John Philip Sousa

The Last Days Of Pompeii

Sousa's suite for concert band 'The Last Days of Pompeii' was inspired by the novel of the same name by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, with each of the three movements prefaced by a quotation drawn from the novel. This suite was composed in 1893, and was the composer's first essay into the form that was to become his preferred means of musical expression in large structure. Sousa often reffered to this as his finest composition and programmed it more often than any of his other suites. This edition reflects the instrumentation as it was in the Sousa Band's later years as it more closely resembles contemporary performance practice, and it is offered to conductors who wish to explore the wind band's earliest surviving repertory. Movements: 1. In the House of Burbo and Stratonice, 2. Nydia, the Blind Girl, 3. The Destruction of Pompeii and Nydia's Death.