A. P. Stenglar

Gustave August Cercello Stengler was the primary clarinet soloist in Sousa's Band from 1892 to 1897 and, at the time, was already famous by virtue of his performances with the Gilmore Band. During his time with the Sousa Band, Stengler was featured fifty-one times, including thirty-two solo, five duet, and fourteen trio/quartet appearances. He most often performed fantasies on opera themes like Verdi’s Rigoletto and Bellini’s La Sonnambula, and occasionally played an encore, like Schumann’s Traumerei. Stengler regularly soloed with the band at both the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago and the annual series of concerts held at Manhattan Beach, New York. He was often featured with other members of the band including clarinetist Joseph Norrito, flutist Frank Wadsworth, oboist Robert Messinger, flutist Giacomo (Jack) Norrito, and horn player Bernhardt Baumgartel. They most often performed Val Hamm’s “The Three Gossips” for clarinet, oboe, and flute (“The Four Gossips” if performed with horn). Newspaper reviews of the Sousa Band concerts describe Stengler’s brilliant clarinet playing. In a concert review from 1892, the Woonsocket Call from Woonsocket, RI wrote, “The clarinet solo by Signor Stengler was one of the gems of the concert; it received warm applause.” After a Sousa Band concert on Sunday, November 20, 1892 at Boston’s Broadway Theatre, on which Stengler performed Baermann’s Concerto for Clarinet, the Boston Globe wrote, “A solo for clarinet by Signor Stengler revealed the possibilities of that instrument when in the hands of a master.” Furthermore, Stengler was one of the first clarinetists to be recorded as a soloist in America. In 1897 and 1898 Stengler participated in recording sessions for the Berliner disc label. He recorded sixteen solo pieces and eight duets with clarinetist George McNeice. Several of the solo pieces recorded by Stengler were also the solos that he performed with the Sousa Band, including an arrangement of Bellini’s La Sonnambula (Berliner 341) and Bishop’s “Lo, Here the Gentle Lark” (Berliner 319). Other pieces he recorded included nostalgic songs like Foster’s “Old Folks at Home,” Bishop’s “Home, Sweet Home,” and the popular “Blue Bells of Scotland.” Stengler also composed music, including a solo clarinet piece entitled, “Fantasy on Mercadante’s Il Giuramento.” He apparently left the band because of a problem with alcohol; the Salt Lake City Tribune reported in 1901, “Herr Stengler, the former solo clarinet player with the band, is with the band no more. ‘Ach zu viele booze,’ was the explanation one musician gave ere leaving for the West yesterday. A man cannot drink and tend to business in any line of action.”