Note:  The following article describes a turn-of-the century music trend
of naming marches after newspapers.

  "This Music's Fit to Print" by Bill Blankenship.  Published in the
  Topeka Capital-Journal, August 10, 1997.  Synopsis by Joyce Brite.

  "One hundred years ago you could not only read a newspaper, you could
  dance to it, too."  In 1896, a local marching band leader named John
  B. Marshall took part in a national trend by naming two marches he
  wrote after regional newspapers, The Topeka State Journal and the
  Atchison Daily Globe.  A year later, he wrote a march named for the
  Topeka Daily Capital.  All three of these marches are included in a
  just-released CD by the Advocate Brass Band of Danville, Kentucky.
  The band's director, George Foreman, is credited with rediscovering
  the newspaper marches.

  "He started finding newspaper marches after the Danville, Ky., paper,
  the Advocate-Messenger, asked him to organize a band for an old-
  fashioned political rally.  The band was an instant hit, so the
  newspaper continued its sponsorship.  For the newspaper's 125th
  anniversary in 1990, the Advocate-Messenger commissioned a march."

All this triggered the curiosity of Foreman, who holds a doctorate in
musicology.  "To date, Foreman has found between 450 and 500 marches
named for newspapers, other periodicals, publishers and other
journalism-related things, including 'The Associated Press March' and the
'Billboard March.'"  Foreman later found more marches named for local
newspapers in Kansas City, Wichita, Leavenworth and Iola.

Foreman attributes the craze of naming marches for newspapers after John
Philip Sousa's composition, "The Washington Post March," one of the most
easily recognized marches after "Stars and Stripes Forever."  The march
was commissioned in 1889 by the Post's owners, to be played at a ceremony
to honor the winners of an essay contest for school children.  It became
a huge international hit because it was suited for the newest dance --
the two-step.  It became so associated with the two-step that in some
European countries, all two-steps were called "Washington Posts."

Other band leaders and composers followed the trend with good reason. If
a composer wrote a march and named it after a newspaper, chances were
very good that the newspaper would do a story about the composer and the
march.  It was a form of self-promotion -- and it worked.  Besides the
potential for publicity, newspapers inspired marches because they held an
important role in society at the turn of the century; they were viewed as
important community institutions.

Foreman is planning to produce at least two more CD's of newspaper
marches and is also writing a book on the subject.  When asked how good
the marches named for local newspapers were, he replied, "Actually,
they're pretty good.  I enjoyed them...  They're not John Philip Sousa,
but for a local composer, they're all right."

(End of article)

I am curious to know how many of these newspaper marches were produced as
piano rolls.  Do any MMD subscribers have copies of these marches on
rolls?

Joyce Brite
brite@ksu.edu       http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~brite/

 [ I can't wait to hear "U.S.A. Today!"  Has it been composed yet?  ;)
 [ I wonder if there is a similar tradition of "newspaper marches"
 [ in Europe?  -- Robbie