Highlights Archives
Wisconsin's Brush with the King of Marches
Known as the "March King," John Philip Sousa composed some of the most famous pieces of American music ever written — "The Stars and Stripes Forever," "The Washington Post March," and "Semper Fidelis" among them — many of which are heard on the Fourth of July. Sousa wrote more than 130 marches in his lifetime, but only seven for schools, two of which happen to be in Wisconsin — Marquette University's "Marquette University March" and the University of Wisconsin's "Wisconsin Forward Forever."
Marquette University's relationship with Sousa began on November 16, 1923, when the school awarded Sousa an honorary doctorate in music. Sousa canceled a scheduled appearance in Indiana to receive the degree and, in gratitude for the honor, he promised to write a piece especially for Marquette. In the fall of 1924, Sousa returned to Milwaukee for his annual concert and invited the Marquette University Band to attend. There, he presented his "Marquette University March," which was given its world premiere in the Milwaukee Auditorium.
This baton was presented to Marquette's assistant band director Harold J. Homann by Sousa himself after Homann had led the school band in greeting Sousa at the train station in Milwaukee.
The University of Wisconsin received its Sousa march in 1917, written in honor of Wisconsin men going off to war. Sousa, having already composed a march he had called "Solid Men to the Front," crossed out the title on the manuscript and substituted "Wisconsin Forward Forever." Listen to the march (and sing along if you like).
Incidentally, Wisconsin has another Sousa connection: Sousa's first trombonist, Frank Holton founded what is today the nation's oldest continually operating wind instrument company, the Frank Holton Company, which moved to Elkhorn, Wisconsin, from Chicago in 1917.
:: Posted June 30, 2006
|
