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Marshall's Civic Band

Title Crusader March, The
Composer Sousa, John Philip Marshall’s
Civic Band
Topeka, KS
Est’d 1884
Number M-5040/E
Type CB
Date 1889
Key Db
Arranger None John B. Marshall Length 0.00
Publisher Harry Coleman Vocal No
Association Knights Templar Grade/Difficulty ?/?
Last Performed Unknown
Manuscript No
Style March Location Marshall's Band Library
Cataloger Rick Baker
Date Cataloged 09/18/1994
Notes
Set of folders with music glued inside to form pages. 
 
Composed in 1888. "Only those who receive certain degrees in Masonry may fully 
appreciate the meaning of this composition, which was written shortly after 
Sousa was 'knighted' in Columbia Commandery No. 2, Knights Templar, Washington, 
D.C. The Knights Templar is theoretically derived from the Crusades, and a 
number of their secret rituals and ceremonies relate to the period when the 
Crusaders were battling the Turks. Thus the Knights Templar organization itself 
is probably the 'Crusader,' unless Sousa had some individual in mind whose 
identity has escaped historians. 
    "The march was one of several sold outright to the Philadelpha publisher 
Harry Coleman for $35.00. It is interesting harmonically, yet straightforward 
and simple. If Sousa secretly used fragments of any Masonic music in the march, 
he concealed it so well that Masonic historians have been unable to bring it to 
the public's attention." 
 
The Works of John Philip Sousa 
pgs. 47-48 
Paul E. Bierley 
Integrity Press 
1984 
      
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