The Star and Stripes
Forever
Unknown band
1897
2:02
Chuck Klosterman recently wrote about John Philip Sousa, in
connection with his recent story, “Which Rock Star Will the Historians of the
Future Remember?”, published in the New York Times on May 23. I’d love to cut
and paste the entire swathe of his meditation on Sousa’s significance and his
place in popular culture – but there are copyright laws. Here’s a link – it’s
right at the beginning of the story.
In essence, he asserts that Sousa is synonymous with the
march, and stands for the entire genre in the public consciousness, the
certainty of there being many more composers of the same kind in the historical
records, or indeed thriving today. (You can imagine my surprise when, as a
child, I found out that living people wrote hymns, too. I thought they were all
whipped by Martin Luther with a guitar and some head arrangements about 500
years ago, and constituted the vocabulary of faith.)
“The Stars and Stripes Forever” is his emblematic work.
Klosterman rightly makes associations with this tune and national holidays, the
circus, and college football. This selection by the National Recording Registry
features the first known recording of the march, on one of Emile Berliner’s
disc recordings.
Sousa mastered a brisk, aggressive, yet decorous kind of
music fit for the birth of the American empire, which began with our Latin
American and Pacific interferences of the same era. These martial tunes, big bombastic
blasts of bravado, exude the stereotypical idea of “American-ness” – energetic,
optimistic, proud, naïve, and casually violent. His 4/4 rhythms incite the feet
to tap, or march heedless of the destination. Music as propaganda.
There was no triggering incident that brought “The Stars and Stripes Forever” into the spotlight. It’s simply memorable. Its clever play with dynamics, the variant themes, that nifty little piccolo obbligato, and the roller-coaster buildups, smashes, and swerves in the piece as inherently fascinating.
There was no triggering incident that brought “The Stars and Stripes Forever” into the spotlight. It’s simply memorable. Its clever play with dynamics, the variant themes, that nifty little piccolo obbligato, and the roller-coaster buildups, smashes, and swerves in the piece as inherently fascinating.
Klosterman includes the circus in the associations he has of
this tune, interestingly, it’s only heard at circuses, or theaters, when
tragedies strike. Known as the “Disaster March,” it’s only played when
life-threatening emergencies occur, as a signal to staff to help evacuate the
audience. Of course, any disaster is probably made worse by throwing a Sousa
march into the mix, but hey.
Of course, it’s the tune we hear when Popeye eats his
spinach, gains strength, and saves the day. And, of course, as kids we all
loved its variant, “Crazy Mixed Up Song,” aka “Be kind to your web-footed
friends . . . “ That’s the price of popularity. This tune has been butchered by
amateur bands more than any other, it’s been incorporated into countless
cultural and commercial enterprises. For better or worse, it’s our theme song.
The National Recording
Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in
the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Up next: Gypsy Love
Song.
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