One of America's musical treasures, the United States Marine Band, gets plenty of time to shine on this box set featuring selections from their appearances on NPR's "Performance Today." Perfect for the 4th of July or anytime you're in the mood to feel patriotic, this box set is the musical version of the American flag!

The compositions on this new release by The President’s Own Marine Band were all composed during the last century. They draw, however, on traditional American spirituals, ballads, folk tunes, and rags from the American Revolution to the present. The title of this release, “Be Glad Then, America,” is taken from New England Triptych by William Schuman, which is included on this album. Particularly notable are the three world premiere recordings: “For The President’s Own,” by John Williams, Aaron Copland’s “Third Symphony,” and a set of songs by Charles Ives set for this world class ensemble.

Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensembles: Canadian Scottish Regiment Pipes and Drums, Third Marine Aircraft Wing Band, USMC.

UNITED STATES MARINE DRUM AND BUGLE CORPS: Esprit

PRESIDENT'S OWN UNITED STATES MARINE BAND: Uncommon Valor

The U.S. Marine Band, "The President's Own," has performed for every presidential inauguration since Thomas Jefferson. From the earliest days of the Nation, the Marine Band's primary mission has been to provide music for the President of the United States. Whether performing for South Lawn arrival ceremonies, State dinners, receptions or accompanying famous entertainers, Marine musicians appear at the Executive Mansion more than 200 times annually.

Liberty and the freedom to pursue happiness are blessings enjoyed by every citizen of the United States. This album, "The Blessings of Liberty", is a collection of inspirational music dedicated to the men and women who have fought and died to preserve these liberties.

Everyone is familiar with, at the very least, a handful of John Philip Sousa's magnificent marches. Melodies from The Washington Post, The Stars and Stripes Forever, and The Liberty Bell can be found in countless films, television programs, commercials, and anywhere patriotic music is to be heard. However, these works barely scratch the surface of Sousa's deep catalogue of amazing compositions. The Sousa: Deep Cuts series from Altissimo! Recordings, seeks to highlight his more obscure works, from less-familiar marches, to waltzes and suites. This collection, all recorded by ''The President's Own'' United States Marine Band, is the only way to hear some of these pieces, and is perfect for hardcore fans of ''The March King.''

This recording offers music representative of the festival traditions of five different cultures: Russia (or more precisely, the former Soviet Union), Mexico, Poland (by way of France), Greece, and Rome. While the music certainly reveals the differences one would expect from such diverse cultures, the similarities are even more striking. The universal elements of a festival-the exuberance, the gratitude, and the reverence-are present in this music, and serve to remind US of the commonalities of human existence.

PRESIDENT'S OWN UNITED STATES MARINE BAND: Grand Scenes

Selection includes a Message from President Reagan.
Selection includes John F. Kennedy Inaugural Excerpt.
Selection includes Dwight Eisenhower Inaugual Excerpt.
Selection includes Harry Truman Inaugural Excerpt.
Selection includes Franklin Roosevelt Inaugural Excerpt.

PRESIDENT'S OWN UNITED STATES MARINE BAND: Retrospective

United States Marine Band: Music of Richard Strauss

United States Marine Band: Great Marches Not by John Philip

PRESIDENT'S OWN UNITED STATES MARINE BAND: Music from the La

PRESIDENT'S OWN UNITED STATES MARINE BAND: On Tour

SOUSA Semper Fidelis. Manhattan Beach. Comrades of the Legion. Sabre and Spurs. The Gallant Seventh. King Cotton. The Gridiron Club. Who’s Who in Navy Blue. The Invincible Eagle. The Royal Welch Fusiliers. La Reine de la Mer Waltz. Processional Polonaise. Suite: Looking Upward. The Bride Elect: Selections . Easter Morning on the White House Lawn • John Bourgeois, cond; U.S. Marine Band • ALTISSIMO 9722 (70:40)

The March King had a lifelong distrust of recordings. Of the 1,166 shellacs that the Sousa Band made for the Victor Talking Machine Co., he conducted only six. These are pored over by dedicated Sousa scholars, including a former director of the Yale Band. Their holy grail is Sousa’s “authentic” performance style. Yes, HIPness has reached the parade ground.


