American composer John Phillip Sousa reigned as the March King throughout the late 19th century and early 20th century until his death in 1932. He left a legacy of military marches that are still with us to this day. Sousa’s Band recorded many of these and you can find these rare recordings in the Internet Archives’ “Collected Works of Sousa’s Band”.

Perhaps the most intriguing historical fact about these tracks is that none of them are directed by Sousa himself. He had an intense dislike for phonographic technology and refused to participate in these early recordings. He believed the phonograph would lead to the evolutionary extinction of the human vocal chords! The director was probably composer and trombonist Arthur Pryor as he conducted most of these sessions with the band until 1929.

As for the actual records, these 18 tracks date from 1895 to 1918. By today’s standards the sound is rather abysmal but it is a treat just to be able to hear these marches played as the maestro himself intended them to be played. “At A Georgetown Camp Meeting” (1902) has amazingly clean sound. The outstanding performance of “Stars and Stripes Forever” (1901) reminds us why it is an American classic synomonous with Independence Day. “Blue Danube Waltz” (1905) makes for a pretty change of pace from the syncopated marches. Not unexpectingly, the two later marches, “Hippodrome March” (1916) and “The Caissons Go Rolling Along” (U.S. Field Artillery March) of 1918 offer the best sound to assess what must have been one of the greatest marching bands in history. Whether you are a fan of military music or not, this is a collection that any music afficionado must hear.

The collection is available in 128kbps MP3 through either separate tracks or a full zip.

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