John Philip Sousa and the Beatles?
Much is written about the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s
Lonely Hearts Club Band. About its origins, for
instance, it is said that Sgt. Pepper’s grew out of a
joking session over a pair of salt and pepper shakers.
Elsewhere it is said that Paul McCartney’s idea for
Sgt. Pepper’s was to write some lyrics about an old
Edwardian military band. To this talk about "origins"
I would add another note. John Philip Sousa (1854-
1932), Portuguese American composer and band-
master known the world over as "The March King"
—"Semper Fidelis," "The Washington Post," and
"Stars and Stripes Forever" are three among his many
notable compositions—was at one time, as the bios
still assert, a sergeant in the United States Marine
Band. Along the way he also succeeded in pitching
his ideas for a new sort of tuba to an instrument maker
and music publisher. Thus, in due time, there appeared
on the market the marching band brass bass tuba the
world has ever since known as the Sousaphone. And
the name of the maker and seller of the Sousaphone?
J. W. Pepper.
George Monteiro, Professor Emeritus of English and of Portuguese Studies at Brown University, has interests in the areas of English-language and Portuguese-language literature and culture. He is the author of The Coffee Exchange and Double Weaver’s Knot, books of poetry. Among his other publications are critical studies of Henry James, Stephen Crane, Ernest Hemingway, Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, Luis de Camões, and Fernando Pessoa, as well as translations of the poetry of Jorge de Sena, Miguel Torga, Pedro da Silveira, and Fernando Pessoa, and the prose of José Rodrigues Miguéis and José Saramago. He and his wife make their home in Connecticut.
