Stumbled upon an important Sousaphone reference

[Dave Detwiler]

Hi all,

As much as I am grateful for digital search mechanisms, they don't always work. For years now I've scoured various online newspaper sites to find the earliest references to the Sousaphone, and this popped up today in an entirely unrelated search:

1896-02-11 The Helena Independent.JPG (51.3 KiB) Viewed 786 times

It is from the February 11, 1896 edition of The Helena Independent (Montana), and it is now the earliest known reference to a Sousaphone in the press.

Sousa's Band had just given a concert in Helena the day before, and featured in the bass section was an odd looking helicon bass with a huge upright bell. The reporter, understandably, found it worth commenting on, as no such instrument had ever been seen before - at least in Helena!

The remarkably tall man who wielded the monster was none other than Herman Conrad, who had indeed been with Gilmore's Band, starting in 1888, after immigrating to America from Germany, and who had joined Sousa in early 1893, a handful of months after Gilmore's death.

The Sousaphone featured on this tour, which began on January 1, 1896, had been built by J. W. Pepper at some point in 1895 - over two years before C. G. Conn built his Sousaphone (although, to this day, Conn-Selmer still wrongly claims to have built the first Sousaphone the world had ever seen).

Okay, probably more than you wanted to know, but this stuff gets me excited!

For the only known photo of this historic horn on that 1896 Sousa Band tour, see this post: http://tubapastor.blogspot.com/2015/10/ ... -1896.html

[And yes, that's the very same horn in my avatar above!]

Enjoy!
Dave

[the elephant]

Excellent work, Dave! Thanks for what you are doing, and keep it up!

[York-aholic]

Very cool.

[greenbean]

Thank you! This is fascinating and important work.

[Dave Detwiler]

The Sousaphone featured on this tour, which began on January 1, 1896, had been built by J. W. Pepper at some point in 1895 - over two years before C. G. Conn built his Sousaphone (although, to this day, Conn-Selmer still wrongly claims to have built the first Sousaphone the world had ever seen).

By the way, the bogus claim does indeed remain to this day, as I just checked - notice the last sentence:

2020 Conn-Selmer website.JPG (109.87 KiB) Viewed 749 times

[Alex C]

The Conn excerpt above is very specific in saying they "built the first sousaphone to Mr. Sousa's specifications." Was it the first sousaphone? Probably not but to all but academic researchers it reads like they built the first sousaphone.

So, Conn built the first sousaphone which was according to Mr. Sousa's specifications. Pepper probably built the first sousaphone.

Great topic, Dave!

[Mithosphere]

To be fair... Pepper modified an exiting instrument...

[Dave Detwiler]

To be fair... Pepper modified an exiting instrument...

True enough - although in more ways that you probably meant! The original Sousaphone was indeed a modified helicon, but also, as you unwittingly put it, the helicon began to be an "exiting instrument" once the Sousaphone came on the scene!

The Conn excerpt above is very specific in saying they "built the first sousaphone to Mr. Sousa's specifications." Was it the first sousaphone? Probably not but to all but academic researchers it reads like they built the first sousaphone.

You may be right, Alex. However, at least as early as 1924, Conn was claiming full credit for "the first Sousaphone Bass ever made":

1924 Conn General Catalog C.JPG (87.4 KiB) Viewed 723 times

[prairieboy1]

Keep up the great work! This is fascinating stuff!

[Mark E. Chachich]

Dave,

Please keep your research posts on tubas coming. I like reading your posts and learning about our collective tuba history!

Best,
Mark

[Doc]

This is great stuff. I imagine there is lots of work involved in the research. Thanks for sharing!

[Dave Detwiler]

Thanks to everyone for the encouraging words above!

Below is the earliest known reference (1905) to Pepper reminding everyone that he and his company created the original Sousaphone, which makes me think that Conn was perhaps already making that claim for themselves - or at least most people were assuming Conn invented the Sousaphone, since Sousa was featuring a Conn horn.

While the opening line says it as well, the key line is toward the end of the paragraph, where Pepper says "Remember that we are the sole originators of this style of basses and all others [including Conn!] are imitations of these magnificent large-proportioned monsters."

1905 MTBJ vol 19 no 222.JPG (108.35 KiB) Viewed 609 times

[matt g]

It’s great to see that the marketing of musical instruments, at least the ad copy portion, has changed almost none in over a hundred years.