CONCERT REVIEW
                                        by Sarah Cole


[From the first edition of Precious Nonsense, page 1:]

John Philip Sousa, among his other accomplishments as conductor,
composer, novelist, and showman, was a writer of light opera.  In
their day "The Charlatan," "The Bride Elect," and his most
famous, "El Capitan," rivaled G&S in popularity.  Early in his
career, in fact, Mr. Sousa had orchestrated HMS Pinafore for a
group of Philadelphia amateur singers.  He seemed to have enjoyed
his taste of G&S, because he went on to write several fantasies
based on themes from Pinafore and Pirates, and composition
entitled -- what else -- "The Mikado March."

[From the second edition of Precious Nonsense, page 5:]

"The Mikado March," while perhaps not one of Sousa's best march-
es, is nonetheless, is nonetheless a diverting (not to mention
fun!) piece.  Sousa wrote it in 1885, presumably for the Marine
Band, which he was conducting at the time, and is a march-style
medley of tunes from the opera.

The actual march runs something like this: opening with the
entire bank playing "Miya Sama" in unison (I felt like salut-
ing!), an upper woodwind flourish sends the band skipping through
"If that is so, sing Derry Down Derry."  On the repeat of the
first strain the basses have a countermelody reminiscent of the
bass countermelody in Sousa's "The Thunderer," a melody which
helps lead the march into "And If You Call for a Song of the
Sea."  The upper brasses have the melody.  The "Yo-Ho" explodes
from the whole band and the saxophones echo the "Hurrah for the
Homeward Bound."  The woodwind sections lays aloft in the howling
breeze, and the whole band comes in to spend a happy hour with
Nancy.  Sousa then does something delightfully incongruous: the
basses begin a stately "For He's Going to Marry Yum-Yum," with
band accompaniment.  On the repeat, the accompanying instruments
pick up the melody and bounce through the rest of the verse.  A
run up the chromatic scale brings the band to "My Object All
Sublime" in suitably portly style and the march continues with
"If I were Fortune" as the trio.  If you'd like to check my
description, a lively rendition of the march is available on
Volume X of the Sousa Bicentennial Collection, by the Detroit
Concert Band.

[This material appeared in Issues 1 (October 1984) and 2 (January
1985) of Precious Nonsense, the newsletter of the Midwestern
Gilbert & Sullivan Society.  Posted by permission of Sarah Cole,
Society Secretary/Archivist.  For information on Society member-
ship write to:  The Midwestern Gilbert & Sullivan Society, c/o
Miss Sarah Cole, 613 W. State St., North Aurora, IL 60542-1538.]