The Stars & Stripes Forever

The Stars and Stripes Forever is a patriotic American march widely considered to be the magnum opus of composer John Philip Sousa. By a 1987 act of the U.S. Congress, it is the official National March of the United States of America. In his autobiography, Marching Along, J. P. Sousa wrote that he composed the march on Christmas Day, 1896. He was on an ocean liner on his way home from a vacation with his wife in Europe 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. was first performed at Willow Grove Park, just outside Philadelphia, on May 14, 1897, and was immediately greeted with enthusiasm. Premiered by the Heartland Marimba Collective at the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra’s SymphonyCycle, Waterloo, IA, 2016.