John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousazɐ]; November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era, known primarily for American military and patriotic marches. Because of his mastery of march composition, he is known as "The March King", or the "American March King" due to his British counterpart Kenneth J. Alford also being known by the former nickname. Among his best-known marches are "The Stars and Stripes Forever", "Semper Fidelis", "The Liberty Bell", "The Thunderer" and...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth6 November 1854
CountryUnited States of America
Grand opera is the most powerful of stage appeals and that almost entirely through the beauty of music.
The vocal cord will be eliminated by a process of evolution, as was the tail of man when he came from the ape.
You can't drive a Spike with a Tack Hammer
I forsee a marked deterioration in American musicand a host of other injuries to music in its artistic manifestations, by virtue—or rather by vice—of the multiplication of the various music-reproducing machines
American teachers have one indisputable advantage over foreign ones; they understand the American temperament and can judge its unevenness, its lights and its shadows.
I can almost always write music; at any hour of the twenty-four, if I put pencil to paper, music comes.
I still feel the impulse to give young writers a hearing, and I believe I have played more unpublished compositions than any other band leader in the country.
America can well expect to develop a goodly amount of composers for she has a goodly number of people.
Any composer who is gloriously conscious that he is a composer must believe that he receives his inspiration from a source higher than himself.
I firmly believe that we have more latent musical talent in America than there is in any other country. But to dig it out there must be good music throughout the land, a lot of it. Everyone must hear it, and such a process takes time.
Jazz will endure just as long people hear it through their feet instead of their brains.
From childhood I was passionately fond of music and wanted to be a musician. I have no recollection of any real desire ever to be anything else.
Dance as though no one is watching. Love as though you've never been hurt. Sing as though no one can hear you. Live as though heaven is on earth.
Remember always that the composer's pen is still mightier than the bow of the violinist; in you lie all the possibilities of the creation of beauty.