My Favorite Sousa March 2

Selections from the Free Lance (1905)

The Free Lance is one of Sousa’s most beguiling musicals. It is also a farcical spoof.The freelance of the operetta is not a musician, but an enterprising fellow who hires himself out as a mercenary (freelance) to two warring countries, assuming leadership of the armies on both sides and maneuvering both forces so that neither side can win.
The words to the opening music go:
‘I am a salaried warrior
And I do not care for fame,
For I’m a regular business man,
And cash is all I claim’.
The finale is a grand setting of the operetta’s finale ‘On to Victory’.