Mystical night, magical tune
Perhaps the most famous march composed by John Philip Sousa, the celebrated March King, is “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” a tribute to the American flag. One of the least-known aspects of the tune is that it originated on Christmas Day in a mysterious fashion.
Sousa’s childhood during the Civil War was marked by marches and music. His father played the trombone in the Marine band. In Washington, D.C., where he grew up, little John Philip heard many military bands parading along the streets.
Eventually, Sousa followed in his father’s footsteps by joining the Marines’ musical unit, which he directed for a dozen years. In 1892, he formed his own band and toured the world, presenting not only compositions by Tchaikovsky and Wagner, but also ones he wrote.
As a composer, he penned more than 130 marches, including “Semper Fidelis,” “The Washington Post,” written for the newspaper, and “The Thunderer.”
Sousa’s creations came from his studies, listening to other works and his own talent. But one of his marches, “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” seemed to come to him mystically, almost wafting across the sea on Dec. 25, 1896.
While touring in Europe, Sousa learned that a close friend, his manager David Blakely, had died, so he boarded a steamship to hurry across the Atlantic. In his autobiography, Sousa wrote: “[I was] absorbed in thoughts of my manager’s death….Suddenly, I began to sense a rhythmic beat of a band playing within my brain. Throughout the whole tense voyage, that imaginary band continued to unfold the same themes, echoing and re-echoing the most distant melody.
“I did not transfer a note of that music to paper while I was on the steamer, but when we reached shore, I set down the measures that my brain-band had been playing for me, and not a note of it has ever changed.”
Sousa also wrote lyrics to his march, including: “Let martial note in triumph float/And liberty extend its mighty hand/A flag appears ‘mid thunderous cheers,/The banner of the Western land./Hurrah for the flag of the free!/May it wave as our standard forever.”
The March King died in 1932, a day after rehearsing “The Stars and Stripes Forever” with his band. In 1987, the melody – a Christmas gift that was written in tribute to his friend and his flag – was named the National March of the United States.