CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - In tribute to his soul-stirring fanfares for and about the United States of America, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is throwing a monthlong music festival for John Philip Sousa.
The "Sousa Sesquicentennial Celebration," to be held in November in conjunction with the 150th anniversary of Sousa's birth, also will showcase American music in its many incarnations and launch the new Center for American Music at Illinois. A calendar of events is linked to the U. of I. Sousa Archives and Center for American Music home page.
On Oct 10, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed Resolution 459 designating November 2004 as "American Music Month." Senators Dick Durbin of Illinois and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee co-sponsored the bill at the request of Scott Schwartz, the archivist of the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music and the organizer of the sesquicentennial event. Earlier this year, and in anticipation of the sesquicentennial, the Illinois Legislature, through the sponsorship of Rep. Naomi Jakobsson of Urbana, declared November in Illinois as "American Music Month."
A wide spectrum of big-name artists and experts in American music will take part in the Sousa events, among them Alison Brown, a Grammy Award-winning banjo player and co-founder of Compass Records; Alan Jabbour, past director of the Library of Congress American Folklife Center and a pioneer in folk music documentation; Bill Malone, country music's ranking senior authority; and Andrea Zonn, a popular Nashville fiddler and regular with the Vince Gill Band; and Alison Krauss and Union Station.
Public events, all on campus and requiring admission fees except where noted, include:
• Nov. 5, "Chicks and Bells: Music of the American Antebellum," a concert of 19th century American brass and parlor music performed by the Illini Statesmen Barbershop Chorus, U. of I. Symphonic Band and School of Music faculty using historical "over-the-shoulder" horns from the Sousa Archives, 7:30 p.m., Smith Memorial Hall, 805 S. Mathews Ave., Urbana; free;
• Nov. 6, "Stars, Stripes, Sousa," a half-time music spectacular during the U. of I. vs. Indiana home football game, including military color guard, an Air Force flyover and fireworks, time TBA, Memorial Stadium, 200 E. Florida. Ave., Champaign;
• Nov. 7, "Sousa Sesquicentennial Celebration Concert," an extravaganza documenting Sousa's life and career, including an authentic portrayal of Sousa and his band, performed by the university's Wind Symphony, 3 p.m., Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, 500 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana;
• Nov. 13, "America's Greatest Jazz," including a tribute to Count Basie, performed by the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, 7:30 p.m., KCPA;
• Nov. 16, "Bang on a Can All-Stars With Philip Glass," performances of contemporary classics that communicate the pioneering spirit of Glass, minimalism's best-known composer, 7:30 p.m., KCPA;
• Nov. 17, "Andrea Zonn and Alison Brown: Music My Mama Taught Me," an "intimate front porch music performance and conversation exploring the oral tradition and women in music," 7:30 p.m., KCPA;
"Stars, Stripes, Sousa: Celebrating the John Philip Sousa Sesquicentennial," a monthlong exhibition using artifacts from the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution and the U.S. Marine Band Library, Krannert Art Museum, 500 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign; free.
In addition to their public events, Brown, Jabbour, Malone and Zonn also will visit campus classrooms and deliver talks, including:
• Brown, a talk on "Opportunities and Challenges for Women in the Music Industry," 11 a.m. Nov. 17, Monsanto Room, ACES Library, 1101 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana;
• Jabbour, an informal conversation with Library School students and faculty about "Libraries and Archives as Preservers of America's Culture," 11 a.m. Nov. 16, room 131 Library and Information Science Building, 501 E. Daniels St., Champaign; and a conversation with students, faculty and music teachers on "Recollections From the American Folk Music Revival," 12:30 p.m. Nov. 16, room 1188 Music Building, 1114 W. Nevada St., Urbana;
• Malone, a conversation about "Country Music and the Southern Working Class," noon, Nov. 15, room 1180 Music Building;
• Zonn, an "Andrea Zonn String Fiddling Clinic" for students, faculty and music teachers, noon, Nov. 17, third floor Levis Faculty Center, 919 W. Illinois St., Urbana.
Perhaps the most famous American composer and band conductor ever, and the composer of "The Stars and Stripes Forever," "The Washington Post March" and "Semper Fidelis," Sousa, like the music festival in his honor, was eclectic in his musical tastes. He composed 137 marches, 15 operettas, five overtures, 11 suites, 11 waltzes, 13 dances, 28 fantasies and 322 arrangements.
Often called "The March King," Sousa was quintessentially American - "a fiercely loyal product of and a high-profile emblem for the United States of America," Schwartz said.
"His rousing melodies continue to telegraph our nation's indomitable sense of spirit to the world," Schwartz said, adding that he hopes music lovers across the country - amateurs as well as professionals - find ways to pay tribute to Sousa in November.
Sousa's papers are at Illinois because of his long and strong friendship with A.A. Harding, Illinois' first director of bands, Schwartz said. Sousa greatly admired Harding and often said that the U. of I. Band was the best college band in the world. Sousa composed the "University of Illinois March" in 1929 and performed it the following year on the Illinois campus. He played at Illinois at least nine times.
Sousa promised to bequeath most of his band music library to Illinois, and not long after he died, that promise was kept. His widow orchestrated the move, shipping more than 18,000 pounds of music in 39 trunks from their Long Island home to the campus in East Central Illinois.
The U. of I. holds 74 percent of the extant Sousa materials, including original scores and parts, published music and manuscripts, personal papers, photographs, programs, news clippings, broadsides, memorabilia and artifacts, among them one of Sousa's batons, a pair of his ubiquitous white kid gloves and his music stand and podium.
The son of immigrants and the third of 10 children, Sousa was born in Washington, D.C. When he was 13, and already impassioned about music, he tried to run away from home to join a circus band, but his father intervened, and apprenticed him to the U.S. Marine Band.
At 24, Sousa was named leader of that band, and held the job for 12 years. His own band, which stirred hearts for 39 years, made annual transcontinental tours from 1892 to 1931, four tours of Europe and a world tour in 1910-1911, but being a concert band, they only marched seven times.
Sousa had varied interests during his life of 77 years. He wrote seven books, including novels, was an athlete who adored baseball and a self-made millionaire.
Sousa died on March 6, 1932, in Reading, Pa., following a band concert. The last piece he conducted was "The Stars and Stripes Forever."
Sponsors for the sesquicentennial events, in addition to the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music, include the ACES Library, Business and Economics Library, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities (through the Illinois General Assembly, Illinois Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities), School of Music, University Archives, University Library, U. of I. Dad's Association, U. of I. Press and the U. of I.; Northern Trust Co.; and Roger C. Clark, a 1979 U. of I. graduate of ACES (the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences).