Listening 13: March!

John Philip Sousa

John Philip Sousa, also known as "The March King" is a quintessential American composer.  

There are so many wonderful Sousa marches to choose from, but I wanted to choose something that might either be familiar to some of the students, or was likely to be heard again.  "Stars and Stripes Forever" is the national march of the USA. We listened to a recording by the United States Marine Band, the band that John Philip Sousa led.

Sousa and his band

I explained that Marches originated in battle, when soldiers didn't have walkie-talkies (do kids know what that is?), cell phones or radios.  They needed loud instruments to signal the troops.

"Farewell of Slavianka" is a Russian march written by Vasily Agapkin.  He wrote it for Russia, but later it was adopted by anti-Nazi partisans in German-occupied Poland (with different lyrics), and again with Hebrew lyrics when used by the Israeli Defense Forces in 1945.  The song is about a Slavic woman saying goodbye to her husband as he goes out to fight in battle.  The children could see the illustration of the story in an old sheet music cover image that I found.

Farewell of Slavianka score

Vasily Agapkin

Because the recording I had was by the United States Air Force Band of the West (the YouTube link above is another version from the US Marine Band), I could tie them together talking about different branches of the military.  Several students hands shot up to say a relative was in the Marines or Air Force, and their faces lit up with big smiles.

After we had heard both pieces, I played one again and we all marched to the music.  They were great marchers!



Stars and Stripes Forever, John Philip Sousa
Farewell of Slavianka, Vasily Agapkin

Find the lesson plan here.
Find the visual slide show here.
Find the drawing pages here.

Enjoy!