FUCKING SOUSA MUSIC

[Rabrrrrrr]

Fucking hate it.

"Stars and Stripes Forever" my ass. Same for the rest of his crappy, oompah-oompah piccolo-excessive uncreative crap.

On edit: thanks for letting me rant. Thankfully, I don't encounter Sousa very often, or even think of him. But when I do, my blood pressure goes up.

[ironflange]

1. They just played it on Letterman!

Say, you must mot be a Monty Python fan.

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. Well, then, thank God I wasn't watching Letterman

Unless it was the band that played it, then it isn't so bad.

And when used appropriately, like in Python, it's okay. But to just listen to? Or go to a concert thereof? No way in hell.

[Chipper Chat]

3. Take two aspirins and call me in the morning...

I'll dig out my Mantovani records for you to listen to. That should lower your blood pressure.

[TrogL]

4. But it's so fun to play

Sousa really knew how to write for band.

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. Well, he certainly did. I have to give him credit for that. But it doesn't

address the real issue here - "band" is something for which people shouldn't be writing to begin with. Just because it's there, doesn't mean it should be there.

:-)

(Sorry TrogL, I'm just not a "band" person at all, in any way whatsoever - can't even stand listening to the Canadian Brass (and definitely not when they're trying to play pop/song/christmas/musical tunes)).

[stopbush]

6. You know, he wrote lots of music besides marches.

Sure, he's known for a handful of his 135 marches, but he also wrote 15 operettas, overtures, concert pieces, songs, etc.

I suppose you hate everything by Ravel due to the popularity of Bolero...or maybe you hate Bach because he wrote Air for the G String...or maybe you hate Mozart because he wrote Eine kleine nachtmusik.

And as far as hating "oompah" bass, that leaves out most of Verdi and a lot of Classical era keyboard music (since Alberti bass was the oompah of that era).

I happen to like Sousa in small doses. His marches are occasional music. Since I don't ever have the occasion to watch football, I don't hear Stars & Stripes every weekend, so I appreciate it...at least when it's played well.