Customer Reviews

Sousa's Great Marches in Piano Transcription (Dover Music for Piano)

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And it's not the fault of the editors either. There was such a clamor for Sousa marches after they had been played in public that his publishers, mainly Church Music in Philadelphia, made the bold move of reducing the band scores to smaller pianistic proportions. This creates an imbalance that is hard to correct. Unlike marches by E.T. Paull, Harry Lincoln and others that WERE written for piano, Sousa Marches were carefully crafted to suit the varying timbres of a military concert band. Therefore on pieces like Liberty Bell, Washington Post and Stars and Stripes Forever, much of the variety and excitement are lost along with some of the piccolo or percussion lines. Cymbal smashes are replaced by high chords, and bass lines are simplified for pianists of average skill. Some of the pieces were transcribed in the key of the brass instruments, making them a step higher on the piano. So why buy it? Historical interest, such as the song version of Stars and Stripes, and the short bio of Sousa contained in the beginning. Most of the covers are more or less identical save the title, but they are also included

John Phillip Sousa wrote so many marches, and at least these 23 are helpful. What is needed is a really first class reduction. There used to be a volume of Sousa marches for Piano - 4 hands. It allowed some of the piccolo in Stars and Stripes to be there (I added more of it). and the arrangements sound complicated enough to be interesting, even though they aren't really that hard. I think it was a Ditson publication.

What I'd really like would be a comprehensive collection in piano duet of about 40 of them. It could even be in two volumes! This volume will have to suffice for now.