John Philip Sousa · Marine Band of the Royal Netherlands Navy

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

John Philip Sousa · Marine Band of the Royal Netherlands Navy · John Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor, best known for his military marches. He wrote 136 marches, from 1873 until his death in 1932. A British journalist called him The March King, after the example of Johann Strauss II, the Waltz King. He wrote marches for various American universities and led the Marine Band from 1880 to 1892, with which he played at the inauguration celebrations of presidents James Garfield and Benjamin Harrison. He then founded a civilian band of his own and toured for the next 39 years.

Music and breakthrough

His best-known work is The Stars and Stripes Forever from 1896. In 1987 it became, by an Act of Congress, the national march of the United States. The performance in the collection is by the Marine Band of the Royal Netherlands Navy, a Dutch wind band, which shows that this American march is also played in Europe.

Influence

A Sousa march has a fixed form: a clear metre, a short introductory theme, repeated sections and a final section in which a high flute rises above the brass. The light, fast flute part in The Stars and Stripes Forever, the piccolo, is famous. Sousa made wind music into a popular genre, and his marches formed the basis of the wind band tradition in America and far beyond. They also influenced early jazz, because the first jazz bands in New Orleans began with marching instruments and march rhythm.

Listening

• 
  The Stars and Stripes Forever · John Philip Sousa · Marine Band of the Royal Netherlands Navy, 1896
  Apple Music ↗

See also

• European art music