The origin of this march's evocative title, The Thunderer, is not clear; some have guessed that it refers to a celebrated orator of the time, circa 1889, or to the pyrotechnics of the drum and bugle effects in Sousa's score. Whatever the story behind its name, The Thunderer is one of Sousa's finest and most famous marches; it is also one of the easier Sousa marches to perform, and for this reason it was often a favorite of circus bands, who liked to take it at impressively fast tempos.

Coming the same year as the Washington Post, The Thunderer finds Sousa hitting his stride in developing a distinctly American-sounding march. The contrary motion of the introduction was a prototype for hundreds of similar works, and the clipped notes of the prancing first theme are (for the time) quite novel. The regimental effects first emerge in the second theme accompanied by one of Sousa's excellent countermelodies in the repeat. The trio is songlike and lyrical, so often the case in the composer's marches. Most striking is the use of rests, which alternate with the martial fanfares in the breakstrain until the powerful reprise of the trio gives full justification of the march's title.

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