In summer 1897, a Pennsylvania composer put some oomph into the oompah for the Detroit Free Press.
William Paris Chambers, a prominent East Coast cornet player and bandmaster, wrote the musical piece “Detroit Free Press,” one of dozens of marches he penned during his 59 years.
Newspaper marches had emerged in the mid-1800s, but as their popularity soared in the later part of the century, composers got to work like present-day content creators hopping on the latest viral sensation. Chambers’ own portfolio included works named for the Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun.
Ahead of a Belle Isle performance of the Free Press march in August 1897, the paper described the piece:
“Mr. Chambers evidently caught the spirit of the muse as his composition contains many melodic passages and in its entirety is well within the bounds of good music.”
Newspaper marches were occasionally commissioned works — early commercial jingles, in a sense. But across America, the motives typically worked the other way around.
“In most cases, these marches were written because the composers thought if they named them for the paper, the paper would write about it,” musicologist George C. Foreman told the Free Press in 1996.
“Detroit Free Press” was included on a 1996 album spearheaded by Foreman that assembled 18 newspaper marches from the turn of the 20th century, a time when brass bands flourished across the land. His compilation including the most famous of them all: “The Washington Post,” which endures as one of John Philip Sousa’s best-known works.
In Detroit, Chambers’ piece wasn’t the only Free Press-related march: Four years earlier, Michigan composer William C.G. Wright wrote a Christmas march for the paper, and the sheet music was distributed as holiday gift to readers.
For Free Press enthusiasts of more recent vintage, there’s another piece of music that may resonate: In 1966, Motown star Marvin Gaye was enlisted for “The Teen Beat Song,” a bouncy single that promoted the paper’s youth-oriented features and entertainment section.
On the occasion of America’s 250th birthday, newspaper marches are getting a second look from the Free Press and its sister publications that are part of the USA TODAY Co. To celebrate the anniversary, Jim Beckerman, a reporter at The Record in northern New Jersey, has composed “The USA TODAY March” in a style that would make Sousa and Chambers proud. It was recently given its premiere by the New Jersey Wind Symphony.
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Forget the Washington Post’s march. The Free Press has one of its own.
Reporting by Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
