John Philip Sousa, America’s foremost composer of march music, was born
in Washington, D. C., on November 6, 1854. The son of a trombone player
in the United States Marine Band, John Philip early received music
instruction, mainly the violin from John Esputa. When he was about
thirteen, John enlisted in the Marine Corps where he played in its band
for two years. For several years after that he played the violin in and
conducted the orchestras of various theaters; in the summer of 1877 he
played in an orchestra conducted by Jacques Offenbach at the
Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. Between 1880 and 1892 he was the
musical director of the Marine Band. It was during this period that he
wrote his first famous marches. In 1892 he formed a band of his own with
which he toured Europe and America for many years, and with which he
gave more than a thousand concerts. His most popular marches (together
with his best transcriptions for band of national ballads and patriotic
airs) were always the highlights of his concerts. Besides the marches,
Sousa wrote the music for numerous comic operas, the most famous being
_El Capitan_ (1896) and _The Bride Elect_ (1898). In 1918 Sousa and his
band were heard in the Hippodrome extravaganza, _Everything_. He
published his autobiography, _Marching Along_, in 1928, and died in
Reading, Pennsylvania, on March 6, 1932.
In the closing years of the 19th century, and in the first part of the
20th, America was undergoing expansion in many directions: art, science,
literature, commerce, finance, world affairs. Hand in hand with this
development and growth came an aroused patriotism and an expanding
chauvinism. Sousa’s marches were the voice of this new and intense
national consciousness.
As Sigmund Spaeth has pointed out, most of Sousa’s famous marches follow
a similar pattern, beginning with “an arresting introduction, then using
a light, skipping rhythm for his first melody, going from that into a
broader tune,” then progressing to the principal march melody. A massive
climax is finally realized with new, vibrant colors being realized in
the main march melody through striking new combinations of instruments.
The following are some of Sousa’s most popular marches:
_El Capitan_ (1896) was adapted from a choral passage from the comic
opera of the same name. This music was played aboard Admiral Dewey’s
flagship, _Olympia_, when it steamed down Manila Bay for battle during
the Spanish-American War. And it was again heard, this time performed by
Sousa’s own band, when Dewey was welcomed as a conquering hero in New
York on September 30, 1900.
_King Cotton_ (1895) was written on the occasion of the engagement of
the Sousa Band at the Cotton States Exposition. _Semper Fideles_ (1888)
was Sousa’s first famous composition in march tempo, and to this day it
is still one of his best known marches, a perennial favorite with
parades of all kinds. Since Sousa sold this march outright for $35.00 he
never capitalized on its immense popularity.
Sousa’s masterpiece—and probably one of the most famous marches ever
written—was the _Stars and Stripes Forever_, completed on April 26,
1897. In 1897 Sousa was a tourist in Italy when he heard the news that
his friend and manager had died in the United States. Sousa decided to
return home. Aboard the _Teutonic_ a march melody kept haunting him. As
soon as he came home he put the melody down on paper, and it became the
principal subject of “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” This principal
melody achieves an unforgettable climax in the march when it is proudly
thundered by the full orchestra to figurations in the piccolo.
_The Thunderer_ and _The Washington Post March_ were written in 1889.
The latter was commissioned by the _Washington Post_ for the ceremonies
attending the presentation of prizes in a student essay contest.
Among Sousa’s other marches are _The Bride Elect_ (1897) from the comic
opera of the same name; _The Fairest of the Fair_ (1908); _Hands Across
the Sea_ (1899); _Invincible Eagle_ (1901); and _Saber and Spurs_ (1915)
dedicated to the United States Cavalry.
It was long maintained that Sousa was the composer of the famous hymn of
the Artillery branch of the United States armed services, “The Caisson
Song.” Sousa played this march in his own brilliant new band arrangement
at a Liberty Loan Drive at the Hippodrome, in New York, in 1918. For
some time thereafter Sousa was credited as being the composer. But
further research revealed the fact that the words and music had been
written in 1908 by Edmund L. Gruber, then a lieutenant with the 5th
Artillery in the Philippines.