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"The Gladiator" is a march by John Philip Sousa, written in 1886 while Sousa was leader of the US Marine Band.
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The Gladiator was written as a tribute to Charles B. Towle, a journalist at the Boston Traveler . [1] The journalist introduced him to the Knights Templar. Speculation has long surrounded the title for the piece, but one hypothesis is that the title referred to Towle himself, a gladiator of sorts who used a pen instead of a sword. Another plausible hypothesis is that the piece may have been written about an article Towle wrote for the Boston Traveler. [2] [3]
Sousa had not written many marches before that, and none of them received great popularity. The Gladiator, however, sold over a million copies - a record for the time and was soon performed frequently. [4] It follows normal march style, IAABBCCDCDC, and is played at the normal pace of most marches: 120-128 beats per minute. Although marches such as Semper Fidelis , The Washington Post , Stars and Stripes Forever and Hands Across the Sea have achieved greater popularity, the Gladiator is still regarded as John Philip Sousa's first success.
