Sousa, John Philip (1854-1932), was a famous American composer and bandmaster. Sousa wrote many kinds of music, including operettas, orchestral suites, songs, waltzes, and a symphonic poem. But his fame rests on his marches, and he became known throughout the world as the “March King.”
Sousa took the rather simple form of the military march and gave it a personal style and new rhythmic and melodic vitality. The best known of his 136 marches include “Semper Fidelis” (1888), “Thunderer” and “The Washington Post” (both 1889), “The High School Cadets” (1890), “Liberty Bell” and “Manhattan Beach” (both 1893), “El Capitan” and “The Stars and Stripes Forever” (both 1896), and “Hands Across the Sea” (1899).
Loading the player...The Stars and Stripes Forever
Sousa also wrote five novels. His autobiography is titled Marching Along (1928).
Sousa was born on Nov. 6, 1854, in Washington, D.C. His parents could not afford to send him to Europe to study music. But Sousa later said, “I feel I am better off as it is … for I may therefore consider myself a truly American composer.”
After studying violin and harmony, Sousa began his professional career at the age of 17, playing in theater and dance orchestras and touring with a variety show. In 1876, he played in Jacques Offenbach’s orchestra when the famous French composer toured the United States. Soon afterward, Sousa wrote an operetta, The Smugglers, the first of many that he wrote in the next 35 years. Sousa was one of the first Americans to compose operettas. He wrote both the words and the music. His most successful operetta was El Capitan (1896).
Sousa was appointed leader of the U.S. Marine Band in 1880, and made the band into one of the finest in the world. Some of the marches that made him famous were written for it. In 1892, he obtained his discharge from the Marine Corps and formed his own band.
“Sousa’s Band” quickly became famous throughout America and Europe. He was honored wherever he traveled. In England, King Edward VII decorated him with the Victorian Order. In 1900, the American writer Rupert Hughes wrote, “There is probably no other composer in the world with a popularity equal to that of Sousa.”
In 1910 and 1911, the band made a triumphal world tour. From 1917 to 1919, Sousa served as bandmaster for the United States Navy. He died on March 6, 1932.
