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No 4th of July would be complete without some martial music, including the oft-adopted-by-the-military JP Sousa.

I actually like band music, and I have some very interesting old dubs of JP Sousa's music conducted during Souza's lifetime by Edwin Clarke, Herbert Clarke, Arthur Pryor, Walter Rogers and others, since Sousa himself would infamously have nothing to do with recordings!

There is also Ferde Grofe', whose Grand Canyon Suite is iconic Americana (and Gershwin tapped Grofe' for his own orchestral scores).  Leading into the next paragraph, I have one decent GCS performance conducted by L. Bernstein.

I love Bernstein's Westside Story.  Nice versions conducted by the composer, himself, and surprisingly good version patiently "conducted" by Johnny Green, via Columbia, for the movie score, too; not to pan the vocalists, either.

Does Dvorak's "New World Symphony" count?  Although it "should", based on D's address and "commission" at the time, I have always thought of this wonderful symphony as a sort of homesick reverie rather than the grateful visitor's portrait of America that many/most Americans have apparently taken it for.   I'd be happy to claim it, of course!

Get ready,
Paul S

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