Mr. Andrew Converse has written a great arrangement for Trombone Quartet of Sousa's first big hit as a march. The Gladiator is an early work by John Philip Sousa, written in 1886 while he was leader of the US Marine Band.
The Gladiator was written as a tribute to Charles B. Towle, a journalist at the Boston Traveler. The journalist introduced him to the Knights Templar. There is speculation about the origins of the march's name.
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 it was soon performed frequently. It follows the traditional march style of the period. 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.
