Transit of Venus March
{{Short description|March scored for military brass band}}
{{Infobox musical composition
| name = "Transit of Venus March"
| image = Transit of Venus 1.jpg
| caption = Sheet music cover (1896)
| type = March
| composer = John Philip Sousa
| composed = {{Start date|1883}}
| occasion = 1882 Transit of Venus
| dedication = Joseph Henry
| publisher = J.W. Pepper Co.
| misc = {{Audio sample
| type =
| file = Sousa's "Transit of Venus" - United States Marine Band (2016).mp3
| description = 2016 performance by the United States Marine Band
}}
}}
The "Transit of Venus March" is a march scored for military brass band written by John Philip Sousa in 1883 to celebrate the 1882 Transit of Venus and published by the J.W. Pepper Company. The work was erroneously thought to be lost for over 100 years when a piano transcriptionFront cover shown at right; the full sheet music can be found on Wikisource. published in 1896 was found by a Library of Congress employee in 2003.{{cite web|url=http://transitofvenus.org/sousa.htm|title=John Philip Sousa & The Transit of Venus|publisher=transitofvenus.org|accessdate=2008-10-25|last=|first= |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20080610083907/http://www.transitofvenus.org/sousa.htm |archivedate = 2008-06-10}} Copies of the original Pepper publication, however, do survive.
Background
One year after the 1882 Transit of Venus, Sousa was commissioned to compose a processional for the unveiling of a bronze statue of American physicist Joseph Henry,{{cite web|url=http://www.sil.si.edu/digitalcollections/HistoryCultureCollections/SIL7-154/pdf/SIL007-154.pdf|title=Unveiling the Statue Of Joseph Henry|pages=2|accessdate=2008-10-26}} who had died in 1878.{{cite web|url=http://www.nas.edu/history/members/henry.html|title=Joseph Henry|publisher=www.nas.edu|accessdate=2008-10-26|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213121232/http://www.nas.edu/history/members/henry.html|archivedate=2013-12-13}} Henry, who had developed the first electric motor, was also the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.{{cite encyclopedia | last=Mayer | first=Alfred M. | title=Henry as a Discoverer | encyclopedia=A Memorial of Joseph Henry | volume= | pages=475–508 | publisher=Government Printing Office | location=Washington | year=1880 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GsAKAAAAIAAJ&dq=thermopile+henry+joseph&pg=PA502 | accessdate=2007-09-23 }}
A Freemason, Sousa was fascinated by what the group considered mystical qualities in otherwise natural phenomena. According to Sten Odenwald of the NASA IMAGE Science Center,{{cite web|url=http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/venus/TransitFAQs.html|title=Transit FAQs|publisher=image.gsfc.nasa.gov|accessdate=2008-10-26|last=|first=}} this played a significant role in the selection of the time and date of the performance, April 19, 1883, at 4:00 P.M. Dr. Odenwald points out that Venus and Mars, invisible to the participants, were setting in the west. At the same time, the moon, Uranus, and Virgo were rising in the east, Saturn had crossed the meridian, and Jupiter was directly overhead. According to Masonic lore, Venus was associated with the element copper, a component of electric motors.
2003 resurrection
The "Transit of Venus March" never caught on during Sousa's lifetime. It went unplayed for many years, after Sousa's manuscript copies of the music were destroyed in a flood. As reported in The Washington Post, Library of Congress employee Loris J. Schissel found copies of the old sheet music for the "Transit of Venus March" "languishing in the library's files".{{cite news |title=Dusting off a Rarity for Venus's Celestial March |author=Reilly Capps |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=October 31, 2003}}The reason for its presence there, and its going unnoticed for so long, is unclear. The piece was resurrected in time for the 2004 Transit of Venus. The piece had been performed on compilation albums before then, but it was the 2004 transit that brought it to wide public attention.
The Library of Congress joined with NASA to celebrate the 2004 transit with this march.{{cite web|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/venus/venus-home.html|title=Transit of Venus (Performing Arts Encyclopedia, The Library of Congress)|publisher=lcweb2.loc.gov|accessdate=2008-10-25|last=|first=}}
Gallery
= People =
Image:JohnPhilipSousa-Chickering.LOC.jpg|John Philip Sousa, the composer of the march.
Image:JosephHenry-SmithsonianCastle-20050517.jpg|The statue of Joseph Henry, the unveiling of which was Sousa's reason for writing the march.
= Transits of Venus =
Image:1882 transit of venus.jpg|The 1882 transit, which inspired Sousa to write the march.
Image:Venustransit 2004-06-08 07-49.jpg|The 2004 transit. The march, rediscovered in 2003, was used to celebrate this event.
See also
Notes
{{Reflist|group=note}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Wikisourcehas|the sheet music of|The Transit of Venus March}}
{{Commons category|John Philip Sousa Transit of Venus}}
- [https://bandmusicpdf.org/transitvenus/ Copies of the original march] (including all player parts) published by JW Pepper in 1883
- [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/natlib/ihas/service/transit/200002625/0001.mp3 Audio recording of the march] (performed 2003 by the Virginia Grand Military Band)
- [http://www.fourmilab.ch/images/venus_transit_2004/movies/transit.avi Video recording of the 2004 transit of venus, accompanied by the Sousa march], produced by John Walker
{{John Philip Sousa}}
{{Authority control}}