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All Volumes, The Complete Marches of John Philip Sousa

Photo by Gunnery Sgt. Brian Rust

The Complete Marches of John Philip Sousa: Volume 7

4 Apr 2022 | Staff Sgt. Chase Baran United States Marine Band

On April 4, 2022, the United States Marine Band released Volume 7 of The Complete Marches of John Philip Sousa, the final installment of this multi-year recording project.

"I am so excited to finally bring this monumental project to record Sousa's marvelous marches to a close,” Col. Jason K. Fettig, director of the Marine Band said. “These past seven years have been a musical adventure for the band like no other, and for me personally, it was a deep exploration of an iconic American legend that I will never forget.”

Explore Volume 7

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Col. Fettig continued:

“The goal of this project was to share this collection of Sousa's masterpieces in such a way that fans of the American march could access them all in one place, and so that bands all over the globe could take part in performing these wonderful pieces in an historically authentic way. As we have brought this collection to fruition, we here in the Marine Band have also learned a great deal about our former director and ‘The March King,’ and had the opportunity to discover the unique evolution of his genius as a march composer.”

“That special genius is on full display in this final volume of Sousa's marches, all composed in the last three years of his life. He was writing nearly to the end, and each of these marches reveal a composer at the very height of his craft; they are melodically, harmonically and rhythmically as inventive as any of his previous marches, and he continued to expand the technical challenges for the band in this final collection.”

“Some of my all-time favorite Sousa marches were written in these last years, to include ‘Daughters of Texas,’ ‘Foshay Tower Washington Memorial,’ ‘The Royal Welch Fusiliers’ and ‘George Washington Bicentennial.’ Like all of the other volumes in our recording collection, some of these marches are not as well known, but absolutely deserve more attention as perfect examples of the beauty of the American march form. If our ‘Complete Marches of John Philip Sousa’ collection succeeds in introducing some of these miniature masterpieces to a whole new generation of musicians and music lovers, it will have been well worth the effort!"

PLEASE NOTE: Volume 7 marches are not in the public domain. Recordings of these marches are only available for streaming on YouTube. To purchase a published edition of one of the marches, please visit the sheet music vendor of your choice.

Each score was carefully edited and annotated by Col. Fettig, former Music Production Chief Master Gunnery Sgt. Donald Patterson USMC (Ret.), and Arranger Staff Sgt. Scott Ninmer, and then performed by musicians of “The President’s Own.” The musical decisions included in these editions were influenced by the work of several outstanding Sousa scholars combined with many decades of Marine Band performance tradition. These editions would not be possible without the exceptional contributions to the study of Sousa’s marches by Capt. Frank Byrne USMC (Ret.), Jonathan Elkus, Col. Timothy Foley USMC (Ret.), Dr. Patrick Warfield, and “The March King’s” biographer, the late Paul Bierley.

About the marches on Volume 7:

Volume 7 includes the final marches written during John Philip Sousa’s lifetime, from the years 1929 to 1931. These works represent the culmination of a career composing marches – among other significant musical contributions – which spanned more than half a century.

At this point in Sousa’s life, his fame and popularity continued to precede him, making his work of continual interest to the many parties wishing to have a piece written especially by “The March King” himself.

The volume begins with one request from students of the College of Industrial Arts in Denton, Texas, now known as the Texas Women’s University. Two students and other representatives from the all-girls school approached Sousa with a petition of 1,700 signatures asking him to compose a march for their institution. He obliged by composing “Daughters of Texas,” citing “It is impossible to resist the request of seventeen hundred charming Texas girls.”

The Kansas State College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences also petitioned for its own march, and “Kansas Wildcats” was subsequently dedicated to the school. However, there is evidence that this published march may not have been the original one Sousa intended to use. There are fragments of two other marches titled “The Wildcats” and “The Wildcats of Kansas March” that exist, and a copyist’s manuscript of a later march has “Kansas Wildcats” written above a scratched-out “The Sword of San Jacinto.”

Unlike the other school marches that were Sousa’s answer to a request, “University of Illinois” was created out of his admiration for A. Austin Harding, director of what Sousa considered the finest college band in the world. So confident was Sousa in Harding and his band program, that he willed the Sousa Band library to the university upon his death.

Other musical groups were cause for Sousa’s inspiration, too, such as Albert N. Hoxie’s 52-member Philadelphia Harmonica Band that Sousa was once invited to conduct in 1925. It was an experience that impressed him so much that he endorsed Hohner harmonicas in his band’s programs and later wrote the march “Harmonica Wizard,” dedicated to the group.

Sousa was likewise inspired by his visit to the National Music Camp at Interlochen in Northern Michigan. He was optimistic about the future of music in America, and this was solidified by what he observed while guest conducting the youthful and talented musicians attending the camp. On a subsequent visit, he penned “The Northern Pines” and dedicated it to Dr. Joseph E. Maddy and the camp he created for budding musicians.

