Dear Mr. Roseboom,

I'm happy to honor your request for some thoughts on the Slow ('Thunderer') movement of the Sousa Symphony. It was the 1st movement of the symphony to be written (Winter/Spring-1992) and it's inspiration came from the finale (6th) movement of Gustav Mahler's 3rd symphony written in 1896. Mahler had subtitled the movement; 'What God Tells Me' , but his publisher substituted the word 'Love' for 'God' in the subtitle when the Symphony's publication occurred in 1898. He (the publisher) felt that the name 'God' would imply that the Symphony was a religious work, thus narrowing its' potential marketability, especially since , as such a large, long work, the possibilities of many complete performances would be severely limited anyway.

The point of this is that this movement is spiritual in nature and elegiac in tone. The Thunderer movement's subtitle 'Memoriam' refers to those in the military who participated in the events named 'Desert Watch' in 1991.

Therefore, when this is performed, special attention should be paid to any linear movement in the piece whether it be melodic, contrapuntal, accompaniment, internal movement, soft or loud.  that is, any linear note changes within a harmonic structure should be emphasized as an ongoing rule to performance.

Mahler's architectural style in his 'Adagio' movements would be to generate harmony from linear motion rather than to write a melody that conforms to vertical harmony. I've tried to emulate that in this piece, because I believe that the effect of melodically generated harmony is a very 'natural' resolution of tension

which creates an overall feeling of peace and an emotional sense of transcendence especially as this piece comes to its' conclusion.

Related to the desire to create a sense of peace & acceptance in performance, the dynamics especially in solo passages need to always sound comfortable rather than restrained. If, for instance, the Oboe solo needs to be mf rather than mp in order to speak, let it be that way,the same for the brass in the recap. However, the piece is very,very dynamic which means that crescendos and diminuendos need to be expressed not only in individual parts, but in whole sections of the piece. Likewise, tempi can played with for emotional effect. Though the original melody was the trio of a march, this is an Adagio which can be rubato in many different places. The only caveat to this is that any 'direct' references to the original march need to be played precisely i.e. the Flutes, Piccolo, French Horn, and Snare drum fanfares that occur in the transition to the recap. and of course, the Snare drum payoff in the last bar. In fact, after hearing a rehearsal, I suggested that if the flam couldn't be played really tight, just get rid of it rather than fight it.

I could keep going, but my experience in music is, that if one over-analyzes how to perform something one sterilizes it. Music works its' magic best, when one experiences and connects with it, as opposed to 'thinking' about it.

Once Again, a profound Thank You for your interest in my work.

Good Luck and Best Regards,

Ira Hearshen