Composer
John Philip Sousa
1854–1932
881 works in the index
- Born
- 1854
- Died
- 1932
- Birthplace
- Washington, D.C.
- Citizenship / historical state
- United States
- Period (estimated from birth year)
- Romantic
Biography
Sousa wrote 136 marches and effectively defined what a concert band is. Everything he wrote is out of copyright in the United States, which is why the catalogue is thick with free editions.
The Stars and Stripes Forever, The Washington Post and Semper Fidelis are the ones everyone plays. Band sets are published complete with parts; individual instrument parts and piano reductions are separate purchases, and buying a "score" when you needed a full set of parts is the standard error here.
Modern editions sell on the editing rather than the music: the original parts have inconsistencies and errors that a century of performance has corrected, and a good recent edition incorporates them. For a school band, a graded simplified arrangement is usually the right choice over the original, which is harder than its familiarity suggests.
In this catalogue
- Common listed instruments
- Trumpet, Piano, Orchestra, Trombone, Flute
- Genres represented
- Classical, American, Pop, Jazz, Country
- Works with composition dates
- 31 of 881
These details describe the indexed sheet music, including arrangements.
Catalogue
Works page 18 of 19
Years are composition dates where known. Instruments describe editions in our catalogue and may include arrangements. A dash means the detail is not recorded.
Biographical record: Wikidata, matched on name and checked against dates held in the catalogue. The period label is an estimate from birth year. The biography above is our own. Authority record: VIAF 197714. Portrait: Elmer Chickering, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.