John Phillip Sousa Research Paper

John Philip Sousa was born in Washington, D.C. on Nov.6, 1854. His father John Antonio Sousa was born in Spain, Portuguese and his mother Marie Elizabeth Trinkaus was born in Bavarian. His fame wasn’t an accident. His father was a trombonist with the United States Marine Band. By the time he was six, his musical talent had become apparent and he was enrolled for a year of solfeggio with a local Italian teacher. He was found to have absolute pitch, and so considered sufficiently gifted to begin basic training in harmony and the study of the violin. By the time he was eleven he led his own ‘quadrille orchestra’. The rest of his orchestra consisted of seven men and quickly became a popular dance orchestra in Washington. The following year, …show more content…
Sousa astounded Europe by introducing rag time on his 1900 tour, fascination with American music which influenced such composers as Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Grainger and Milhaud. On December 30, 1879, he married a woman by the name of Jane van Middlesworth Bellis. He had three children John Philip Sousa, Jr. (April 1, 1881-May 18, 1937), Jane Priscilla (August 7,1882-October 28,1958), and Helen (January21,1887-October 14, 1975)who lived the longest .All three of them were buried in the John Philip Sousa plot in the Congressional graveyard. John Philip Sousa was one of the most famous band leader in the United States during his lifetime, a former U.S. Marine Band leader who composed and conducted some of the most well-known marches in the entire world. His professional career began as a violinist travelling with orchestras, but his first fame came as the leader of the U.S. Marine Band from 1880 to 1892. In 1892 he started a civilian band that became internationally famous and hugely popular. The band was known especially for marches that Sousa composed, "Stars and Stripes Forever," designated in 1987 as the National March of the United States of America. Sousa also wrote operas and other music, as well as novels and