John Philip Sousa Quotes & Sayings (Page 3)

“America can well expect to develop a goodly amount of composers for she has a goodly number of people.”

“American teachers have one indisputable advantage over foreign ones; they understand the American temperament and can judge its unevenness, its lights and its shadows.”

“I had found English audiences highly satisfactory. They are the best listeners in the world. Perhaps the music-lovers of some of our larger cities equal the English, but I do not believe they can be surpassed in that respect.”

“There is much modern music that is better adapted to a wind combination than to a string, although for obvious reasons originally scored for an orchestra. If in such cases the interpretation is equal to the composition the balance of a wind combination is more satisfying.”

“I think that the quality of all bands is steadily improving and it is a pleasant thought to me that perhaps the efforts of Sousa's Band have quickened that interest and improved that quality.”

“The movements which I make I cannot possibly repress because, at the time, I am actually the idea I am interpreting, and naturally I picture my players and auditors as in accord with me. I know, of course, that my mannerisms have been widely discussed.”

“To the average mind popular music would mean compositions vulgarly conceived and commonplace in their treatment. That is absolutely false.”

“I still feel the impulse to give young writers a hearing, and I believe I have played more unpublished compositions than any other band leader in the country.”