I suggested count to 30 while humming a Sousa march, like Stars and Stripes Forever.
She said why and who is Sousa?
In disbelief she listened to me count off 30 seconds while she looked at her phone.
I suggested she look up Sousa on her phone later.
![Surprised :o](./images/smilies/icon_e_surprised.gif)
Sousa also wrote and directed operatic music.BGuttman wrote: ↑Thu May 30, 2019 2:24 pm Sousa is as contemporary as Haydn or Bruckner. He didn't write anything for electric quartet (lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass guitar, drums).
In his day many of the pieces we know him for were dance music. A dance called the One-Step that was popular a century ago. It was also popular as circus music at that time.
People who hear a Sousa march usually recognize it for what it is, but they don't often go seek that kind of music.
It's their loss.
I know he wrote operettas (in the same general style as Gilbert and Sullivan); did he write any actual operas?
I don't recall. I guess it's time to watch it again!
I watched Stars and Stripes Forever last night; I still enjoy it as a very pleasant movie. "Humiliates" might not be the best description for the interaction between Sousa and the auditioning cornet player. There was a point to be made and a portrayal to be expanded in that scene.
The role of our wind band is to be the warm up act for the 3rd rate country singer that the local radio station brings in for the annual July 4th shin dig. We get our biggest audience of the year for that gig.timothy42b wrote: ↑Thu May 30, 2019 2:11 pm
The role of a wind ensemble in US society is................................change of command ceremony for a general every three years. That's pretty much it. That, and to be a hobby for old farts like me.
When I was in high school, they were trying to revamp gym classes away from traditional organized sports teams into "life sports."
You are dating yourself in this thread, Bruce. All parades have bands (or just recordings) on trailers playing music. Not hard at all to get a small generator that makes almost no noise and power the band for a trip through all but the biggest of cities.BGuttman wrote: ↑Tue Jun 04, 2019 8:42 am Marching bands add a lot to a parade. Try marching with a bunch of electronics in tow. Not as easy.
Also, we have adopted wind ensembles in our school systems. Unfortunately, most of the kids who play in them put the horn in the closet (or sell it on Ebay) as soon as school is over.
Pianos are a somewhat special case. Electronic keyboards have pretty much taken over the bottom end of the home market, and digital pianos have made a serious dent in the the mid-range. Of course, buying an acoustic piano off of Craigslist is a crap shoot, anyway. Even if it looks nice, it may have been neglected to the point that putting it back in good working order will be cost-prohibitive - if it possible at all.dxhall wrote: ↑Sun Jun 23, 2019 5:42 pmTo get a real life sense of this, go to the musical instruments section of your local craigslist and look for pianos for sale. There are usually decent pianos on my local list that are offered for free - with no takers. Yet not that long ago, every middle class household had a piano or pump organ in the living room.