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Newest SEC Outreach Program: 1883 Transit of Venus March Performance On June 8, 2004 at sunrise, the East Coast will be able to witness the rare movement of the planet Venus across the face of the Sun. This event has not been seen since 1882. Although Venus will be at that time over 67 million miles from the Sun (about 26 million miles from Earth) because it will be exactly between the Sun and Earth, human observers will see its small black disk 'transit' across the Sun. During a total solar eclipse, the moon is also between Sun and Earth, but its close proximity to Earth makes its dark disk so large that it completely covers the entire face of the Sun. There have been only five of these "transits of Venus" sighted by humans since the possibility for such events was first realized in 1639 by British astronomer and cleric Jeremiah Horrocks. During the last transit on December 6, 1882, which made newspaper headlines all around the world, dozens of scientific expeditions were sent out across the world to observe it. Its importance to astronomers was that, by careful observation, they could use its motion and parallax to triangulate the distance between the Sun and Earth, thereby setting the scale for the entire solar system and the cosmos beyond. The 1882 transit of Venus gave astronomers the answer to this distance as 92,797,000 miles with an uncertainty of only 59,700 miles! The Transit of Venus March was one of John Philip Sousa's earliest marches written while he was still a new conductor for the U.S. Marine Band - a commission that he had just accepted in 1880. Following a difficult year of recruiting new band members, and firing those that didn't satisfy his exacting musical standards, his band made its debut White House performance on January 1, 1881. Sousa's popularity as the 'March King' grew steadily in the years to follow. His better-known 'Stars and Stripes Forever' march was written in 1889 and was declared the official U.S. National March by an act of Congress in 1987. John Philip Sousa was commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution to write a march to honor the great American physicist Prof. Joseph Henry who had died on May 13, 1878. The march was to be played as a processional for the planned unveiling of the commemorative statue of Henry. The statue was to be placed in front of the Smithsonian Institution in 1883. The December 6, 1882 transit of Venus was evidently such a striking event for the general public that Sousa chose to base the new march on this rare transit. Some scholars also think that there may have been much more involved in this march than simple 'background music'. According to author David Ovason in his book 'The Secret Architecture of our Nation's Capital' (1999) the Transit of Venus March was to be performed at a specific time and date: April 19, 1883 at 4:00 PM. At this propitious hour, the planet Venus, invisible to the participants, would have completed its arc in the sky and would be setting in the west. Meanwhile, Virgo would rising in the east, and Jupiter would be directly over head. Venus was associated with the element copper. Joseph Henry had used large quantities of copper to create his powerful electromagnets, which at that time operated some of America's newest technology. The connection of the 'passing of Henry' commemorated by the statue, and the 'passing of Venus' in its western setting may have seemed like a fitting mystical bond between two separate worlds: human and cosmic. In preparation for NASA's educational programs in 2004, which will feature a live web cast of the entire event from Spain, Dr. Sten Odenwald, an astronomer at the NASA Goddard Space flight Center, examined the documents at the Library of Congress related to previous transits of Venus. He also worked with Ms. Susan Clermont at the LoC Performing Arts Division to locate any music that may have been inspired by this rare celestial event. Among a collection of sheet music, they located Sousa's Transit of Venus March. Mr. Loris Schissel, a Sousa expert and the conductor of the Virginia Grand Military Band, was then contacted to inquire about the circumstances of this march. During the summer of 2003, Raytheon ITSS commissioned Mr. Schissel to re-orchestrate the original copy of Sousa's march for modern instruments. Unfortunately, Sousa's original manuscript for this march was destroyed in a flood of Sousa's house, which also destroyed many other of his earlier manuscripts as well. The modern re-orchestration was made from published copies of this march made during the late-1800's. Mr. Schissel was kind enough, not only to translate the older score into modern clefs and keys, but to re-perform this march on September 13th, 2003 at the Schlesinger Concert Hall in Alexandria, Virginia so that others might enjoy this march. The last known performance of this march before then was at a concert at the White House during the summer of 1883. The next performance will be on November 1 also at the Schlessenger Auditorium in commemoration of John Philip Sousa's Birthday. John Philip Sousa IV will be attending. If you want to participate in the NASA event and view the transit for yourself, you can find more details at: http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/sunearthday/2004/index_vthome.htm For a brief discussion of what these transits are all about, visit: http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/sunearthday/2004/vt_edu2004_venus_back.htm
Dr. Sten Odenwald
- Astronomer - 301) 286-6953, odenwald@astronomycafe.net Ms. Susan Clermont
- Music Specialist 202) 707-8673 Mr. Loras Schissel
- Conductor - lsch@loc.gov Mr. Ken Stegeman
- Concert Producer - 703) 281-3331
DBStegeman@aol.com
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