About this edition
John Philip Sousa composed The Washington Post in 1889 at the request of the newspaper of the same name, to be premiered at an awards ceremony honoring the winners of a schoolchildren's essay contest on American history and government. What began as an occasional piece quickly became a sensation: its buoyant 6/8 rhythm was seized upon by dancers on both sides of the Atlantic, giving rise to a new ballroom sensation that Europeans simply called "the Washington Post," fueling the international two-step craze of the 1890s. More than a century later, it remains one of Sousa's most performed marches and a defining statement of his reputation as "The March King."
This full score is reproduced from The Complete Marches of John Philip Sousa, No. 38, published by the United States Marine Band in Washington, DC, in 2016. The volume belongs to an ongoing scholarly series that presents Sousa's marches in editions prepared directly from his original manuscripts and the band's own historical performance materials — the same organization Sousa led as its director from 1880 to 1892. The result is one of the most carefully researched and musically reliable editions of this march available to performers and scholars today.
About this edition:
- Full orchestral score, ideal for study, conducting, and performance
- Page size: 8.5 x 11 inches
- Reproduced from a public domain historical source
- Published by Purple 4R Publishing
Because this score is part of the public domain, we're happy to bring this historic edition back into print in a clean, clearly engraved format — an accessible way for conductors, orchestral musicians, and students to own and study one of the best-loved marches in the American repertoire.
