Circus, military fostered growth
of brass music

Watching a festival parade it's easy to overlook the irony in mixing clowns, shriners and circus wagons with Marines, the National Guard and mounted riflemen, but even historically speaking it's not quite the stretch some might take it for.

Paul Bierly, a nationally-recognized scholar of brass band history, points out that John Phillip Sousa tried to run away to the circus when he was young, but his father found out about the plan and put an end to it. So eventually he ended up with the military.

Many who performed with Sousa had played for the circus before or became circus musicians afterward. But Sousa himself was never a circus music composer.

``Who knows how history in the band world might have been if he had worked for Barnum and Bailey instead of the United States Marine Corps,'' said Charles Conrad, director of the Indianapolis Symphonic Band.

In this, the 100th anniversary of Sousa's ``Stars and Stripes Forever,'' it's an interesting question to ask.

Sousa did write one important circus piece, afterall, but not by his intention. ``Stars and Stripes Forever,'' noted Conrad, was played by circus bands to alert the crew to run to the big top in extreme cases of emergency. The ``Disaster March'' as it came to be called, was rarely if ever used, since ``12th Street Rag'' was played to alert the clowns to come out and divert attention during the more common mishaps.

Conrad is also a member of Windjammers Unlimited, a group of music history enthusiasts dedicated to the preservation of traditional circus music.

``The circus was really one of the important jobs for musicians,'' he said. Up until the 1950's symphonic seasons were only 20-30 weeks long, so musicians would have to go on tour in the off season to make a living, ``which is how many of them became associated with the circus,'' said Conrad.

Conrad said the circus bands introduced classical music to Americans in the days before recordings and radio.

Brahms' Hungarian dances, for example were as popular under the American big top as they were in European concert halls.

The Indianapolis Symphonic Band played Hungarian Dance No. 6 among other circus classics Saturday at Centre College, and during the Main Street parade along with the Windjammers.

This is the Indianapolis band's first time on tour.

``This is just such a wonderful place to come to because you see such a wide variety of music, personalities and styles,'' said Conrad. ``It's one of the most outstanding festivals in the country.''

Gene and John White came all the way from Bridgewater, Virginia to see the Brass Band Festival. They said they hadn't seen the actual theme of the event advertised anywhere, but picked up on the circus motif as they watched the parade.