the New Sousa Band).

In the meantime, I'll leave you with this video of The President's Own performing "Stars and Stripes Forever."

DRUM CARD OPPORTUNITY: Using your own words, email me the most interesting thing you learned from this blog post or the links within it. (Don't just copy and paste.)

Happy birthday, Adolphe Sax!

Today, we celebrate the 200th anniversary of Adolphe Sax's birth!

Adolphe Sax, picture from http://www.famousbelgians.net/sax.htm (which has more biographical information)

Adolphe Sax was the inventor of the saxophone. He was born in Belgium on November 6, 1814. His father was an instrument maker, so Adolphe grew up helping his dad. Adolphe helped make improvements to the bass clarinet before inventing his own family of instruments called the saxhorns (pictured below - spoiler alert: they don't look anything like saxophones). After that, he invented the saxophone.

The saxhorn family. There's a band in Michigan (that a few of my friends have played in) that dresses up in old-time clothes and plays saxhorns. http://www.dodworth.org

If you would like to listen to examples of different saxhorns and saxophones, click on this link to listen to a short NPR interview about Adolphe Sax's birthday!

DRUM CARD OPPORTUNITY: Using your own words, email me the most interesting thing you learned from this blog post or the links within it. (Don't just copy and paste.)