DAR essay: 'The Stars and Stripes Forever' greeted with standing ovation

By Eleanor Shuler

It’s May 14, 1897. The crowd is waiting patiently for the band to start playing.

Right then, the band walks out. The audience holds their breath. Then, the band starts playing.

You see John Philip Sousa conducting the band so they stay on beat. The audience starts clapping to the beat of the music. About two minutes later, the band concludes the song. The audience stands and cheers.

Some people had a look of shock on their faces. Some were smiling with delight. It was a bright, sunny and happy day.

John Philip Sousa was born on November 6, 1854. His early schooling was done in Washington, and his later schooling in a private conservatory of music run by John Esputa Jr.

Sousa studied most of the orchestral instruments, but he was very fond of the violin. Sousa became a wonderful violin player, and almost joined a circus band. However, John’s father suggested that he would enlist as an apprentice musician in the Marine Band instead.

There was a six month period where Sousa wasn’t in the band, but except for that, he stayed in the band until he was 20 years old.

In 1892, Sousa quit the Marine Corps to form his own civilian band. Judging by how well people say the band played, it was a good idea to do that. Some of the musicians in the band included Herbert L. Clarke, Arthur Pryor, Simon Mantia, Estelle Liebling, and Maud Powell.

Many people were eager to see Sousa when he went on worldwide tours, because everything he played was played to the best of his ability, or in other words, played to perfection.

Sousa wrote other marches, too, not just “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” In 1886 Sousa wrote “The Gladiator,” in 1888, he wrote “Semper Fidelis,” and in 1889, he wrote “The Washington Post.”

A British journalist said that since Johann Strauss Jr. had the title “The Waltz King,” that Sousa should own the title “The March King” because he had written so many marches and those marches are very popular.

Also, “The Stars and Stripes Forever” isn’t the only march Sousa wrote that became the march of something important. His march “Semper Fidelis” is known as the official march of the Marine Corps.