The Liberty Bell March
March · in E♭ major
John Philip Sousa 1854–1932
E♭ major
Key
March
Form
Tempo di marcia
Tempo
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Difficulty
Our estimate Intermediate
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Themes & character
Named after a stage cue·Later a television theme·Bell chimes in the score·Composed 1893
At a glance
- Key
- E♭ major
- Tempo / character
- Tempo di marcia
- Form
- March
About the piece
Composed in 1893. Sousa had a march in progress without a title when he attended a show in Chicago featuring a backdrop of the Liberty Bell, and on the same day his wife received a letter reporting that their son had marched in a Liberty Bell parade in Philadelphia. The coincidence settled the name.
The score calls for actual bell chimes. To later audiences the march is inescapably the theme of Monty Python's Flying Circus, which adopted it in 1969.
The composer
John Philip Sousa
1854–1932
John Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era known primarily for US military marches. He is known as "The March King". Among Sousa's best-known marches are "The Stars and Stripes Forever", "Semper Fidelis", "The Liberty Bell", "The Thunderer", and "The Washington Post".
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