John Philip Sousa for Monty Python's Flying Circus), "The Thunderer" and "The Washington Post". Sousa began his career playing violin and studying music theory and composition under John Esputa and George Felix Benkert. His father enlisted him in the United States Marine Band as an apprentice in 1868. After departing the band in 1875, Sousa learned to conduct. From 1880 until his death, he focused exclusively on conducting and the writing of music. He eventually rejoined the Marine Band and served there for 12 years as director. On leaving the Marine Band, Sousa organized his own band. Sousa aided in the development of
March (music) from 1855 to the 1940s when it was overshadowed by jazz, which the march form influenced (especially in ragtime). American march music cannot be discussed without mentioning "The March King", John Philip Sousa, who revolutionized the march during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some of his most famous marches are "Semper Fidelis", "The Washington Post", "The Liberty Bell", and "The Stars and Stripes Forever". Sousa's marches are typically marked by a "subdued" trio, as in "The Stars and Stripes Forever" in which the rest of the band becomes subordinated to arguably the most famous piccolo solo in all