Washington, D.C. native and legendary bandmaster John Philip Sousa (1854-1932) wrote a dozen operettas, six full-length operas, and over 100 marches, earning the title “March King”. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps at an early age and went on to become the conductor of the President’s Own United States Marine Band at age 26. In 1892 he formed “Sousa and his Band”, which toured the United States and the world under his directorship for the next forty years to great acclaim. Not only was Sousa’s band hugely popular, but it also exposed audiences all over the world to the latest, cutting-edge music, bringing excerpts of Wagner’s Parsifal to New York a decade before the Metropolitan Opera staged it, and introducing ragtime to Europe, helping to spark many a composer’s interest in American music.
The scholarly authority on John Philip Sousa is Paul Bierley, who had this to say about The High School Cadets in his book The Works of John Philip Sousa:
The mutual admiration which existed between John Philip Sousa and the school bands of America has caused many musicians and writers to conclude that this march was composed as a salute to the school band movement. However, it was written twenty years before that movement had begun. It was composed at the solicitation of the marching cadet corps of the one and only Washington, D.C, high school in 1890 (later called Central High School) and was dedicated to the teachers and pupils.
The High School Cadets was another of the drill teams which were an exciting part of the capital city scene for many years after the Civil War. The members requested the march of Sousa, asking that he make an effort to make it superior to his “National Fencibles” march, which he had written for a rival cadet corps. In Sousa’s estimation, it was indeed a better march. The music world has concurred, because “The High School Cadets” has always been one of Sousa’s most popular marches.
The Cadets were invited to a Marine Band rehearsal to hear the march played. They liked what they heard and produced $24 to cover the cost of having the march published and copyrighted.
Here is the official Marine Band performance:
You can get free access to the sheet music to this and many other marches at the US Marine Band’s Complete Marches of John Philip Sousa project. You can also learn more about this march at Wikipedia, IMSLP, and the Wind Repertory Project.