"The Washington Post" (often called "The Washington Post March") is a

march March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the second of seven months to have a length of 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of March ...

composed by

John Philip Sousa John Philip Sousa ( ; November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era known primarily for American military marches. He is known as "The March King" or the "American March King", to dis ...

in 1889. Since then, it has remained as one of his most popular marches throughout the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and many other countries.

History

In 1888, the recent purchasers of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' newspaper— Frank Hatton, a former Postmaster General, and Beriah Wilkins, a former Democratic congressman from Ohio—requested that Sousa, the leader of the

United States Marine Band The United States Marine Band is the premier band of the United States Marine Corps. Established by act of Congress on July 11, 1798, it is the oldest of the United States military bands and the oldest professional musical organization in th ...

, compose a march for the newspaper's essay contest awards ceremony, in conjunction with a campaign to promote the newspaper under new ownership. Sousa obliged; "The Washington Post" was introduced at a ceremony on June 15, 1889, "with President

Benjamin Harrison Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833March 13, 1901) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia–a grandson of the ninth pr ...

in attendance" before "a huge crowd on the grounds of the Smithsonian Museum." It quickly became quite popular in both the United States and Europe as the standard musical accompaniment to the two-step, a late 19th-century

dance craze ''Dance Craze'' is a 1981 American documentary film about the British 2 Tone music genre. The film was directed by Joe Massot, who originally wanted to do a film only about the band Madness, whom he met during their first US tour. Massot later ...

. This led to a British journalist dubbing Sousa "The March King". Sousa is honored in ''The Washington Post'' building for his contribution to the newspaper and his country. The composition is in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

in the US, as its copyright has expired, due to Sousa having been dead for more than 70 years and it having been published before the early 1920s. During the award ceremony the young essay contest winners were presented with gold medals, that were hand-crafted by local jewelers Galt & Bro., with each having unique designs and custom engravings.

Composition

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Music

This recognizable march is written in standard form: IAABBCCDCDC. Written in compound duple meter, it is suited as an accompaniment to the two-step, a new dance introduced at that time. The opening

strain Strain may refer to: Science and technology * Strain (biology), variants of plants, viruses or bacteria; or an inbred animal used for experimental purposes * Strain (chemistry), a chemical stress of a molecule * Strain (injury), an injury to a mu ...

of the march is famous and familiar to many. Typically, the march is played at a tempo of 110 to 120 beats per minute, rarely any faster. March enthusiasts have argued that the trio sections' mellow and moving phrases are among Sousa's most musical. Six sudden eighth notes move the melody along. Its unusually calm break strain is a simple adaptation of the trio melody. It then moves on to the first trio repeat, where the low brass begins an even more mellow

countermelody In music, a counter-melody (often countermelody) is a sequence of notes, perceived as a melody, written to be played simultaneously with a more prominent lead melody. In other words, it is a secondary melody played in counterpoint with the prima ...

Scoring

*Woodwinds: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons *Brass: 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba *Percussion: timpani, cymbals, bass drum, snare drum, triangle *Strings: violins I and II, violas, cellos, double basses

Dance

The "two-step" became so strongly identified with Sousa's march that the dance was often called "The Washington Post". In addition, many performance arts groups around the world dance to the famous song.

Recordings

Although many recordings of this march have been made over the years, the original recording of the march played by the

, conducted by Sousa's concertmaster, was made on Graphophone

cylinder A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infin ...

for the fledgling Columbia Records company in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, in 1890, catalogue Columbia Cylinder Military #8. It has been reissued in the

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Oc ...

era in 1999 by Legacy International as ''March King: John Philip Sousa Conducts His Own Marches'', and as the earliest track of its 26-disc compendium of the history of the Columbia label, '' Sony Music 100 Years: Soundtrack For A Century''. In 1893, this march was recorded on

North American Phonograph Company The North American Phonograph Company was an early attempt to commercialize the maturing technologies of sound recording in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Though the company was largely unsuccessful in its goals due to legal, technical and financ ...

cylinder #613 by Foh's 23rd Regiment Band of New York. This acoustical recording, unlike many others, has audible, clear, well-recorded drums.Collected Works of the 23rd Regiment Band
at archive.org

Sheet music

Washington Post
by "The President's Own"

: Modern 2016 PDF (2-page portrait),

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

, and video combining those
Washington Post
by The Sousa Project: scanned PDF (landscape),

LilyPond LilyPond is a computer program and file format for music engraving. One of LilyPond's major goals is to produce scores that are engraved with traditional layout rules, reflecting the era when scores were engraved by hand. LilyPond is cross-pl ...

, generated PDF (1-page portrait)
Washington Post
scanned PDF (landscape) of the 1889 Carl Fisher release *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Washington Post (March) American patriotic songs Concert band pieces Sousa marches The Washington Post 1889 compositions