The composer Václav Vačkář dedicated this march to the Czech gymnastics organization, which was founded in Prague in 1862 by Miroslav Tyrš, who took the German gymnastics movement as his model. The members of the movement, the Sokols (Czech for “falcons”), were guided by the principles of ancient Greece (“a healthy mind in a healthy body”) and pursued the goal of promoting a strong national identity through physical, moral, and intellectual education. Despite being banned several times in recent history (during World War I, the Nazi occupation, and again by the communist regimes after 1948), the movement was revived in the Czech Republic and worldwide after the end of communism in the early 1990s and is still active in popular sports today.

The “March of Tyrš’s Champions” (also known as the “ March of Tyrš’s Fighters”) is a tribute to the countless Sokols who, among other things, gathered every few years for large sports and cultural festivals, known as slets (Czech for “ swarm of birds”), where thousands of members performed synchronized mass gymnastics exercises.

This jewel of marching music from Vačkář’s ingenious pen is impressive both when marching and in concert.