“Daughters of Texas” (1929)
A curious fact about “Daughters of Texas,” which was dedicated to a Texas college, is that two completely different marches were written. The college never knew of the first version, which was conscripted for another use. This fact has not heretofore been made public.
After an evening concert in Denton, Texas, on October 19, 1928, Sousa was approached by Marion Benson and Margaret Marable and other representatives of an all-girls school; they presented him with a petition signed by seventeen hundred students asking him to compose a march for them. The school was the College of Industrial Arts, now known as the Texas Woman’s University. Flattered, Sousa beamed one of his seldom-seen smiles and replied: “It is impossible to resist the request of seventeen hundred charming Texas girls, and if you will send me some of your college songs I will incorporate them into a march.”
Either the college songs were not sent or else Sousa decided against using them, because he proceeded to compose the first version of the march without them. At the head of the first band score was the inscription “Daughters of Denton.” “Denton” was scratched out and replaced by “Texas” in another person’s handwriting. A piano manuscript of the same march apparently made later, was titled “Daughters of Texas.”
This version of the march was never published, becoming Sousa’s “mystery” march. Just at this time, a Sousa Band tour for the 1929 season was hurriedly scheduled. There were no plans for a tour that year, but an attractive offer to appear in Minneapolis was made by utilities magnate Wilbur B. Foshay of that city, and a tour was built around that engagement. A skyscraper fashioned after the Washington Monument was being completed, the building now known as the Foshay Tower. A fabulous four-day celebration was to be held, one of the main attractions being Sousa and his band. Realizing the importance of this engagement, Sousa decided to dedicate a march to Foshay and his impressive building. Apparently thinking there was insufficient time to compose a new one, he took the school march and used it in Minneapolis as the “Foshay Tower Washington Memorial” march.
As it turned out, there was sufficient time to compose a second march, because the second version was completed before the tour began, and both marches were featured on tour programs. The second march was published as “Daughters of Texas,” but the “Foshay Tower Washington Memorial” march was never published, for reasons given in the discussion of that march.
Paul E. Bierley, The Works of John Philip Sousa (Westerville, Ohio: Integrity Press, 1984), 48. Used by permission.
*PLEASE NOTE: Currently, none of the marches from Volume 7 are in the public domain. Recordings of non-PD marches are only available for streaming on YouTube. To purchase a published edition of this march, please visit the sheet music vendor of your choice.