During these years, Sousa also composed “The Aviators” and “The Circumnavigators Club.” The former piece was dedicated to Rear Admiral William A. Moffett, chief of the Navy’s Bureau of Aeronautics. In addition to holding a distinguished military career, he was responsible for commissioning Sousa in the U.S. Navy during World War I to lead the band units at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center.

The latter march was a tribute to its namesake organization in New York City, of which Sousa was a member. To be a member of the Circumnavigator’s Club, one must have “traveled around the world and have a sincere interest in foreign countries.” Sousa easily met this requirement thanks to his band tours alone, which went well beyond U.S. borders into Europe, South Africa, and Australia, among other locales. According to the dates of his manuscripts, this was Sousa’s last composition.

Arguably more well-travelled than Sousa was the music he wrote. By this time in his career, his notoriety had spread across the globe, meaning requests for marches also came from far-off places. In 1929 Sousa was asked to produce a march for the Ibero-American Exposition in Seville, Spain. Inspired by the city which was also his father’s hometown, he wrote “La Flor de Sevilla” or “The Flower of Seville,” which was “written for and dedicated to the people of Spain.” Later, the French government sought a piece to be written for the 1931 International Colonial and Overseas Exposition in Paris. In this instance, Sousa responded with “The Legionnaires.”

Though the two separate requests by Marine Corps generals for “The Royal Welch Fusiliers” were of domestic origin, the piece was a one of international significance. The march commemorated the 30th anniversary of the Battle of Tientsin and the cooperative efforts between the U.S. Marines and the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers in the Boxer Rebellion in China. Sousa even travelled to Wales with Marine Corps officers to present his manuscript to the Fusiliers and to conduct their band in the march’s first performance in Britain.

Similarly, important anniversaries were the driving force behind a number of other marches in this volume:

Sousa wrote “The Salvation Army” for the charitable organization’s 50th anniversary, incorporating the melody of the Salvationists’ favorite hymn, “O Boundless Salvation.”

In one of his final public appearances before passing, Sousa premièred his march “George Washington Bicentennial,” conducting combined bands of the U.S. Army, Navy and Marine Corps for a gala celebrating the first president’s 200th birthday,

In 1931, Sousa was also asked to write a march for his band to première at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. The title “A Century of Progress” was borrowed from the fair’s slogan, which embodied Chicago’s development as a city since being founded in 1833. Sousa passed away before the fair’s opening, and his band subsequently did not perform.

The remaining two marches are perhaps the most curious on Volume 7.

In a request by Minneapolis public utilities magnate Wilbur B. Foshay, Sousa was asked to write a march for the dedication of Foshay Tower, a new building constructed to resemble the Washington Monument. Sousa agreed the lavish gala celebration was a worthy event for a new piece, but the request came quite close to the date of the ceremony. Pressed for time, Sousa repurposed a march he had just completed (but not yet published) for the College of Industrial Arts in Denton, Texas. He eventually wrote an entirely new march dedicated to the Texas school, but the original composition was renamed “Foshay Tower Washington Memorial” to meet the deadline.

When the stock market crashed just a few months after the gala was held, Foshay’s empire collapsed, and he was indicted at the center of a financial scandal. Though Sousa died before Foshay was imprisoned, the composer managed to quietly withdraw his march from the public. It wasn’t until 1976, 47 years later, that the piece was re-premièred when Sousa was added to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans.

Finally, one Sousa march remains without a name or context. Neither of the two existing manuscripts of the unpublished Untitled March had its title page, so it’s anyone’s guess as to what “The March King” intended it for. A mix-up involving this untitled march and various marches called “The Wildcats,” “Kansas Wildcats,” “The Sword of San Jacinto,” “Universal Peace,” and “The Gridiron Club” is evidence of the fact that the titles of Sousa’s marches were sometimes changed before the marches were published, or in this case, were completely lost altogether.

More historical information for Volume 7 marches can be found on their individual webpages.

Together, these 14 works complete the Marine Band recordings of John Philip Sousa’s marches. For those keeping count, this brings the total number of marches recorded to 129 – seven shy of the 136 marches Sousa wrote. Continue reading for more information about the marches that are not included in this recording project:

“Salutation” (1873): The music from Sousa's second march, “Salutation,” was written while he was a musician in the Marine Band, but has since been lost. The piece was intended as a salute to the new band leader, Louis Schneider, but Schneider gruffly ordered the march off the stands when it was to be played. Sousa replaced Schneider as leader of the band just seven years later.

