The Liberty Bell - March
John Sousa, arr. Ben Tordoff
Composed:
1893 Arranged:
2022 Grouping:
sSAAATTTBb Duration:
03:25
This march was originally written for an operetta called "The Devil's Deputy" but was renamed and reused when the organiser refused to pay what Sousa's full fee. Instead, when Sousa's son took part in a parade to welcome the "liberty bell" back to Philadelphia, the march was christened "The Liberty Bell" and sold as a stand-alone composition. Since then it has become a staple of US armed forces bands and the opening two sections will be familiar to UK audiences as the theme for Monty Python's Flying Circus (those who grew up in the 70's and 80's will have to fill in the final sound effect themselves).
This is a fairly literal transposition of the original band parts onto 10 saxes, with some dynamics based on standard performance practices. See the "Complete Sousa Marches" edition for details.
See also our version of Sousa's march The Stars and Stripes Forever.
© 2022 Ben Tordoff
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