Impressions of Sousa.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7755, 6 March 1905, Page 3

Impressions of Sousa.

The London correspondent of the Dunedin Star writes :—" What colonial has not heard of Sousa, the great and only Sousa. His exhilarating , slap-dash, up-guards'-and-afc-'em marches reverberate on every graraaphotfe from Port Darwin to the Bluff. So it was with a feeling of i interest and expeectancy that I eh'tered the Queen's Hall the other 'evenings and awaited the advent of | the mubh-booined American. London lin general, however, has evidently lost inteest in Sousa and his band, for only the cheapest seats were filled. In/the 3s, ss, and 7s parts of the house the visitors' had for audience long rows of empty 'benches. The prices, in fact, were considerably, out of proportion to the desire of the public to hear the band ; and I find it hard, to forgive the management for extracting threepence for the extremely slender sheet called by courtesy a programme. .As for the great man himself, he is just like the picture on all his music, plus an air of portentous gravity, and a figure inclining to corpulency. One had heard much of his mannerisms as a conductor, but he was much quieter in his methods than I ex'pected. It was only in the purely American pjecies that he gave full play to the mannerisms ; but whet he did they were certainly bizarre. Sousa seems to become infected with . the rhythmic swing of the music, and sways hands and arms in sympathy. His favourite action strongly resembles a dumb-bell exercise, both arms working smartly backwards and forwards, up and down. Then his •body will sway to the right as he gathers in a bass theme with a , sweep of the baton, or his left hand will curve round in a. series of jerks to punctuate the notes of the corjnet lead. One moment he is coaxing J a cadenza from the piccolos with ' beckoning finger, and the next Wo is , ' hurling mighty blows into the air in the direction of the big drum. JThen both arms will drop to his 1 sides, and the baton beats gently, pointed downwards, while the conductor sways to right and left, as though drinking in his music. | And what energy his bandsman ' show ! One performer who had my '! admiring attention most of the evening rendered invaluable service to ' the drums, the triangle, a tambour- , ine, pieces of sand paper, blocks of wood (which he strucv with hum--1 mers), and long lengths of tubing ' (from which he extracted wierd chim- | cs—mostly out of tune). He was an amazingly energetic individual, and [ I am sure the slight drawback noted in the chimes was not his fault. Then another man played an aston- [ ishing brass instrument about thrice the size of an ordinary euphonium. It had a curious cink in the back, and with ils long neck and gigantic mouth suggested nothing as much as* a sort of brazen sea-serpent. The performers proved to be excellent executants,, with a sense of rhythm as perfect as a, group of Maori haka dancers. They played, indeed, with splendid precision, and though there was a suggestion of vulgarity and " hustle " in the blatant thunders of the brasses, it was impossible not to feel the exhiliaration which seemed to prevado the music. In other than Sousa's music the. band seemed commonplace, and only in a few of his own p eces docs their leader reach his best as a composer of inspiriting marches* and quicksteps. Of course, ho gave us 'EI capitan ' and the ' Washington Post,' and none of his other items came near them for effect. To sum up, Sousa is best taken in homoepathic doses—a little at ia time is t|uite enough."