Music › Listening maps › The Stars and Stripes Forever
The Stars and Stripes Forever
By John Philip Sousa, 1896. John Philip Sousa wrote this march for a big marching band. It is the official march of the United States.
What to listen for in The Stars and Stripes Forever
Tap Play the map and follow the stops. It lasts about 89 seconds. Tap any stop to start from there.
- The band marches in. Here comes the marching band, loud and proud!
- A new march tune. Listen, a new tune. Can you march to it?
- The quiet trio. Shh, now it's soft and low.
- Everybody plays. The quiet tune comes back, high and loud!
For grown-ups: the composition is in the public domain (written 1896). Peabody’s band plays it from notes read out of a published score, simplified to one tune line with chords, and some stops are played by a different band so the change is easy to hear. Read from: https://www.mutopiaproject.org/ftp/SousaJP/TheStarsAndStripesForever/TheStarsAndStripesForever.ly (Mutopia: Sousa's piano version, John Church Company 1897), checked against its .mid. The right hand's top note; E-flat (and the trio's A-flat) down an octave and a half step to D (trio in G); a half note is one beat here, so two printed bars make one bar; repeats cut, ties inside a bar held; the break strain left out (it is wider than the range); the trio's second half and the last, loud time through (grandioso, an octave up) as printed; harmonised here from the left hand.