For nearly a century and a half, the likes of floppy-shoed clowns, bicycling poodles in diamanté boleros, and slinky highfliers of bottomless gumption ran helter-skelter beneath the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Big Top. In May, owing to diminishing attendance and high costs, the storied circus bowed for the last time, taking with it a brand of outlandish spectacle that spurred generations of youthful runaways manqué.
We remember the sights of the circus best. For the sounds, however, one first needs to recall the restless energy and suspense within the ring. The first American circus musicians tended to play popular tunes like “Yankee Doodle” alongside acts, arranged for woodwinds and strings. By the 1830s, however, these ensembles were replaced by brass bands, as developments in brass instrument playing had led circus promoters to realize their unique potential for imparting heft and oomph with original music. These players traveled with circus caravans in specially designed bandwagons and were charged with announcing the circus’ arrival in town. They came to be known as “windjammers,” as standard circus marches necessitate jamming wind into their instruments for long durations at pell-mell tempi and precipitously high pitches to accompany spurts of action on stage; fittingly, such tunes are called “screamers.” In the mid-19th century, the horse-pulled calliope, a instrument that emits stertorous whistles via steam power, also found a regular place in the circus band.
Early prominent bandleaders included Ned Kendall and George Choate in the 1850s, both of whom won fame playing the bugle. The music director Merle Evans, who died in 1988, rose to fame as the “Toscanini of the Big Top,” leading the Ringling Brothers’ circus band through about 200 different circus themes per three-hour performance.
Mostly composed in the 20th century, traditional circus music draws from rags, waltzes, marches, and other dance accompaniments. Popular circus composers include Karl King, whose circus tune “Barnum and Bailey’s Favorite,” written for the titular circus in whose band King himself played the euphonium, impressed itself upon generations of audiences; and Henry Fillmore, who snubbed his father’s dogged belief that the trombone produced the very sound of sin in a series of marches with the vociferous instrument in the spotlight. Below, hear the U.S. Marine Band performing Fillmore’s “Rolling Thunder.”
Circusgoers’ ears may perk up most readily upon hearing the familiar, whirlwind opening of “Entrance of the Gladiators” by Czech composer Julius Fucik (pronounced foo-CHEEK) in 1897. Arranged for band and published in the United States in 1901 as “Thunder and Blazes,” Fucik’s invention became the accompaniment of choice for clowns entering the circus ring. Listen below:
The music of John Philip Sousa appears regularly in the circus music repertoire — save what might be his most famous hit. If and only if there is an emergency, like a lion on the loose, the circus band will alert employees with a performance of “Stars and Stripes Forever.”
These days, however, hiring musicians is expensive, and many live performances have opted to replace bands with recordings. Yet the music survives, even if there are fewer people to play it.