“Phoenix” (1875): Early in his career, Sousa was musical director for a traveling company which produced the play Bohemians and Detectives (later called The Phoenix, at Sousa's suggestion), starring Milton Nobles. Sousa composed incidental music for the production. He also composed this march and dedicated it to Nobles, but evidently it was not intended for use in the play. Nearly half a century afterward, Nobles told how Sousa had composed the march en route to Memphis. It was first called "The Bludso March," Jim Bludso being the principal character of the play. The only remnant of the march is a fragment given as an entry in Sousa's musical almanac, Through the Year with Sousa. Part of the march was used later as basis for his "Manhattan Beach" march.

“March of the Pan-Americans” (1915): Sousa received two requests for the piece. The first came from Franklin Adams of the Pan-American Union, in a letter dated May 26, 1915. The second came from John Barrett, director general of the second Pan-American Scientific Congress in Washington, D.C. In a letter from Sousa to Adams dated December 20, 1915, he stated that the composition was completed and in the hands of the engraver and that it had been named the official march of the Congress. At approximately 15 minutes in length, the publisher of this march reportedly complained of unknowingly agreeing to publish an "encyclopedia." The march utilizes a number of national anthems from 21 countries across the American continents, closing with “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

“The Victory Chest” (1918): In 1918, at the height of the Liberty Loan bond drive, Sousa went to Cleveland with his Navy “Jackie” band. In Cleveland, the fund was called the Victory Chest. While there, Sousa apparently penned part or all of this march. The sole clue to its existence is a photograph found among items of Sousa's personal library which were bequeathed to the U.S. Marine Corps Museum in 1969. This photograph shows Sousa seated at a piano playing what appears to be a three-page manuscript. Four measures of this march, evidently the introduction, are shown as an insert on the photograph.

“Universal Peace” (1925/1926): The piano score of a march called "Universal Peace" was discovered among old papers at Sousa's Sands Point estate in 1965. The title "National Defense" had been crossed out. Sections are almost identical to sections of the march now known as "The Gridiron Club," the march Sousa apparently composed shortly thereafter and dedicated to the Gridiron Club, the celebrated organization of journalists in Washington, D.C. He did almost the same thing with still another march, one bearing no title. In this instance he used some sections for "The Gridiron Club" and later used most of the remainder for a march called "The Wildcats.” The end result of this musical juggling was that three separate marches grew from this nucleus: "The Gridiron Club," "Universal Peace," and "The Wildcats." Apparently, he felt that "The Gridiron Club" was the best of the three, because the other two were never published.

“The Wildcats”/“The Wildcats of Kansas” (1930/1931): After Sousa's death his two daughters presented a number of his manuscripts to the Library of Congress. The first page of one of the manuscripts is entitled "The Wildcats," and a note in Priscilla Sousa's hand mistakenly refers to it as her father's "Kansas Wildcats" march. A study of the manuscript showed that the first page was indeed from a unique march named "The Wildcats," while the remaining pages were separate, belonging to what would become known as Sousa’s untitled march. A second piano manuscript entitled "The Wildcats of Kansas" is thought to be related to the single existing page of “The Wildcats,” supporting evidence that Sousa was working on an original piece intended for the Kansas State College of Agriculture and Applied Science. In the end, however, the college received a totally different march – one originally named "The Sword of San Jacinto." Parts of the “The Wildcats”/“The Wildcats of Kansas” manuscripts include sections of "The Gridiron Club.”

“Library of Congress” (1931): John Philip Sousa began writing this march in 1931, but never completed it before his death in 1932. Using the Library of Congress’s Sousa Collection of over 300 manuscripts, former Marine Band arranger Stephen Bulla worked to finish and orchestrate the score by only using Sousa's fragmentary sketches, a piano draft, and one page of a completed band score containing eight measures. Further details and resources are available through the Library of Congress.

Additional Note:

“The Royal Welch Fusiliers,” original version: An exchange of letters between Sousa and General Wendelle G. Neville reveal that two separate versions of this march were composed. Late in 1929, Sousa composed a medley-march which included “World Turned Upside Down,” “Hymn of the Marines,” “Men of Harlech,” and “God Bless the Prince of Wales.” When he asked Neville’s opinion, Neville replied that he would prefer an original Sousa composition. For this reason, the second version – the one that Sousa presented to the Royal Welch Fusiliers in person – is the only one included on Volume 7. The original march that Neville declined has not been added to the overall catalog of Sousa’s marches.

 

References:

Paul E. Bierley, The Works of John Philip Sousa (Westerville, Ohio: Integrity Press, 1984), 41, 45, 48, 52, 55, 58, 59, 61, 65, 67, 70, 75, 77, 81, 82, 91, 95, 97, 98. Used by permission.

Sousa, John Philip, and Stephen Bulla. Library of Congress march. 2003. Notated Music. https:// www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200000027/.