The Liberty Bell March

Description

Named after the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, a symbol of American independence, this 1893 march by John Philip Sousa (1854-1932), the March King, became familiar far beyond the world of marches in the 20th century as the theme tune of the British TV series Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Sousa wrote his marches to a pattern: an introduction, then a series of contrasting strains, with a change of key at the trio in the second half. This one, in F major and 6/8, is built on that framework. Its 2,958 notes in about 3 minutes 11 seconds are the most of any Sousa march collected here, and since it reaches from G1 up to F7 it calls for an instrument of 76 keys or more.

Written as if a whole band's parts had been gathered onto one piano, this advanced piece runs at more than fifteen notes per second, and the chords and leaps never let up. The essential thing is to keep the two bouncing beats of 6/8 while stopping the melody from sinking into the accompaniment. Check the division between the hands with the hand colours first, slow the playback and polish one strain at a time with the A-B loop, and then join the sections together.

Marches defined by their strong, steady rhythm, spanning from Bach's keyboard works to Sousa's popular American marches.