Week 2483 of social distancing and we’re still here… Just doing the same things that we did last week, over and over again… taking a walk to the ice cream shop just to get out of the house… watching Netflix like it’s your new job… You know how it is.
Anyways, this week I’ll be focusing on the man, the myth, the American legend that is John Philip Sousa. I thought we’d cover someone American and someone who was a bit different than the whole Romantic era thing. So how about the March King!
Sousa was pretty much born into the Marine Band tradition – his father was a member, and the young boy was learning violin, piano, flute, trombone, and baritone at age 6. Sousa also literally tried running away to the circus when he was 13. Then his father was like “mm, nope” and enrolled him as a band apprentice in the Marine Band instead.
His father definitely knew what was best for him; Sousa stayed with the Marines for the next seven years broadening his musical talents. After being discharged, Sousa began touring as a violinist and with theater orchestras while beginning to compose.
Fortunately for him, Sousa led a pretty stable personal life. He married Jane Bellis in 1879, and they had three children together. After his wedding, the couple came back to Washington, D.C., Sousa’s hometown, where Sousa became the conductor of the U.S. Marine Band as well as The President’s Own band. This man got to play for Presidents Hayes, Garfield, Cleveland, Arthur, and Harrison!
Apparently, Sousa was not a lenient conductor. By transforming rehearsals into strict and structured practice, Sousa created the nation’s premier military band and its superb reputation.
While conducting the Marine Band, Sousa started gaining fame as a composer with his marches “The Gladiator” and the official Marine Corps march “Semper Fidelis.” The latter set him on a course that would preserve his legacy as the March King into the 21st century.
With Sousa at the helm, the Marine Band made its first recordings with the brand-new phonograph and launched its first tour with the permission of President Harrison. Sousa’s tours created the annual tradition of the Marine Band tour, which continues to this day.
After leading the Marine Band, Sousa went on to form his own band, the adeptly named Sousa Band, which hosted several US, Europe, and world tours in the first decade of the 20th century. The Sousa Band quickly became one of the most revered American bands, performing both military and symphonic pieces.
Throughout all of this, Sousa continued writing music. Several of his most well-known marches include the “Washington Post” (originally written for a contest hosted by the newspaper), “The Liberty Bell,” and obviously “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” written on a return trip to America after hearing the news of his producer’s death.
And Sousa didn’t stop with just marches. He composed operettas, like El Capitan, waltzes, suites, humoresques, and fantasies. He redeveloped a specific sort of bass tuba into a circular shape that we now know as the sousaphone (those big tubas that wrap around the players in the Blue Band). He also enlisted in the US Navy during WWI – at age 60, mind you – and commanded a base in Illinois.
Not to mention his three novels, an autobiography, advocacy for children’s music education, several honorary degrees, leading the first American trapshooting organization, and the small fact that his legacy lives on in every marching band ever… need I go on?
Fittingly, the last piece Sousa rehearsed with a band before his death was “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” which, in 1987, was designated as the United States national march. Interestingly, Sousa’s baton, made for him by members of his Marine Band, was regifted to the Marine Band by Sousa’s daughters and is now passed on to each new conductor.
Pretty much every band kid knows Sousa and has played one of his marches. Even non-musicians celebrate the Fourth of July with “The Stars and Stripes Forever” and hear Sousa’s influence in American marching bands. We can all recognize the sousaphones out on the field of Beaver Stadium during the Blue Band halftime show. So I would say that Sousa’s legacy isn’t fading anytime soon, nor should it.
Here are some more Sousa pieces!
Manhattan Beach (I played this with Campus Band this semester until online school…)
And the musical meme of the week:
Here are my sources:
Bierley, Paul E. “John Philip Sousa.” The Library of Congress, The Library of Congress, 2020, www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200152755/.
Bralley, Jean-Marie. “John Philip Sousa: 10 Things You Don’t Know About The Man Behind the Marches.” United Service Organizations, The USO, 3 June 2018, www.uso.org/stories/2040-john-philip-sousa-10-things-you-don-t-know-about-the-man-behind-the-marches.
“Hall of Fame Inductee: John Philip Sousa.” Trapshooting Hall of Fame, Trapshooting Hall of Fame, 2020, www.traphof.org/inductees/details/1/154-sousa-john-phillip.
“John Philip Sousa.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2 Mar. 2020, www.britannica.com/biography/John-Philip-Sousa.
“John Philip Sousa.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 2020, www.pbs.org/a-capitol-fourth/history/john-philip-sousa/.