Purchasing information Notice for leaders/bass players
Length: approx. 4¼ mins. Sounds best with the bass doubled.
The Stars and Stripes Forever is, by Act of Congress, the National March of the United States of America and many hold it to be Sousa's best composition. Sousa himself wrote that he had composed the march on Christmas Day 1896. At that time he was touring Europe and had just learned of the then recent death of his Sousa Band manager, David Blakely. The march was composed in his head and then written down when he returned to America.
Its form is AABBCCDCDC with an 4-bar introduction whereby the AB- and CD-strains are written in the major keys of Eb and Ab respectively. On a personal note, the editor recalls that when performing this most stirring march of marches as a drummer in HMS Collingwood's Volunteer Band in the early 1960's, some wit started singing "Be kind to your fine feathered friends for a duck may be somebody's mother" during the first iteration of the poignant and moving C-strain. Ever since he cannot expunge this inane ditty, even whilst performing, and is always reminded of it when hearing
The Stars and Stripes Forever. Whatever, recorder players too should not be denied performing one of the most famous marches ever.
The Stars and Stripes Forever was published by
John Church Jr. Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
A tempo of 200 crotchets/min. is suggested.