U. S. Field Artillery, march for band

This march has an unusual history: about half of its music is an adaptation of a 1908 song written by Edmund Gruber, a Brigadier General in the U.S. Army and relative of Franz Gruber, composer of the Christmas favorite "Silent Night." Edmund Gruber's effort was named The Caisson Song and soon became popular among the six regiments of the United States Field Artillery in the World War I era. Sousa, who had joined the Naval Reserve in 1917, at the age of 62, was then asked to make an adaptation of Gruber's song for band. The Caisson Song was later arranged by H.W. Arberg as The Army Goes Rolling Along, and thereafter became the U.S. Army's official song. The march opens with an original theme by Sousa, a lively, jaunty creation, festive and ebullient, quite the colorful stuff of parades and patriotic celebrations in the best Sousa style. Gruber's famous theme is initially heard about midway through, first in a subdued, mellow manner, then growing bigger and more celebratory. The work ends gloriously, the whole obviously intended, more than most other Sousa marches, as a grand call for patriotic celebration. This classic work typically has a duration of two-and-a-half minutes.