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Morning Open Thread Saturday March 1, 2025, featuring Marches by John Philip Sousa [1]
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Date: 2025-03-01
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All words below are from this Wikipedia site: John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa (November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor, known primarily for American military marches.
Here are a few:
Semper Fideles (1888) (Official March of the United States Marine Corps)
Stars And Stripes Forever (1896) (National March of the United States)
The Liberty Bell (1893) (later used as the credits theme for Monty Python’s Flying Circus TV series)
Sousa began his career playing violin and studying music theory and composition. Sousa's father was a trombonist in the Marine Band, and he enlisted Sousa in the United States Marine Corps as an apprentice at age 13, to keep him from joining a circus band. Sousa left the Marine Band in 1875, and over the next five years, he performed as a violinist and learned to conduct.
Sousa returned to the Marine Band as its head in 1880, and remained as its conductor until 1892.
Sousa was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Naval Reserve on May 31,1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I. He was 62 years old, the mandatory retirement age for Navy officers. During the war, Sousa led the Navy Band at the Great Lakes Naval Station near Chicago, and he donated all of his naval salary, except a token $1 per month, to the Sailors' and Marines' Relief Fund.
Sousa is buried at Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Every year on November 6, the Marine Band performs Semper Fideles at Sousa's grave.
The World War II Liberty Ship SS John Philip Sousa was named in Sousa's honor. The Marine Band possesses the ship's bell, using it in performances of the Liberty Bell March.
In 1987, an act of Congress named "The Stars and Stripes Forever" as the national march of the United States.
In 2012, a crater on the planet Mercury was named in Sousa's honor. link: Sousa crater Mercury
The sousaphone is a modified helicon created in 1893 by Philadelphia instrument maker J.W. Pepper at Sousa's request, using several of his suggestions in its design. Sousa wanted a tuba that could sound upward and over the band whether its player was seated or marching.
link: Sousaphone
March onward!
Semper Fideles
Stars And Stripes Forever
Liberty Bell
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