Sousa: Mikado 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.

John Philip Sousa’s swift rise to fame and greatness came at a time when band concerts were the most important aspect of musical life in the U.S. The works on this recording range from the early Revival March of 1876 and the stirring Right Forward March from Sousa’s time as conductor of the U.S. Marine band, to the “up-to-date” 1920s fox-trot Peaches and Cream and the 1923 Leaves from My Notebook, dedicated to the Campfire Girls of America. Music from Sousa’s operetta Chris and the Wonderful Lamp can be found alongside his medley of tunes from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado, which includes many of the hit tunes from this operetta, while The Honored Dead was performed at President Ulysses S. Grant’s funeral.