Our national march is, by almost any musical standard, a masterpiece. This song has done more to arouse the patriotism of Americans than any other song (with the exception of our glorious anthem) and is the most popular march ever composed.
Written by John Philip Sousa, a United States Marine (who was also the leader of "The President's Own" Marine Band), this song has endeared itself to the American people. However, the popularity of our national march is by no means limited to the United States. Abroad, it symbolizes America. It has been recorded more often than almost any other composition ever written.
Our national march was actually written by Sousa out of homesickness. Some of the lines came to Sousa's mind while he was in Europe on vacation with his wife. While on vacation, news reached him that the bandmaster of his "Sousa Band" had died. In a hasty rush, Sousa boarded a ship for America.
Aboard the ship, Sousa started to grow impatient; he wanted to be back in our beloved country, under the folds of our grand old flag.
As he paced miles up and down the ships' dock, Sousa began to remember when he would lead "The President's Own" Marine Band and see the flag waving on the flagstaff on the White House grounds. He began to think of all the countries he had visited, the people he had met, the vast difference between America and American people, and other nations and other nations people.
Sousa could not relax until he had finished composing "Stars and Stripes Forever" in his mind. He said he constantly had an imaginary band playing our national march while he waited, now patiently, for the ship to dock in America.
The song was penned on Christmas of 1896, likely in Sousa's hotel suite in New York, although it was not made available to the public until later.
"Stars and Stripes Forever" was first published in Philadelphia on May 14, 1897, where it only received slightly above-the-typical enthusiasm of a new Sousa march.
It wasn't until the Spanish-American war when people needed a song to boost their patriotism, that "Stars and Stripes Forever" became immensely popular.
People started standing for it as though it was our national anthem, and openly demanded that it be played at all Sousa Band performances. Members of his band said they never remembered having not played it, and they never remembered getting tired of playing it either.
Each part of this march's final trio, as Sousa said, is in honor of the different “sections” of the United States: the main melody being for the north, the piccolo obbligato for the south, and the broad countermelody of the trombone for the west.
When Sousa conducted his band concert, he would have the trombones, trumpets, cornets, and piccolos come up and stand in the front for the final trio, to add excitement; a tradition that is still practiced today.
Copies of "Stars and Stripes Forever" netted Sousa over $400,000 in his lifetime. Once the copyright expired, well over 40 new arrangements were made, just as they continue to be made today.
Many people have written grand, patriotism-inspiring songs, but only U.S. Marine John Philip Sousa's composition "Stars and Stripes Forever" has had the honor of being named the United States of America's national march.
May the stars and stripes of our flag wave forever over the land of the free and home of the brave!
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