|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The music of John Philip Sousa is as much a part of the American landscape as a game of baseball or a wedge of apple pie. Sousa's upbeat music was a reflection of the exuberance of a young nation just beginning to feel its oats.
Sousa "The March King," composed all kinds of music, from operas to ragtime, but his legacy is his 135 marches. His father was a trombonist in the US Marine Band and he enlisted his son in the Marines at the tender age of 13. By 1880, Sousa was elevated to be the conductor of the Marine Band, called "The President's Own."
Over the following years, Sousa faithfully served under a series of presidents including Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Grover Cleveland and William Henry Harrison.
It was in 1892, though, that Sousa left the Marine Band and went out on his own, forming his first civilian band. The band toured all over the world, but Sousa still had time to compose many of his most memorable works including The Liberty Bell, The Manhattan Beach March, and King Cotton.
On Christmas day, 1896, Sousa would compose his most enduring work- Stars and Stripes Forever. One hundred years later, President Ronald Reagan honored Sousa in declaring Stars and Stripes Forever as the official march of the United States of America.
|
|
|
|
|
|
