I am offering over 100 John Philip Sousa Records and records by Sousa's Band from 1903 to 1930.

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A series of great early Opera performances: From 1902 G&Ts to 40s wartime German records:

Sousa's famous Patriotic Marches in one of the last recordings by SOUSA's BAND
with the first recording of the "The Royal Welch Fusiliers" composed by John Philip Sousa in 1929, and then rewritten in 1930. It is the only march written by Sousa for a British Army regiment.[1]

In 1900 the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers was part of the multinational force that lifted the Siege of the International Legations during the Boxer Rebellion; during this action they served alongside elements of the United States Marine Corps' 1st Marine Regiment. In 1929, at the request of surviving Marine veterans who had served at Peking, the then 75-year-old Sousa composed a tribute march to the British regiment, eponymously titled "The Royal Welch Fusiliers". Commandant of the Marine Corps Wendell Cushing Neville, a veteran of Peking, was dissatisfied with Sousa's first attempt, and a second version of the march was completed by Sousa the following year.[2]

The march was debuted at the White House in the spring of 1930 at the annual dinner of the Gridiron Club of Washington for President of the United States Herbert Hoover who was, himself, one of the westerners besieged in Peking thirty years prior.[3] The following summer, Sousa traveled to Tidworth, England, where on June 25 a "beautifully bound score of the march" was presented to the fusiliers during the regiment's anniversary observance of the battle.[4][5] Sousa also directed the band of the Royal Welch Fusiliers in the performance of his march.[3]

The original score of "The Royal Welch Fusiliers" is at the Museum of the Royal Welch Fusiliers in Caernarfon, Wales.[6]




This is the rare original issue  Victor Scroll Label


The Royal Welsh Fusiliers
John Philip Sousa (composer) 

Sousa's Band
Instrumentation: Piccolo, flute, oboe, bassoon, 6 clarinets, 6 cornets, 3 trombones, 4 horns, baritone horn, 2 tubas, piano, and 2 traps

7/1/1930 Camden, New Jersey. Church Bldg. 1 Master Victor 22940
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Hands across the sea
John Philip Sousa (composer) 

7/1/1930 Camden, New Jersey. Church Bldg. 2 Master Victor 22940

PLEASE SEE ABOVE FOR CONDITION

March, “Hands Across the Sea" (1899) When played for the first time by Sousa’s Band in Philadelphia’s Academy of Music on April 21, 1899, “many feet were beating a tattoo.” The band was obliged to repeat it three times. “Hands Across the Sea” was off to a good start, and it has since remained a standard in band literature. The march was addressed to no particular nation, but to all of America’s friends abroad. It has been suggested that Sousa was inspired by an incident in the Spanish-American War, in which Captain Chichester of the British Navy came to the support of Admiral Dewey at Manila Bay. A second (and more likely) source is a line by Frere, which was printed on the front cover of the sheet music: “A sudden thought strikes me—let us swear an eternal friendship.” The line by Frere apparently appeared in a play which Sousa read. In answering questions sent to him while serving in the navy, he gave this account in the Great Lakes Recruit of March, 1918: After the Spanish war there was some feeling in Europe anent our republic regarding this war. Some of the nations...thought we were not justified while others gave us credit for the honesty of our purpose. One night I was reading an old play and I came across this line, “A sudden thought strikes me,—let us swear an eternal friendship.” That almost immediately suggested the title “Hands Across the Sea” for that composition and within a few weeks that now famous march became a living fact.