The Stars and Stripes Forever

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 One of the greatest marches of all time, written by John Phillip Sousa.  The march has a certain optimism and pride to it.  There are a few ways the march is performed.  My personal favorite is when any ensemble is playing the last string where the trumpets have the option of taking a note to a high c vs taking it at the octave written.  Every time they play that note as written it is just a let down.  The string wants to go the high C - it's got the momentum and taking it as written is always such a huge disappointment.  Go For It!

Another element of ornamentation I like is at the last two bars there is an option for the percussion section to play a "roll off."  I like that too.

The best performances apply both pieces of flair to the performance.  It caps off a wonderful march with two wonderful exclamation points - as it should be!

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