A concert march is a march specifically composed for a formal concert or other audience event. While concert marches are usually written for a concert band, brass band or an orchestra, some concert marches have also been composed for solo instrument such as piano or organ. Prior to 1820, the majority of march music was composed for military use by military bands. Beginning in the 1820s a shift occurred in which mainstream classical composers wrote less frequently for military ensembles but would create concert marches to be played by orchestras as character pieces. Because concert marches are played by ensembles that are stationary, composers creating concert marches ceased connecting the march to the context of marching feet. This separation from its original context led to stylistic changes: a clear separation in style between the military march and the concert march.
In the United States, the popularization of the concert march can be traced to late 19th century with publications like Metronome magazine embracing the form as its own separate genre of march. With the growing prevalence of concert bands, the concert march developed as a way to perform marches on stage. John Philip Sousa was instrumental in the development of an American approach to the concert march. Previously the older da capo march utilized a circular structure which Sousa felt lacked a climax inherently within its compositional form. Within the concert march genre, Sousa pursued a new dramatic shape and theatricality within the march which he began experimenting with in the 1880s. His style influenced other composers of band music in this genre. Sousa was a supporter of the community band movement of the late 19th century and early 20th century in the United States, and many of his compositions, including his concert marches, became a staple part of the community band repertoire. Many of Sousa's marches for marching band were re-orchestrated by Sousa so that they could be played as a concert march. This required reducing the number of instruments which created a thinner texture within his concert march versions.