ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The first model of an integral brass musical instrument, the history of which includes an interesting local twist, will be displayed at a concert honoring the 125th anniversary of Allentown's Miller Symphony Hall, organizers announced.
”A Sousa Band Concert” with the Allentown Band playing the music of famed composer and conductor John Philip Sousa will be at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 13, at Miller Symphony Hall, 23 N. Sixth St.,
Allentown.
At the show, the first sousaphone — the large-belled instrument in the tuba family named after Sousa — will be displayed, Allentown Band Conductor Ronald Demkee said in an email.
The instrument disappeared for 75 years before being discovered at a Berks County flea market — about 40 miles from Allentown.Miller Symphony Hall announcement
Also, to make the event even more special, John Philip Sousa IV, great-grandson of John Philip Sousa, will narrate the historic event.
Tickets, at $10 to $40, are available on the Miller Symphony Hall website.
Sousa, who died in 1932, is known as "The March King," and, among other things, was conductor of the U.S. Marine Corps band.
Among his best-known marches are "The Stars and Stripes Forever," the national march of the United States and "Semper Fidelis," the official march of the Marine Corps.
Sousa's band played in Symphony Hall, then known as The Lyric Theatre, on four occasions — in 1900, 1908, 1910 and 1920.
The Allentown Band will replicate a typical concert played by Sousa and his band during those years, the email said.
The sousaphone that will be displayed is the first ever built — at Sousa's direction — by a Philadelphia instrument company.
The instrument disappeared for 75 years before being discovered at a Berks County flea market — about 40 miles from Allentown.
The birth of an instrument
A history of the sousaphone on the website of sheet music producer J.W. Peppercites a quote from Sousa in the Aug. 30, 1922, edition of the Christian Science Monitor discussing the creation of the instrument.
“The Sousaphone received its name through a suggestion made by me to J. W. Pepper, the instrument manufacturer of Philadelphia, fully 30 odd years ago," Sousa said.
"I spoke to Mr. Pepper relative to constructing a bass instrument in which the bell would turn upwards and be adjustable for concert purposes. He built one and grateful to me for the suggestion called it a Sousaphone."John Philip Sousa, in a 1922 Christian Science Monitor article
"I spoke to Mr. Pepper relative to constructing a bass instrument in which the bell would turn upwards and be adjustable for concert purposes. He built one and, grateful to me for the suggestion, called it the Sousaphone.
"I used a double B-flat bass tuba of circular form known as a helican. It was all right enough for street parade work, but its tone was apt to shoot ahead too prominently and explosively to suit me for concert performances.
The design "was immediately taken up by other instrument makers," Sousa says, "and is today manufactured in its greatest degree of perfection by the CG Conn company of Elkhart, Indiana.”
Sousa used CG Conn sousaphones in his band exclusively from 1898 until he died in 1932 — featuring one in his bass section from 1898 to 1915 and then two from 1915 to 1921.
That led, in 1921, the CG Conn Co. to claim to have created the original sousaphone, saying in a notice that "in honor of John Philip Sousa, the great bandmaster CG Conn has made a new circular Double B-flat base which he has entitled the sousaphone.”
Found 70 years later
But for 70 years, what happened to that original sousaphone built by J.W. Pepper remained a mystery.
Until a quiet Sunday afternoon in spring 1973.
According to the history on the J.W. Pepper website, John Bailey — then a 24-year-old tuba player and recent graduate of West Chester State College, joined his mother and sister at Renninger’s Flea Market, then in Adamstown, Berks County.
Bailey had moved back home to Wernersville, near Reading, where he began teaching and occasionally subbing with the Ringold Band, which was the very last band Sousa conducted.
At the flea market, Bailey found a vintage three-valve Raincatcher Sousaphone, heavily tarnished and covered with dust, hanging upside down from the rafters by a single loop of twine.History of the Sousaphone on JW Pepper website
At the flea market, Bailey found a vintage three-valve Raincatcher sousaphone, heavily tarnished and covered with dust, hanging upside down from the rafters by a single loop of twine.
He bought the instrument for $50, and in cleaning it, found it was unfinished — just raw brass — and that at its top, barely visible, was a portrait of Sousa wearing the uniform that was first used in 1894.
Below that was a twirling ribbon that contains separately the words Sousa and phone — the name Pepper chose for the instrument.
It also said, “Premier JW Pepper maker Philadelphia and Chicago,” and a serial number showing the instrument was built in 1895.
According to the online history, for 18 years Bailey kept the instrument in storage.
Along the way, it says, he got confirmation from experts about what he had, but never restored or displayed it.
Then in August 1991, Bailey sold the horn to the JW Pepper Co., which had it restored, including adding a lacquer finish.
Played once again
J.W. Pepper's online history says it was largely compiled by Dave Detwiler, pastor at LCBC Church in Harleysville, Montgomery County, and a lifelong music history enthusiast.
Detwiler also was a tuba player in the Montgomery County Community Band, and approached Pepper with the idea of playing the original sousaphone in concert for what would likely be the first time in more than a century.
Pepper agreed, and to prepare the instrument to be played, the company brought it to Steve Dillon and Matt Walters of Dillon Music, a New Jersey company this is expert in the field of instrument repair and the care of antique instruments.
Dillon returned the original sousaphone to playing order, and through Detwiler, it joined the Montgomery County Community Band in concert on May 3, 2015.
