Where else could our musical 4th of July end up but with John Philip Sousa's Stars and Stripes Forever? Here's Vladimir Horowitz playing his legendary piano transcription. Again, note the moderate tempo -- Horowitz believed that the piece was generally played too fast, thereby trivializing it.
JOHN PHILIP SOUSA: Semper Fidelis
Morton Gould and His Symphonic Band RCA/BMG, recorded October 1956
JOHN PHILIP SOUSA: The Washington Post
Band of H.M. Royal Marines, Lt. Col. G.A.C. Hoskins, cond. EMI, recorded February 1983
JOHN PHILIP SOUSA: The Thunderer
Eastman Wind Ensemble, Donald Hunsberger, cond. Kem-Disc, recorded c1981
JOHN PHILIP SOUSA: The Stars and Stripes Forever
With spoken introduction by JPSSousa Band, John Philip Sousa, cond. Radio performance, 1929 Concert Arts Symphonic Band, Felix Slatkin, cond. Capitol-EMI, recorded 1958
Which brings me to a record that has given me as much pleasure as any I've owned. It contains just under 39 minutes of music, which was kind of stingy even on LP. Still, it's just as well that in preparing a CD edition EMI didn't try to pad it out. The LP was about as close to perfect as they come.
The official title is The Military Band,with the subtitle "Salute to the Services" (I believe on LP it was "A Hi-Fi Salute . . ."), which I've always taken to refer to the suite of five marches at the start, which are preceded by "Reveille" and followed by "Taps." Actually, on the CD "Taps" comes at the end of the program; I've taken the liberty of shifting it to where it seems to me to belong: following the five marches (some more official than others) representing the five U.S. military services.
1. Reveille 2. SOUSA: The U.S. Field Artillery March (Army) 3. ZIMMERMAN: Anchors Aweigh (Navy) 4. MANCINI arr.: Marines on Parade 5. CRAWFORD: U.S. Air Force Song 6. VAN BOSKERCK: Semper Paratus (Coast Guard) 7. Taps
Concert Arts Symphonic Band, Felix Slatkin, cond. Capitol/EMI, recorded 1958
I kept going back and forth as to whether to make separate files of the individual pieces or to put them all in one "suite" file, and finally opted for the latter -- with some care, you can still pick out the individual pieces within the group file. I think they're more fun heard in one fell swoop, and the better you get to know them, the more fun they are. This is, by the way, more music that falls in the category of stuff I can, indeed have been known to, listen to over and over and over.
IT'S 4TH OF JULY WEEKEND, SO WHY NOT KICK OFF WITH SOME SUITABLY 4TH OF JULY MUSIC?
This is, I think, the best military-band march written by someone not named John Philip Sousa. In fact, it's better than all but the best of the Sousa marches. And I've got two nifty performances to share.
Alert readers will recognize that we've heard them before. It was in a May 2010 Sunday Classics post, "What stirs the blood better than a military march? This week courtesy of Mozart and Sousa." Well, we're hearing it again. (And now, with that first page of score in front of us, we can see right away that Felix Slatkin takes that first repeat while Morton Gould doesn't!)
Morton Gould and His Symphonic Band. RCA/BMG, recorded Oct. 17, 19, and 26, 1956 Concert Arts Symphonic Band, Felix Slatkin, cond. Capitol/EMI, recorded 1958
NOW, HOW ABOUT SOME HOLIDAY QUICK HITS? NOT EXACTLY NEWS STORIES, BUT NOT EXACTLY NOT
(1) You can't slip anything past that AP
President Sarkozy and now-former Finance Minister Lagarde, who for a brief, magical moment appeared irreplaceable
Now, with the New York sexual-assault case against forrmer IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn apparently near collapse, we're all wondering what exactly is the deal? There was always speculation that he was set up, maybe by people who wanted him out of the IMF (where he may have been thought not entirely on board enough with the fund's "austerity" mandate), maybe by people who didn't want him running against French President Nikolas Sarkozy in the 2012 election. If there's any chance that it was the latter, the principals may be disappointed. On yesterday's BBC World Service news, the correspondent in France was speculating that if charges against Dominique don't stick, he may be welcomed home as a martyr, with the possibility of a political future after all.
Meanwhile, there's no question that he's out of a job with the IMF, having already been replaced by French Foreign Minister Christine Lagarde. Which partially explains this teaser Wednesday morning's Washington Post's "Today's Headlines" e-newsletter:
France to name new finance minister after Lagarde chosen to head IMF PARIS — France is expected to name a new finance minister to replace Christine Lagarde, who is leaving to take up the top job at the International Monetary Fund next week. ( Associated Press Associated Press, AP)
(2) Geraldo's darkest day: "Humiliated and deeply embarrassed" -- all the way to the bank
Reflecting recently on "the recent press frenzy over Sarah Palin’s less-than-riveting gubernatorial e-mails," our pal Al Kamen ventured in his WaPo "In the Loop" column a week or two ago: "It was a great discredit to the trade, we’re told -- presuming we have any credit to dis."
It’s as if no one remembers the spectacular Geraldo Rivera “special” 25 years ago when he blew open Al Capone’s safe on live television, only to find a stop sign and two empty gin bottles inside. . . .
Rivera, in an interview 20 years after the event, said he was “humiliated and deeply embarrassed.” But then, he said, he found out the next morning that the show “was the highest rated syndicated special in television history.”
He’s still laughing -- all the way to the bank.
The day after that darkest day, it seems, the sun shone brightly.
(3) World's worst joke? Gotta be a contender
I've mentioned that at some point in the hazy past I must have signed up for this daily joke from Arcamax, which I usually don't even bother reading. (Mostly it's a pretext for dumping in a bunch of paid promotions that are fairly obnoxious, but not enough so to justify the possible ordeal of unsubscribing -- you never know what they're going to put you through.) I don't know why I happened to read this one the other day, but even before I got to the, er, punch line, I was thinking that I've heard a lot of jokes in my time, and a lot of real clunkers, but if I've ever heard a worse one, it's mercifully forgotten.
Naturally I felt an immediate need to share it. I've refrained till now.
Job Interview
An employment interviewer for a big company in New York was talking to an attractive young woman applying for a job. Looking over the application form, the interviewer noticed that the girl had not answered one important question concerning transportation to and from work.
"What about your bus line?" the interviewer asked her.
"I don't believe I mentioned it," came the pleased reply, "but it's a 36C."
Is that a killer joke, or what? I assume, by the way, that the "in New York" was stuck in in an attempt to lend some plausibility to the notion that a job-application form might ask for "bus line," but even if you can stretch your mind around the basic idea, wouldn't a New York application ask for subway line? Gosh, that would spoil the, er, joke, though, wouldn't it?
with the subtitle "Salute to the Services" (I believe on LP it was "A Hi-Fi Salute . . ."), which I've always taken to refer to the suite of five marches at the start, which are preceded by "Reveille" and followed by "Taps." Actually, on the CD "Taps" comes at the end of the program; I've taken the liberty of shifting it to where it seems to me to belong: following the five marches (some more official than others) representing the five U.S. military services.
