Author: seabreeze
Date: 2017-08-01 23:00
When I was a member of the U.S. Fourth Army Band in San Antonio, TX in the '60s, there was a clarinetist named Ramos in the section who claimed he had been in the cavalry band of Poncho Villa and played marches with them while riding on horseback. He looked old enough to have ridden with Poncho Villa, but the rest of his story I was never able to confirm.
Regarding marches, cultural historian Jacques Barzun writes, in his history "From Dawn to Decadence," "America made two contributions to classical music, one of which is likely to be overlooked: the marches of John Philip Sousa. Far from being commonplace military music, the sizable group of his best are remarkable for melody and counterpoint and can stand comparison with any other composer's in a genre that was not disdained by the greatest masters. The second, an epoch-making innovation, was Ragtime and the Blues composed and played by Black musicians, first in New Orleans, then in Chicago" (678-9).
Barzun could have gone further and traced the influence of marches on the development of early jazz. (Barzun, by the way, in addition to being Provost of Columbia U for years and a prolific author, was also an amateur flutist.)
Post Edited (2017-08-01 23:01)
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The Clarinet BBoard
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