The Sousa Swing

The Sousa Swing (1907)

Charles B. Brown (1869 or 1870 - 1927)

Variable Quartet, Quintet, or Larger

The Sousa Swing – march by Charles Brown, arranged for sax quartet or quintet with additional parts. It sounds like a Sousa march – it looks like a Sousa march but it’s not a Sousa march.The Sousa Swing was published in 1907 at the height of Sousa’s popularity but it was written by Charles Brown, a little-known composer of ragtime and parlor songs. Regardless of what it is not, it is a bouncy march in 6/8 time that will get your audience clapping along with you.

This arrangement of The Sousa Swing is scored for variable saxophone ensemble. It can be played as a quartet, quintet, or larger ensemble. E flat and B flat sax parts are included for each part. Included with this arrangement:

• Sax Ensemble Score Score: SATB + optional 5th part (alternate parts not shown in score)
• Part 1: Soprano Sax
• Part 1: Alto Sax 2 – soprano double
• Part 2: Alto Sax
• Part 2: Tenor Sax 3 – alto 1 double
• Part 3: Tenor Sax 1
• Part 3: Alto Sax 3 – tenor 1 double
• Part 4. Bari Sax 1
• Part 4: Bass Sax – bari sax double
• Part 5 (optional): Tenor Sax 2
• Part 5 (optional): Bari Sax 2 – tenor sax 2 double

This arrangement an be played a sax quartet using parts 1‐4 (or their alternates) or sax quintet by including part 5. Use all the parts to form a large sax ensemble. As long as parts 1-4 are covered, any combination of saxes may be used. Moderate difficulty. Alternate parts may be somewhat more difficult due to an extended range.

• The range for each saxophone part is shown below.
• Brief score samples and audio excerpts are available above.
• Registered users can download a complete sample score and audio file of The Sousa Swing on the ‘Samples’ tab.

About the Composer

Charles B. Brown (1869 or 1870 – 1927) No photo is available.

Charles B. Brown was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to German immigrant parents in 1869 or 1870. Very little information about Charles was left behind so it is hard to determine the level of music education he received. However, it was certainly something beyond the usual public-school material, and he likely was given some private lessons in piano, at least one other instrument, and theory and harmony. By 1891 he had relocated south to Chicago, Illinois, and was working as an orchestra musician, and possibly an accompanist. Around 1892, Charles married his Pennsylvania-born wife Cora Thompson. The couple never had surviving children, although two were born and died in the mid-1890s.

When the craze for cakewalks started in 1897, Charles was quick to get compositions into print. While they weren’t quite ragtime, his first few pieces from 1898 and 1899 showed a grasp of what the coming music might be. Unfortunately, his titles and the cover images were steeped in the Negro stereotype that was common in that era. But to the publishers, who made the decisions on how to market the pieces, this was just business as usual, and the questionable norm at that time. It is also an irony that so many “black” pieces came from the pens of while composers like Charles. Most of Brown’s material was in the guise of marches, some with light syncopation and cakewalk rhythms. The Sousa Swing is a good example of this. He had little problem finding publishers to take his work; nevertheless, he was not prolific.

During the 1910s Charles issued a few more pieces, but they were once again more old school waltzes and marches, and nothing in the latest dance or ragtime styles. He took control of his work in the early 1910s, and started his own small publishing firm in Chicago. Perhaps a less capable notator or arranger, many of his pieces were arranged by some of his colleagues. The 1920 census had Brown listed as a music publisher. His wife Cora died in September of 1924 at around age 58, and Charles died in late 1927 at age 58.