The Sousa Swing

The Sousa Swing (1907)

Charles B. Brown

Saxophone Quartet or Quintet

Flexible Instrumentation

The Sousa Swing – march by Charles Brown, arranged for sax quintet or quartet with additional parts. It sounds like a Sousa march – it looks like a Sousa march but it’s not a Sousa march.The Sousa Swing was published in 1907 at the height of Sousa’s popularity but it was written by Charles Brown, a little-known composer of ragtime and parlor songs. Regardless of what it is not, it is a bouncy march in 6/8 time that will get your audience clapping along with you.

This arrangement is scored for SATBBs saxophone quintet but for maximum flexibility alternate parts are provided for soprano, bari and bass saxes. It can be played with as few as four voices but with as many as eight. It includes the following parts:

1. Soprano Sax
1A. Alto Sax – Sub for Soprano
2. Alto Sax
3. Tenor Sax
4. Bari Sax
4A. Bass Sax – Sub for Bari Sax
5. Bari Sax 2
5A. Tenor Sax 2 – Sub for Bari Sax 2

This arrangement an be played a sax quartet using parts 1‐4 (or their alternates) or sax quintet by including part 5.

• The range for each saxophone part is shown below.
• Brief score samples and audio excerpts are available above.
• Registered users can download a complete sample score and audio file of The Sousa Swing on the ‘Samples’ tab.