American march music is march music written and/or performed in the United States. Its origins are those of European composers borrowing from the military music of the Ottoman Empire in place there from the 16th century. The American genre developed after the British model during the colonial and Revolutionary periods, then later as military ceremonials and for civilian entertainment events.
Karl L. King was a United States march music bandmaster and composer. He is best known as the composer of "Barnum and Bailey's Favorite".
A screamer is a circus march intended to stir up the audience during the show.
Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows is a circus founded in Baraboo, Wisconsin, United States in 1884 by five of the seven Ringling brothers: Albert, August, Otto, Alfred T., Charles, John, and Henry. The Ringling brothers were sons of a German immigrant, August Frederick Rüngeling, who changed his name to Ringling once he settled in America. Four brothers were born in McGregor, Iowa: Alf T., Charles, John and Henry. The Ringling family lived in McGregor, Iowa, for twelve years, from 1860 until 1872. The family then lived in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and moved to Baraboo, Wisconsin, in 1875. In 1907 Ringling Bros. acquired the Barnum & Bailey Circus, merging them in 1919 to become Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, promoted as The Greatest Show on Earth. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey closed on May 21, 2017, following weakening attendance and high operating costs.
Russell Alexander was an entertainer and composer, active primarily with vaudeville shows and musical comedy organizations.
Merle Slease Evans was an American cornet player and circus band conductor who conducted the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for fifty years. He was known as the "Toscanini of the Big Top." Evans was inducted into the American Bandmasters Association in 1947 and the International Circus Hall of Fame in 1975.
Robert William Smith was an American composer, arranger, and teacher.
The Hagenbeck–Wallace Circus was a circus that traveled across America in the early part of the 20th century. At its peak, it was the second-largest circus in America next to Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. It was based in Peru, Indiana.
John Nicholas Ringling was an American entrepreneur who is the best known of the seven Ringling brothers, five of whom merged the Barnum & Bailey Circus with their own Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows to create a virtual monopoly of traveling circuses and helped shape the modern circus. In addition to owning and managing many of the largest circuses in the United States, he was also a rancher, a real estate developer and art collector. He was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 1987.
Circus music is any sort of music that is played to accompany a circus, and also music written that emulates its general style. Popular music would also often get arranged for the circus band, as well as waltzes, foxtrots and other dances.
The C. L. Barnhouse Company is an American music publishing firm. It was founded in 1886 by Charles Lloyd Barnhouse. It has been headquartered in Oskaloosa, Iowa since 1891.
Walter Paul "Woody" English was an American composer, conductor, and tubist.
The Sells Floto Circus was a combination of the Floto Dog & Pony Show and the Sells Brothers Circus that toured with sideshow acts in the United States and Canada during the early 1900s.
Charles Edward Duble was an American band musician and composer. He played for 23 years in circus bands.
Arthur Wellesley Hughes (1870–1950) was a Canadian musician and composer. Born in Kingston, Ontario, he separated from his family at a young age, spending many years in the United States as an itinerant circus musician. He was a performer on piano, calliope, and alto horn. His circus associations on record include: Mighty Haag Circus, Downie & Wheeler Circus (1912); Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus (1922); Sells-Floto Circus (1923); and Ringling Bros & Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows (1924–26). He was with Robbins Bros. Circus (1928–29) whence his Robbins Bros. Triumphal March arose, and Miller Bros. 101 Ranch Wild West Show, and Walter L. Main Circus (1930–31). Hughes worked as composer and arranger for the Waterloo Music Company of Waterloo, Ontario, from 1932 to 1935. At other times, Hughes worked as arranger in the Whaley, Royce and Cundy-Bettoney publishing houses. According to his own account, Hughes wrote band music in the US for much of his life, under various pen names, including Arthur Wellesley and H W Arthur.
Charles Lloyd Barnhouse was a 19th-century American music publisher. Barnhouse started a music publishing firm in 1886 that exists today as the C. L. Barnhouse Company, selling band music around the world.
Heritage of the March is a series of 185 vinyl records of marches and galops released from 1973 to 1988. It remains the largest single march music record series in history, featuring close to 3,000 different marches.
Frederick Roger Imhof was an American film actor, vaudeville, burlesque and circus performer, sketch writer, and songwriter.
Jewell is an English surname, from a Celtic personal name composed of elements meaning 'lord' + 'generous', 'bountiful'. The name does not derive from the gemstone jewel.
Albert C. Sweet was an American bandleader, cornetist, and composer. Over the course of his career, Sweet served as music director and soloist for the Edison Phonograph Company, bandmaster of the Ringling Brothers Circus, and eventually founded his own band, TheWhite Hussars. Sweet and his band were an important part of the Chautauqua movement eventually earning him the moniker "Mr. Chautauqua".
