ExclusiveSousa: The Stars and Stripes Forever
【Classical music and nature 古典音樂小站】John Philip Sousa: The Stars and Stripes Forever. This beautiful piece was played by US Army Band. It has Creative Commons license (Public Domain Mark 1.0 Universal) and is provided through www.musopen.org.
"The Stars and Stripes Forever is a patriotic American march written and composed by John Philip Sousa in 1896. By an act of Congress in 1987, it became the official national march of the United States of America.
In his 1928 autobiography, Marching Along, Sousa wrote that he composed the march on Christmas Day 1896. Sousa was on an ocean liner returning from a holiday in Europe with his wife and had just learned of the recent death of David Blakely, the manager of the Sousa Band. He composed the march in his head and committed the notes to paper on arrival in the United States. It was first performed at the Philadelphia Academy of Music on 14 May 1897 and was immediately acclaimed. Following an Act of Congress in 1987, it was officially adopted as the National March of the United States of America.
Historically, in show business, particularly in the theatre and circus, it has been known as the "disaster march". In the early 20th century, when it was common for theatres and circuses to have house bands, this march was a traditional code for signalling a life-threatening emergency. It was a subtle way of alerting staff to an emergency and, ideally, allowing them to organise an audience exit without causing the chaos and panic that an open declaration might. Except in the event of imminent disaster, circus bands never played the tune under any circumstances. One memorable example of its use was during the Hartford circus fire of 6 July 1944. At least 168 people were killed, although some estimates are much higher.
The video was shot by Christian Schlegel and edited by Wenjing Ma.
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