What makes such historical sleuthing important is that the outdoor versions of Sousa’s beloved marches are only a rough template for what he did in concert. Every piece had a “secret” arrangement, cued by hand and passed along by word of mouth, that doesn’t appear in any published edition. I served my time marching at football halftime alongside my fellow high-school clarinetists, and we did what rank-and-file players still do: We played all the time, with few rests; we maintained a slow walking pace; we were loud. But Sousa considered the march to be among the most difficult genres to perform correctly.


One reason is that he was a violinist, although he learned from boyhood onward to play every band instrument (his father enlisted him in the Marine Band at age 13 to keep his son from running away to join a circus band). He worshipped Johan Strauss II, Arthur S. Sullivan, and Jacques Offenbach. In other words, Sousa had a refined ideal in his mind of nuance and elegance, not the blaring patriotic display his marches are mostly used for. In concert, as opposed to the marching field, he preferred thinner orchestration, subtle phrasing, and varied accents. But these “secrets” can only be gleaned by interviewing surviving band members who played under him until his death in 1932, picking up the style by ear from original Sousa Band recordings, and laboriously comparing manuscripts and meager handwritten notations on the parts the band used.


Wrap up all this research with a bow, and you get the present CD from the U.S. Marine Band, which Sousa conducted for a relatively brief stint between 1880 and 1892. The extensive program notes make for fascinating reading, even if your knees can no longer contemplate marching two miles in the Easter Parade. Your ears will immediately notice how enjoyably civilized these performances are. Band director Col. John Bourgeois sets the tempo at a relaxed 118–120 beats a minute, which Sousa favored—he sped up the pace for encores, to get the audience more excited. The instrumentation is lean until the “grandioso” finish, when it’s all hands on deck.


The album’s title, Semper Fidelis , refers to the only popular march on the disc. Rather than a collection of greatest hits, the program highlights Sousa’s diversity, since he wrote songs, suites, waltzes, and operettas, none as successful as his marches. My favorite rarity here was the 18-minute suite Looking Upward , Sousa’s precursor to Holst’s The Planets , with movements titled “By the Light of the Polar Star” and “Mars and Venus.” One hears the best of Sousa’s exotic touches, actual chords for the horns and trumpets, and something forbidden in a field march, an accelerando.


The Marine Band, which produced and engineered the CD, shows off its considerable musicianship as a concert ensemble; the recorded sound is full but a bit too distant to capture much inner detail. To be candid, Sousa’s best tunes are in his two dozen or so most famous marches, but even in their absence these are eye-opening works. All his life he secretly wanted to be America’s Johan Strauss, Jr., and for once a recording comes close to fulfilling his wishes.

FANFARE: Huntley Dent

If you only have in your store one version of Sousa marches, this new Altissimo CD should be it. Nobody on earth plays these marches like the United States Marine Band - "The President's Own." As an added bonus, there is a performance of the Washington Post March from 1890 which features Sousa himself conducting his own band. The recording also captures a wonderful brass band sound. Let's face it, Sousa wrote some of the most infectious tunes of any composer who ever lived.

PRESIDENT'S OWN UNITED STATES MARINE BAND: Sound Off!

PRESIDENT'S OWN UNITED STATES MARINE BAND: Symphonic Dances

The Heritage of John Philip Sousa, Vol. 7

The Heritage of John Philip Sousa, Vol. 1

The Heritage of John Philip Sousa, Vol. 4

The Heritage of John Philip Sousa, Vol. 6

The newest release from Altissimo! Celebrates the music of Percy Grainger, both familiar and unknown, recorded live in 2011 at a concert given in observation of the 50th anniversary of composer death, performed by the "President's Own" US Marine Band under Colonel Michael J. Colburn in collaboration with the Choral Arts Society of Washington. The title The Music Lover's Grainger was borrowed from one of Grainger's many unfinished publishing projects, reflecting the world premiere recordings featured on the program. These include a version of "The Lost Lady Found", the final number of Lincolnshire Posy, transcribed for band and chorus, based on Grainger's original setting for chorus and orchestra; the original, unpublished band version of "Spoon River", reconstructed from the recently discovered manuscript parts; and a rarely heard, otherworldly harmonization of the "Londonderry Air", the tune of "Danny Boy", scored for band, chorus, and organ. A significant amateur ethnomusicologist, Grainger drew extensively from folksong, collecting several hundred tunes from the English countryside himself. The repertoire recorded here includes English, Irish, Scottish, American, and Danish influences.

The Heritage of John Philip Sousa, Vol. 8