John Philip Sousa

Musician

1854-11-06

Books by John Philip Sousa

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Jazz will endure as long as people hear it through their feet instead of their brains
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Jazz will endure as long as people hear it through their feet instead of their brains
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I think that the quality of all bands is steadily improving and it is a pleasant thought to me that perhaps the efforts of Sousa's Band have quickened that interest and improved that quality.
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I can almost always write music; at any hour of the twenty-four, if I put pencil to paper, music comes.
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Is it not the business of the conductor to convey to the public in its dramatic form the central idea of a composition; and how can he convey that idea successfully if he does not enter heart and soul into the life of the music and the tale it unfolds?
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The office of President is a great one; to every true American it seems the greatest on earth. And to me, as I was engaged in weaving a background of music for the pageantry of it, there came a deeper realization of the effect of that office on the man.
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I still feel the impulse to give young writers a hearing, and I believe I have played more unpublished compositions than any other band leader in the country.
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