Sousa is synonymous with marches as we know them.
Now I'm going off on a tangent, because I want to.
I've often wondered about the lost songs in history. What got the ancient Greeks' toes tapping? Did the Minoans have a "Billboard Chart?" Did another culture have a Sousa or Mozart, and we'll never know? I'd love to be able to listen to the first songs.
Ironically ... Sousa didn't compose marches. He composed waltzes - which worked better as marches. So really, Sousa was a failure as a composer.
Dear Didge,
I learned things from your question...no one to touch John Philip Sousa, but marches from composers I was surprised...
1. George M. Cohan (1878-1942), the "father of musical comedy," got a medal bestowed by FDR for (among other songs) his famous 1917 march OVER THERE that rallied the USA for both WWI and WWII. Cohan was famously portrayed by James Cagney in the 1942 movie "Yankee Doodle Dandy," which you could only call a propaganda movie...diluting the USA strong sentiment against entering both wars.
2. Scott Joplin (1854-1932), the African-American famous for ragtime, composed THE ROSEBUD MARCH.
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