Sousa's Band, conducted by Herbert L. Clarke - The Free Lance (Sousa) (1906)

Описание: Sousa's Band, conducted by Herbert L. Clarke, plays 'The Free Lance,' recorded in Philadelphia on 9 April 1906 and transferred from Victor 35163.

From Wikipedia: John Philip Sousa (November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era known primarily for American military marches...

John Philip Sousa was born in Washington, D.C... His real music education began in 1861 or 1862 as a pupil of John Esputa Jr...under whom Sousa studied violin, piano, flute, several brass instruments, and singing... Sousa progressed very rapidly and was also found to have perfect pitch.

His father was a trombonist in the Marine Band, and he enlisted Sousa in the United States Marine Corps as an apprentice at age 13 to keep him from joining a circus band. In the same year, he began studying music under George Felix Benkert...

Sousa completed his apprenticeship in 1875 and began performing on the violin. He then joined a theatrical pit orchestra where he learned to conduct. He returned to the Marine Band as its head in 1880 and remained as its conductor until 1892. He led The President's Own Band under five presidents from Rutherford B. Hayes to Benjamin Harrison...

The marching brass bass or sousaphone is a modified helicon created in 1893 by Philadelphia instrument maker J. W. Pepper at Sousa's request, using several of his suggestions in its design... C.G. Conn recreated the instrument in 1898, and this was the model that Sousa preferred to use.

Sousa organized The Sousa Band the year that he left the Marine Band, and it toured from 1892 to 1931 and performed at 15,623 concerts, both in America and around the world, including at the World Exposition in Paris and at the Royal Albert Hall in London...

The Columbia Phonograph Company produced 60 recordings of the Marine Band conducted by Sousa which led to his national fame...

He died of heart failure at age 77 on March 6, 1932, in his room at the Abraham Lincoln Hotel in Reading, Pennsylvania. He had conducted a rehearsal of 'The Stars and Stripes Forever' the previous day with the Ringgold Band as its guest conductor. He is buried in Washington, D.C.'s Congressional Cemetery...