The Stars and Stripes Forever

"The Stars and Stripes Forever"
Song

"Stars and Stripes Forever" is a patriotic American march widely considered to be the magnum opus of composer John Philip Sousa. By act of Congress, it is the National March of the United States of America.

History

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John Philip Sousa

In his autobiography, Marching Along, Sousa writes that he composed the march on Christmas Day 1896. He had just learned of the recent death of David Blakely, then manager of the Sousa Band. Sousa was on a ferry in Europe at the time, and he composed the march in his head. He committed the notes to paper on arrival in America. Although he would conduct performances of it at virtually every concert until his death, only one recording, made in 1909, is known to survive today.

Music

Stars and Stripes Forever follows the standard American march form. Its trio is the most famous part of the march. Most bands adopt the Sousa Band practice of having one or three (never two) piccolo players play the famous obbligato in the first repeat of the trio. In the second repeat (marked "Grandioso"), the low brass joins the piccolo players with a prominent countermelody.

Lyrics

Sousa wrote lyrics to the piece, but they are not as familiar as the music itself. Many other sets of lyrics, patriotic and otherwise, have been written for the last strain. Two of the most widely known such sets begin with the words "Three cheers for the red white and blue..." and "Be kind to your web-footed friends...".

Sousa's lyrics

Let martial note in triumph float
And liberty extend its mighty hand
A flag appears 'mid thunderous cheers,
The banner of the Western land.
The emblem of the brave and true
Its folds protect no tyrant crew;
The red and white and starry blue
Is freedom's shield and hope.

Other nations may deem their flags the best
And cheer them with fervid elation
But the flag of the North and South and West
Is the flag of flags, the flag of Freedom's nation.

Hurrah for the flag of the free!
May it wave as our standard forever,
The gem of the land and the sea,
The banner of the right.
Let despots remember the day
When our fathers with mighty endeavor
Proclaimed as they marched to the fray
That by their might and by their right
It waves forever.

Let eagle shriek from lofty peak
The never-ending watchword of our land;
Let summer breeze waft through the trees
The echo of the chorus grand.
Sing out for liberty and light,
Sing out for freedom and the right.
Sing out for Union and its might,
O patriotic sons.

Other nations may deem their flags the best
And cheer them with fervid elation,
But the flag of the North and South and West
Is the flag of flags, the flag of Freedom's nation.

Hurrah for the flag of the free.
May it wave as our standard forever
The gem of the land and the sea,
The banner of the right.
Let despots remember the day
When our fathers with mighty endeavor
Proclaimed as they marched to the fray,
That by their might and by their right
It waves forever.

Other lyrics

• This gentle parody, widely known to children and existing in many variations, was sung this way at the end of every episode of the popular 1960s TV series Sing Along with Mitch. It was also heard in the Tiny Toon Adventures episode Hollywood Plucky.

Be kind to your web-footed friends

For a duck may be somebody's mother

Be kind to your friends in the swamp

Where the weather is very, very damp [pronounced to rhyme with "swamp"]

Now, you may think that this is the end...

WELL, IT IS! [abrupt cut to closing credits]

• Muellers Pasta (now a division of the American Italian Pasta Company) urged customers to "eat right with the red, white, and blue" in their ads from the late 1970s.

Trivia

• Stars and Stripes Forever is featured in many U.S. musical performances. The Boston Pops and the National Symphony Orchestra traditionally play the piece at the end of their respective 4th of July concerts each year.

• Since its inception in 1925, the All-Ohio State Fair Band has completed every single one of its nearly 60 concerts in the first two weeks of August for the Ohio State Fair with the playing of Stars and Stripes Forever.

• Some brass quintets, such as the Empire Brass, will play the obbligato on tuba.

• In show business, particularly theatre and the circus, this piece is called the Disaster March. It is traditional code signalling a life-threatening emergency. This helps theatre personnel to handle events and organize the audience's exit without panic. Circus bands never play it under any other circumstances. One example of its use was at the Hartford Circus Fire in July of 1944.

• The Russian born pianist Vladimir Horowitz, who lived most his life in the United States, wrote a famous transcription of Stars and Stripes Forever for solo piano to celebrate becoming an American citizen. In an interview, Horowitz opined that the march, being a military march, is meant to be played at a walking tempo. He complained that many conductors played the piece too fast, resulting in music that is "hackneyed."

• There are several orchestral transcriptions of "Stars and Stripes Forever" including one by Conductor Leopold Stokowski and one by Keith Brion and Loras Schissel.

• The student band Strindens Promenade Orchester in Trondheim, Norway, has the world record in "speed playing" of Stars and Stripes (absolutely all notes must be played). The band calls their speedy rendering of the march Stars and Stribes, and performs the march at all Saturday parties at the Trondheim Student Society. Set during the fall term of 1999, the record time is 50.9 seconds (nominal time is 3 minutes 50 seconds). For this, the band is noted in the Norwegian edition of the Guinness Book of Records.

• A 1952 film, Stars and Stripes Forever, gives an account of the composer's life and music.

• This march is the background music of sensationalist news channel "Cronica TV" in Argentina. The tune is also used by soccer fans when cheering for the different Argentinean teams.

• The song is played traditionally in prerace ceremonies of the Indianapolis 500, which is held Memorial Day weekend.

• In the WWE, it was the theme of Lex Luger and The Patriot. It was also used as the ring entry music for Mike Rotundo and Danny Spivey when they were The US Express in the 1980s.

• In the movie "An American Tail", Fievel follows a familiar piece of fiddle music in hopes it leads to his parents, but it turns out to be an early spool-type Edison phonograph; the housewife changes the spool to one with "The Stars and Stripes Forever" - Fievel is slipping on the spool causing its speed to vary.

• On Star Trek: The Next Generation, it was played loudly on the bridge of the starship Enterprise in the episode Evolution.

• In the UK the tune is often used in football chants.

• In Germany, the tune got popular with the product introduction of a Detergent called "Der General" (a pun with military "General" and "Generalreiniger" for all purpose cleaner). The TV spots started 1984, during an alltime high of German Antiamericanism and Peace Movement. A desperate house wife uses the Detergent ("conquering all dirt with organic alcohol"). During cleaning the tune is played and she receives all insiginia of an American four star general. Ironically Sousas tune helped German Henkels US-styled "Der General" to beat Procter & Gambles "Meister Propper" on the German market.

• In Spain, the opening bar of the tune was used at the end of the theme song of the game show El gran juego de la oca (The Great Game of the Goose).

• A portion is used in an adapted half-hour animated TV special of Horton Hears a Who!.

• The theme song from the 1980s Berenstain Bears TV series is sung to the tune of "Stars and Stripes Forever."

• Along with other "patriotic" pieces, it was featured prominently in many of the Popeye animated shorts, after the character would eat his spinach and gain temporary super-strength to defeat villains.

• At the end of the Sesame Street album Bert & Ernie Sing-Along, a marching band is heard playing the song.

• The Super Famicom game, Parodius, has an arrangement of it as the background music in one level.

• In the 1970 film Patton, General Patton directs his brass band to play this tune as loudly as possible to drown out the bagpipes leading Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's troops.

• In Argentina, the opening bar of the tune is used as the theme song of the news channel Cronica TV.

External links

• Art of the States: The Stars and Stripes Forever arrangement of the march by electronica duo Matmos

• [1] Banjo solo on an Edison cylinder phonograph record from 1902 by Mr. Ruby Brooks.