Re: Old World vs. Sousa

[Joshua Horowitz <horowitz...>]

Tom,

thanks for the wonderful, fascinating  insights into Sousa!! I've often
wondered what effect Sousa had on the development of the 
*military band* orchestration and style of the early klez orchestras and
also what happened during the European tours that Sousa made at the turn
of the century. Apparently they swept Europe like wildfire. Do you have
any ideas about that? Josh

>     I recently heard a set of recordings of the Sousa Band one made during
> the "mechanical period" the other made after the advent of microphones. The
> arrangement, Hands Across the Sea, was the same arrangement used in both
> recordings. The sounds of these two recordings is so very different, not only
> in the how it sounds, but in what you are capable of hearing. Almost all of
> the middle lines, low clarinets, sax counter lines disappear in the
> "mechanical" recordings. So do the quieter instruments like the Flutes, harp
> and the cellos (Sousa liked the cello in unison with saxophone). It became so
> frustrating to Sousa, trying to get the "real" sound of his band on the early
> recordings, that he started changing his arrangements. 3 flute parts, gone,
> replaced with 2 unison Piccolos, 1st &2nd Bassoon, bass clarinet, tenor sax,
> all different parts, now a unison line. Cornet parts, many of the counter
> lines to the clarinet melodies, now either gone or made the melodies on
> repeated sections. So I believe that the medium did change the message that
> Sousa was trying to deliver. However once the microphones came into play, he
> was back to the original arrangements that were played on tour.
>     So what does this have to do with early klezmer recordings? I believe it
> changed the instrumentation of the "recording" ensemble. Violin, can't hear
> it, gone. Clarinet picks up really well, that's the new lead instrument.
> Cymbolon, sounded nice with violin, can't hear it with the clarinet, lets use
> piano instead. If counter lines were used on gigs, I would bet a lot of them
> were left off recordings. I would love to hear any examples that members of
> the list might have of Tarras, Brandwein and others have that straddle this
> recording period.  My thought is though, I bet the performances didn't change
> that much, this was how people were used to hearing this music.
> 
> The other aspect of these recordings has to be how they were going to be
> marketed. Being a musician, and having recorded, I have a hard time believing
> that some A&R guy in an early record company saying "Dave Tarras is a
> national treasure, I believe we should record him for posterity." We all know
> it must have been more like," Hey I heard this amazing clarinetist the other
> day, the audience loved him, I think he could make us some serious money!" In
> which case who needs all that other "stuff" on the disc.

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