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Monday, June 22, 2015

MONDAY, JUNE 22, 2015

QUOTE: 
"Music can noble hints impart,
  Engender fury, kindle love,
  With unsuspected eloquence can move,
  And manage all the man with secret art
."
AUTHOR: Joseph Addison
   
MEANING OF THE QUOTE:
"Music has a secret power to control man."

COMPOSER
SOUSA
THE IRISH DRAGOON
4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards
OPERETTA:
CIRCUS GALOP (1915)
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: Au Cirque Fernando l'Ecuyère
CIRCUS GALOP
FROM THE
IRISH DRAGOON (1915)
Two nearly complete versions of the
operetta The Irish Dragoon were
discovered in the basement of
Sousa's Sands Point estate
in 1965. One version is written
in the hand of another composer,
not identified on the manuscripts.
Trapeze Artists in the Circus
Auguste Macke: At the Circus
http://archives.library.illinois.edu/archon/?p=digitallibrary/digitalcontent&id=464
His daughter Helen
revealed that he had
purchased the libretto
Joseph Herbert
and that the first composer's
work was part of the package received.
Sousa evidently set this aside and composed
his own music. This, being Sousa's final
operetta, was fully scored but only completed
through the second act likely having to do
with libretto problems due to the death of the
librettist Joseph Herbert. Throughout the 1920's
Sousa attempted to locate a qualified writer to finish
his opera, but to no avail. As a consequence the
piece remained unfinished and was withdrawn without
ever being performed. However, in the 1980's the
unsorted sketches and performance materials
were reconstructed by conductor and
musicologist, Loras John Schissel.
Loras John Schissel
Among the songs that
were given titles are The Blarney Stone,
The Showman's Song, Their Life and Joy and
Whish! Hiroo! The only other selections with titles are
the overture and a short and spirited piece called
Circus Galop which opens the first act.
The overture is full of crackling Irish jigs
and love-songs from the show.
Salvador Dali: The Circus-Santa Creus Festival in Figueras
LINKS
Marc Chagall: Circus
New York Herald
October 13, 1915
NEW SOUSA PLAY ON WAY
Band Master Is Composing Score of
"The Irish Dragoons."
Yearning for more work after his daily task of
playing two concerts in the Hippodrome, John
Philip Sousa is composing the score for one
musical play and reading another, preparatory
to writing the music for it later. He said he is
already well into the third act of "The Irish
Dragoon," the libretto of which is by Joseph
Herbert. When this score is completed he will
begin the composition of "The Victory," an
opera by Miss Ruth Helen  Davis and Miss
Ella Wheeler Wilcox. He occupies a suite
Hippodrome Building New York City, 1905
in the Hippodrome building.
Henri Matisse: Circus
Georges Seurat: Circus
Georges Seurat: Parade de Cirque, 1888
New York Review
October 20, 1915
JOHN PHILIP SOUSA
WRITING NEW OPERA
March King at the Hipp Working
On Score of "The Irish Dragoons."
In addition to conducting his band in
two daily concerts at the Hippodrome,
One of the many performances of Sousa at the Hippodrome
John Philip Sousa is composing the
score of one operetta and reading a
play, preparatory to setting it to music
later. The operetta is called
"The Irish Dragoons."
Joseph Herbert
wrote the libretto.
When the composition of
the score is completed, Mr. Sousa
will set to music "The Victory," a play by Ella
Wheeler Wilcox and Ruth Helen Davis,
which was recently produced
at Long Branch.