La Flor de Sevilla

Description

“Quien no ha visto Sevilla no ha visto maravilla” (“He who has not seen Seville has not seen beauty”) is an old Spanish proverb and was printed on the face of the sheet music of this march at Sousa’s suggestion. Whether or not he ever visited Seville, the city of his father’s birth, has not been established. The march was composed at the request of the directors of the Ibero-American Exposition held in Seville in 1929, and the inscription on the band manuscript reads, “Written for and dedicated to the people of Spain.”
—Paul E. Bierley, The Works of John Philip Sousa (Westerville, Ohio: Integrity Press, 1984), 52.

The original published parts to La Flor de Sevilla can be found in Sousa’s Encore Books, along with many other famous marches. The issue with the original parts is that they contain alot of inconsistancies, from articulation to dynamic. Additionally, such as with most marches around this time, the key of the piccolo is Db, and the key of the horn is Eb, therefore making it difficult to perform in the modern era. That is why composer Wesley Besancon went back and edited the parts from the original to maintain clear consistancy across all parts, and to ensure that all of the parts are transposed to modern keys.