2019-12-01 – LOMCB – Fond Memories and New Beginnings
The Free Lance March (On to Victory) – by John Philip Sousa, arr. Keith Brion and Loras Schissel
My concert band really likes marches – we have at least one on every concert. On this concert, we actually had two – the closer and the encore.
Sousa wrote an operetta called “The Free Lance,” which detailed the exploits of a crafty goatherd called Sigmund Lump who got himself hired as a mercenary leader for two opposing armies, arranged his forces so neither side could win, then declared himself emperor of both nations. Later, Sousa compiled themes from many of the tunes from that operetta together into the Free Lance March (most significantly, the song On to Victory became the trio section), which is why this song is longer and of atypical construction for a Sousa march.