Classic Ross Amico

Tag: John Philip Sousa

Flag Day on The Classical Network

You’re a Grand Old Flag.

We celebrate Old Glory on Flag Day on The Classical Network, with Antonin Dvořák’s rarely-heard cantata, “The American Flag,” and Philadelphia composer and arranger Hershy Kay’s John Philip Sousa ballet, “Stars and Stripes.”

We’ll also mark the birthday anniversaries of composer Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, conductor Rudolf Kempe, and tenor John McCormack.

Join me as proudly we hail, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Did you know, the current star pattern for the American Flag was designed by a 17 year-old? More facts for Flag Day here:

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2017/06/flag_day_2017.html

June 14, 2017
Presidents Day Party on WPRB with Presidential Music

It will be quite the party as we celebrate Presidents Day this morning on WPRB, what with the rhinoceri, Washington and Lincoln.

We’ll have a full playlist of presidential music, with works inspired by the Gettysburg Address, the legend of the cherry tree, and “George Washington slept here.” We’ll also have room for nods to some other presidents, including Chester Alan Arthur, who disliked “Hail to the Chief” so intensely that he commissioned John Philip Sousa to write a new piece.

Wasn’t the whole reason we tossed out the English because of their pedantic Oxford commas? Join me as we stick a feather in our cap and call it what we want, from 6 to 11 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. Our commas are nothing if not uncommon, on Classic Ross Amico.

February 16, 2017
Stars and Stripes Forever Premiered in 1897

It was on this date in 1897 that John Philip Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever” was given its premiere in Philadelphia. Sousa composed the piece, in large part, on Christmas Day, 1896. He knocked it off in a New York hotel room in just a couple of hours.

Though the first performance was enthusiastically received, it wasn’t until the start of the Spanish-American War in 1898 that sales went through the roof. This was precipitated in part by the composer organizing a pageant involving hundreds of performers, complete with flag-bearing soldiers and a ravishing beauty decked out in red, white and blue.

With a dash of canny showmanship, “The Stars and Stripes Forever” surfed the wave of wartime patriotism to world-wide and lasting renown.

John Philip Sousa conducts his best known music:

May 14, 2016
ASCAP Founded in 1914: Protecting Music Rights

It was on this date in 1914 that ASCAP – the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers – was organized in New York City. The not-for-profit performance rights organization was set up to protect its members’ musical copyrights through monitoring public performance (and later broadcast) of their works. ASCAP collects licensing fees on behalf of its members and then distributes them in the form of royalties.

None other than Victor Herbert spearheaded the organization’s founding, to the benefit of a great many Tin Pan Alley composers and publishers. Early members included Irving Berlin, Rudolf Friml, Jerome Kern and John Philip Sousa.

Michael Kownacky will be sampling works by some of the ASCAP founders on his program “A Little Night Music,” which can be heard locally on WWFM 89.1 FM, tonight at 10 ET, with a repeat next Saturday at 12 a.m. Of course, you can also listen to it later as a webcast at wwfm.org.

PHOTO: Victor Herbert (front left), standing next to John Philip Sousa and Irving Berlin

February 13, 2016
Presidents Day Music Unusual Presidential Songs

It’s Presidents’ Day. Before you hit the white sales, I’ve got a couple of musical selections for you.

Here’s a melody called “Lincoln and Liberty” (originally “Rosin the Beau”), a tune Lincoln appropriated for his campaign song in 1860. If you note the pattern on the performer’s pants, you might deduce he is an escaped convict.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es3J4yxPFiI

This is a concert overture titled “McKonkey’s Ferry (Washington at Trenton)” by Trenton’s own George Antheil. I think you’ll agree, Washington has never sounded so Soviet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dROk2QXrFOs

Which presidents to celebrate, anyway?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/02/16/why-presidents-day-is-slightly-strange/

Chester A. Arthur, our 21st president, thought “Hail to the Chief” too undignified, so he requested a new piece from John Philip Sousa. The result was the “Presidential Polonaise” (1886):

I wonder if anyone ever thought to write a polka for Polk?

February 16, 2015

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