Powhatan’s Daughter - John Philip Sousa (1854-1932)
This march, written by Sousa in 1907, carries the name of the Chief of a confederation of some thirty Algonquian tribes that populated the area of what is now central Virginia. Powhatan was both a brilliant warrior chief as well as a skilled negotiator with the Jamestown Englishmen with whom his people traded and fought over land and resources. Following a skirmish in December 1607, English explorer, cartographer, and pioneer Capt. John
Smith, one of the Jamestown colony's leaders, was captured by an Algonquian hunting expedition. Smith was taken to a village by the York River to face their chief, Powhatan. According to Smith’s account, he was about to
be executed when he was saved by Pocahontas, the chief’s 10- or 11-year-old daughter, who placed herself between him and his executioners.
Powhatan’s Daughter endeared Sousa to the Indians of America. As a salute to Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan, it was written for the Jamestown Exposition of 1907, that marked the three hundredth anniversary of the first English settlement in America.
16 сен 2024