Quotes from John Philip Sousa

I had found English audiences highly satisfactory. They are the best listeners in the world. Perhaps the music-lovers of some of our larger cities equal the English, but I do not believe they can be surpassed in that respect.

My success is not due to any personal superiority over other people.

The vocal cord will be eliminated by a process of evolution, as was the tail of man when he came from the ape.

Jazz will endure just as long people hear it through their feet instead of their brains.

The average music-lover hears only the production under prevailing conditions.

Composers are the only people who can hear good music above bad sounds.

I can almost always write music; at any hour of the twenty-four, if I put pencil to paper, music comes.

Grand opera is the most powerful of stage appeals and that almost entirely through the beauty of music.

Sincere composers believe in God.

The red and white and starry blue Is freedom's shield and hope.

The office of President is a great one; to every true American it seems the greatest on earth. And to me, as I was engaged in weaving a background of music for the pageantry of it, there came a deeper realization of the effect of that office on the man.

My religion lies in my composition.

America can well expect to develop a goodly amount of composers for she has a goodly number of people.

I have always believed that 98% of a student's progress is due to his own efforts, and 2% to his teacher.

Governmental aid is a drawback rather than an assistance, as, although it may facilitate in the routine of artistic production, it is an impediment to the development of true artistic genius.

There is one thing that freezes a musician more than the deadliest physical cold, and that is the spiritual chill of an unresponsive audience!

The movements which I make I cannot possibly repress because, at the time, I am actually the idea I am interpreting, and naturally I picture my players and auditors as in accord with me. I know, of course, that my mannerisms have been widely discussed.

There is much modern music that is better adapted to a wind combination than to a string, although for obvious reasons originally scored for an orchestra. If in such cases the interpretation is equal to the composition the balance of a wind combination is more satisfying.

American teachers have one indisputable advantage over foreign ones; they understand the American temperament and can judge its unevenness, its lights and its shadows.

I firmly believe that we have more latent musical talent in America than there is in any other country. But to dig it out there must be good music throughout the land, a lot of it. Everyone must hear it, and such a process takes time.

The red and white and starry blue Is freedom's shield and hope.

Jazz will endure just as long as people hear it through their feet instead of their brains.

From childhood I was passionately fond of music and wanted to be a musician. I have no recollection of any real desire ever to be anything else.

Remember always that the composer's pen is still mightier than the bow of the violinist in you lie all the possibilities of the creation of beauty.