• DickFuckarelli [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    The only thing worse than Sousa music is music written to sound like Sousa.

    • Asia_Set [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      I've had this idea rattling around in the back of my mind for a few years now:

      An arrangement of Sousa's "The Stars and Stripes Forever" that gets more and more depressing and distorted as it goes on, and eventually just degrades into a cacophony when it reaches the section before the piccolo solo (normally featuring a brief but vivacious call-and-response between the trombones and the other brass instruments), and subsequently descends into a murmur, maybe with some weeping and/or wailing. At this, two percussionists play a subdued drum roll on the snare and a timpano. The sound of a single trumpet blasts through, playing the melody of the final stanza from the chorus of L'Internationale and holding out the final note for the whole ensemble to join them in unison. This serves as a direct segue to playing a particularly intense, energetic, and enthusiastic rendition of L'Internationale.

      I call it "The Stars and Stripes No More".