Throughout the whole tense voyage, that imaginary band continued to unfold the same themes, echoing and re-echoing the most distinct melody. Suddenly, I began to sense a rhythmic beat of a band playing within my brain. As the vessel (the Teutonic) steamed out of the harbor I was pacing on the deck, absorbed in thoughts of my manager's death and the many duties and decisions which awaited me in New York. Here came one of the most vivid incidents of my career. Sousa tells the rest of the story in his autobiography, Marching Along. It was on May 14 th 1897 in a Philadelphia concert that the march was premiered as the Stars the Stripes Forever, and received rave reviews in the press. It was first played by the Sousa band on May 1 st 1897 in Augusta Maine. He committed the notes to paper soon after his arrival in America on Christmas Day 1896. In his autobiography, Marching Along, Sousa wrote after he learned of the recent death of David Blakely, then manager of the Sousa Band, that he suddenly had an epiphany and had written the march in his head. Surprisingly, John Philip Sousa's great American patriotic march, "The Stars and Stripes Forever," was written not in the aftermath of a great battle, but on an ocean liner as Sousa and his wife were returning from a European vacation.
In fact, the march received the great honor of being selected by an act of Congress as the National March of the United States of America in 1987. Composer John Philip Sousa's The Stars and Stripes Forever is a patriotic American march widely considered to be the finest work of composer John Philip Sousa. Used by permission.First published in 1897. Bierley, The Works of John Philip Sousa (Westerville, Ohio: Integrity Press, 1984), 43. At first Sousa thought “The Invincible Eagle” would surpass “The Stars and Stripes Forever” as a patriotic march, although he nearly entitled it “Spirit of Niagara.”
It outlived a march entitled “The Electric Century” by Sousa’s rival, Francesco Fanciulli, whose band also played at the Exposition. The march was dedicated to the Pan-American Exposition, held in Buffalo in the summer of 1901. Sousa’s attention while he was supplying the accompaniment of flutes, oboes, bassoons and piccolos, but it was not until he had picked out the march on a violin on his fingers, put his notebook in his pocket, his violin in his case and his cigar back in his mouth that he finally turned toward me and casually remarked that it was a very dark night outside.” Sousa’s famous march, “The Invincible Eagle,” took form. looked on from over the top of a magazine and listened with enthusiasm as Mr. Sousa’s pencil traveled faster and faster, and page after page of the notebook were turned back, each filled with martial bars. Sousa furrowed his brow and from his pursed lips came a stirring air- rather a martial blare, as if hidden trombones, tubas, and saxophones were striving to gain utterance. Quarter notes and sixteenth notes followed in orderly array. Breves and semi-breves appeared on the page’s virgin surface. Sousa drew a notebook from his pocket, still humming to himself. Gradually the circumference of his pencil’s arcs diminished and Mr. Sousa began to describe circles in the air with a pencil, jerking back and forth in his seat meanwhile. Suddenly and without previous warning Mr. At intervals the engine whistled as if in pain. At the further end of the car a porter diligently brushed cushions. Sousa sat in his chair in the dimly lit Pullman. Outside the coach the lights of towns along the route flashed by like ghosts fluttering at the window panes.The night was dark and the few stars above twinkled fitfully. It was a train between Buffalo and New York. Blanche Duffield, soprano of the Sousa Band in 1901, witnessed the creation of this march, and she provided this rare description of Sousa composing: