…”The Stars and Stripes Forever” — the rousing finale to Independence Day celebrations across the US — was designated as the national march of the United States on Dec. 11, 1987?
Yet, as America celebrates its 245th birthday this month, it’s interesting to note that the genesis of John Philips Sousa’s famous march was inspired in part by a death. According to a band program from Willow Grove [a park where Sousa and his band played from 1901 to 1926], when asked who influenced him to write the march, Sousa replied, “God–and I say this in all reverence! I was in Europe and I got a cablegram that my manager was dead. I was in Italy and I wished to get home as soon as possible. I rushed to Genoa, then to Paris and to England and sailed for America. On board the steamer as I walked miles up and down the deck, back and forth, a mental band was playing ‘Stars and Stripes Forever.’ Day after day as I walked it persisted in crashing into my very soul. I wrote it on Christmas Day, 1896.”
Sources:
United States Marine Band: John Philip Sousa
The Complete Marches of John Philip Sousa vol. 3 no. 53: The Stars and Stripes Forever full score, As Performed by the United States Marine Band. Used with permission from Paul E. Bierley, The Works of John Philip Sousa (Westerville, Ohio: Integrity Press, 1984), 43.