The recent passing of Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and all the pomp and pageantry that has followed her over her 70-year reign had me reflecting on the two occasions that John Philip Sousa and His Band performed before The Royal Family.
Within the pages of one of Mr. Sousa’s personal scrapbooks identified as “Souvenirs of Notable Events, Letters, Etc.” in my possession are the concert programs that took place at Sandringham Castle on December 1st, 1901 and at Windsor Castle on January 31st, 1903. These “command performances” must have made a lasting impression on the bandmaster as they are mentioned with some detail in his 1928 autobiography Marching Along [p.222; pp.235-236]. According to Mr. Sousa, the first concert was organized with great secrecy as even the band members did not know until the last moment as it was The King’s request the band performed as a surprise for The Queen’s birthday! It was a ‘Sousa-heavy’ program with seven of eleven programmed numbers with no fewer than seven encores requested by The King. For his efforts, Sousa was presented with the medal of the Victorian Order. It was following this performance Mr. Sousa secured The King’s permission to compose a march in his honor with the result being “Imperial Edward.”
Prior to this event, it was customary and fashionable to host dinners for the visiting band and on the evenings of October 17th and 18th, The Band of The Grenadier Guard was treated to a complimentary supper by Sousa and His Band at the Windsor Hotel in Glasgow, Scotland with the kind favor returned the following evening. The souvenir menu cards for these occasions were autographed by John Philip Sousa and others in attendance.
Sousa’s second visit to England with his band was part of the 1903 European Tour which lasted nearly seven months. The second command performance took place at Windsor Castle on Saturday evening, January 31st. As the master showman he was, John Philip Sousa recounts in great detail his presentation of the national airs to The King and his audience which seemed to move him greatly. Also in attendance was the Band of The Scottish Guard and according to The King, “to hear American music as it should be played.” The aforementioned march “Imperial Edward” was performed on this concert and while the occasion for this post is a solemn one, I think it best to incorporate some of Mr. Sousa’s humor as he related this story on the composition of the march some twenty years later: “I have never written a piece of music that I did not feel the inspiration. I have never turned out but one piece that I consider in any manner mechanical. That was ‘Imperial Edward,’ the march I dedicated to King Edward on my second command to play before him – and that had to be finished in a hurry. For a part of it I felt an inspiration. For the rest, instead of digging down to the vein of gold, I struck a vein of ashes and used it.”
The final image is a copy of the published sheet music along with an handsome autograph musical quotation of “Imperial Edward.”
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