John Philip Sousa wrote most of the timeless patriotic marches that gave Americans pride and embodied their national spirit. For over half a century, he was an imposing, almost mythic, figure on the musical scene, resplendent in an embroidered uniform while energetically conducting with a gold-tipped baton. His efforts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries produced an astounding body of work, including many of America’s best-loved and most-performed melodies. The Stars and Stripes Forever, his most famous composition, symbolises the Fourth of July as much as fireworks and barbecues, and has been designated the official national march of the U.S.
John Philip Sousa was born in Washington, D.C., on November 6, 1854, the third of ten children of a Bavarian mother and a Portuguese father who played trombone in the U.S. Marine Band. During the Civil War, the young boy became infused with the spirit of marching men and martial music. He began studying the violin and trumpet in a musical conservatory when he was ten.
At 13, after Sousa ran away to join a circus band, his father enlisted him in the Marines as an apprentice violinist. After his discharge in 1875, he composed comic operettas, toured in vaudeville bands, and conducted theatre orchestras. In 1880, 25-year-old Sousa was named the Marine Band’s first American-born conductor. Under his leadership, the ensemble became world famous, and Sousa’s own rousing compositions, including El Capitan, The Washington Post, and Semper Fideles (the Marine anthem) earned him the nickname of “the march king.” Resigning in 1892, he formed the celebrated Sousa’s Band (originally called “the New Marine Band”), which toured the world bedecked in blue-and-black military uniforms.
In 1896, while on the deck of an ocean liner sailing back to America, Sousa was inspired to compose his most famous march. In his mind’s eye, “I could see the Stars and Stripes flying from the flagstaff of the White House,” he recalled, “… and to my imagination it seemed to be the biggest, grandest flag in the world, and I could not get back under it quick enough.” Sousa made an estimated $1 million from the sale of sheet music and recordings of the march. In 1952, it was used as a title for a heavily fictionalised movie biography of the composer.
When the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, 62-year-old Sousa enlisted in the Naval Reserve Force and marched across the country with his 300-piece musical battalion, raising millions of dollars for the war effort. In the 1910s and 1920s, Sousa’s Band recorded his most famous compositions for the Victor label.
Always an energetic worker, Sousa found time to write well over 100 marches, plus novels and a best-selling autobiography, Marching Along. He also invented the tuba-like instrument called the sousaphone. Sousa died of a heart attack on March 6, 1932, shortly after conducting Stars and Stripes Forever for the last time. While still alive “the march king” was already a national treasure, and in 1973, in honour of his legacy, he became one of only three composers to be honoured with election to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans.
Michael R. Ross
SEE ALSO:
OPERETTA; ORCHESTRAL MUSIC.
FURTHER READING
Bierley, Paul E. John Philip Sousa,
American Phenomenon
(Columbus, OH: Integrity Press, 1986);
Newsom, Jon, ed. Perspectives on John Philip Sousa
(Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress,
Music Division, 1983);
Sousa, John Philip. Marching Along: Recollections
of Men, Women, and Music
(Westerville, OH: Integrity Press, 1994).
SUGGESTED LISTENING
El Capitan, Showing off Before Company,
Stars and Stripes Forever, The Trooping of the Colors;
Under the Double Eagle, U.S. Field Artillery,
The Washington Post.