Sousa: El Capitan March

This is the sixth release in EMI's American Classics series, a series devoted to releasing the Company's extensive catalogue of American music of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Born in Washington DC in 1854, John Philip Sousa was enlisted by his father, a trombonist in the marine band, as an apprentice in the US Marine Corps. After years as a military bandmaster he later formed his own band. Although Sousa wrote many songs and other pieces, it is as a composer of Marches that he is known to us today and, indeed, he wrote a great many of them. Some Sousa marches are among the best known in the repertoire – who doesn't know The Stars and Stripes Forever and The Liberty Bell (the signature tune for Monty Python's Flying Circus). Here we have a generous selection of Sousa Marches played by a Great American band.

A romp through the gamut of concert band marches – Sousa, Alford et al and some intriguing arrangements of marches from the core classical canon. The choice of RM Band is also intriguing – this particular band was merged with the other Marines bands in 1983, a victim of that year’s strategic defence review.

John Philip Sousa, known affectionately as “The March King”, personified turn-of-the-century America, the comparative innocence and brash energy of a still new nation. His ever-touring band represented America across the globe and brought music to hundreds of American towns.

This Naxos series of recordings aims to record Sousa’s complete works for wind band, including the 136 marches and numerous other scores.

This seventh disc in the series features the grand Presidential Polonaise, the Intaglio Waltzes (modelled on Johann Strauss’s famous examples), and the triumphant Golden Jubilee March in which Sousa imagined “the world passing in review”.