# Marches



## mtmailey

Is there anyone here who like marches?


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

How can anyone not love this?


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## starthrower

I quite like this one!


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## Neo Romanza

Why would anyone, who's a classical fan, not like a march?


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## OboeKnight

I don't _love_ marches, but I definitely enjoy and appreciate them. They are not the most exciting thing an oboist can play, but they are still awesome.


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## Novelette

Neo Romanza said:


> Why would anyone, who's a classical fan, not like a march?


Agreed; the thought of disliking a whole swath of works regardless of their individual merits [or at least the composer's merits] is perplexing. =\


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## mtmailey

Neo Romanza said:


> Why would anyone, who's a classical fan, not like a march?


Honestly i do not know only the people who do not like it knows.


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## ptr

Neo Romanza said:


> Why would anyone, who's a classical fan, not like a march?


Neo says it all!

/ptr


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## joen_cph

With some, mainly symphonic and more complex exceptions (Mahler, Shostakovich, "Pathetique", Chopin for instance), I tend not to like them, especially those written in a popular, 19th-century style. 

Let´s face it: those are mostly opium for the people, and often musically uninteresting ...


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## Taggart

Depends what you include. Whole range of great music here not just Sousa. Various funeral and wedding marches as well.

I wonder how many of us could sing along to this:


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## elgar's ghost

I don't mind listening to marches as pieces of music in their own right but I tend to prefer them as part of a work. To me, marches are like waltzes and tangos insofar as I'd find it difficult to listen to a whole album of them without occasionally glancing at my watch.


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## Ravndal

joen_cph said:


> With some, mainly symphonic and more complex exceptions (Mahler, Shostakovich, "Pathetique", Chopin for instance), I tend not to like them, especially those written in a popular, 19th-century style.
> 
> Let´s face it: those are mostly opium for the people, and often musically uninteresting ...


I agree. Many of them is quite tacky.


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## Ingélou

When I learned the violin at school, one of the pieces that 'opened my eyes' to the beauty of classical music was Handel's March from Scipio; when I 'came back', last year, it was the first baroque piece I played for my teacher. Yummy! 

But for sheer to-die-for grandeur, try Lully's Marche pour la Cérémonie des Turcs.


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## ptr

I love when the local brass band comes marching by!
















It is almost as good as the bags a pipes of Scotland... 

/ptr


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## Trout

I don't know about me, but I know of someone who had a proclivity for a certain march.


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## Arsakes

Yes. Mostly Swedish, German, British and American marches.

Teenage Pop-Rock fans of today seem to abhor Elgar's marches! :lol:


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## Lunasong

Need a march where horn does not play on the off-beats. Please.

Keith Brion of the New Sousa Band says: 
When you're marching the Tuba plays the downbeat, but you need an after-beat to entice your leg to come up. Mid range is the best range to hear the upbeat of which only a few instruments in band can consistently play. The best choice to be heard is Horn.

So that is why horns are doomed in marches to never play an interesting part. Oh well, off to the movies!


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## Mahlerian

elgars ghost said:


> I don't mind listening to marches as pieces of music in their own right but I tend to prefer them as part of a work. To me, marches are like waltzes and tangos insofar as I'd find it difficult to listen to a whole album of them without occasionally glancing at my watch.


This is more or less my view as well. It's a very limiting form to write a piece of music in, both rhythmically and formally (usually ABAC or something similar), and while Sousa's music is clever, it can get cloying or monotonous very quickly, like listening to Strauss waltzes.


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## Tristan

I love marches, "simple music" or not:

Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 6 - Third Movement
Tchaikovsky - Coronation March for Tsar Alexander III
Tchaikovsky - Marche Slave
Verdi - Triumphal March from Aida
Wagner - Entrance of the Guests from Tannhauser (it has the beat of a march)
Wagner - Wedding March from Lohengrin
Elgar - Pomp and Circumstance Nos. 1 & 4
Sousa - The Gliding Girl Tango
Minkus - Marche Caravane from La Source
Tchaikovsky - March from Sleeping Beauty
Tchaikovsky - March from the Nutcracker
Delibes - Marche et Cortege de Bacchus from Sylvia
Berlioz - March to the Scaffold from Symphonie Fantastique


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## elgar's ghost

Mahlerian said:


> This is more or less my view as well. It's a very limiting form to write a piece of music in, both rhythmically and formally (usually ABAC or something similar), and while Sousa's music is clever, it can get cloying or monotonous very quickly, like listening to Strauss waltzes.


Exactly. Although I was referring to orchestral/band marches I have to say I'm quite taken with what Schubert does in his various marches for piano duet as he sometimes ups the pace to a point where they could possibly be called 'dances' instead.


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## Taggart

ptr said:


> I love when the local brass band comes marching by!
> 
> It is almost as good as the bags a pipes of Scotland...
> 
> /ptr


Close but no cigar.


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## Taggart

elgars ghost said:


> Exactly. Although I was referring to orchestral/band marches I have to say I'm quite taken with what Schubert does in his various marches for piano duet as he sometimes ups the pace to a point where they could possibly be called 'dances' instead.


They can be dances! I know I've posted pipes already, but.. here's a slow version by the London Scottish






and a faster one






Interestingly, the second one claims that the tune is linked to Roger de Coverley, although Wiki gives it as a different Playford dance.

Basically Scots are used to hearing tunes at different tempos depending on the dance. Monymusk can be played at MM 70 for a Strathspey and MM 120 for a Highland Fling.


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## KenOC

Tristan said:


> I love marches, "simple music" or not:
> 
> Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 6 - Third Movement
> Tchaikovsky - Coronation March for Tsar Alexander III
> Tchaikovsky - Marche Slave
> Verdi - Triumphal March from Aida
> Wagner - Entrance of the Guests from Tannhauser (it has the beat of a march)
> Wagner - Wedding March from Lohengrin
> Elgar - Pomp and Circumstance Nos. 1 & 4
> Sousa - The Gliding Girl Tango
> Minkus - Marche Caravane from La Source
> Tchaikovsky - March from Sleeping Beauty
> Tchaikovsky - March from the Nutcracker
> Delibes - Marche et Cortege de Bacchus from Sylvia


I'm sure it was an oversight, but you left out Berlioz's March to the Scaffold!


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## Tristan

KenOC said:


> I'm sure it was an oversight, but you left out Berlioz's March to the Scaffold!


It was definitely an oversight  I actually thought of that one when I saw this thread earlier! Oh well, I will edit it in.


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## LordBlackudder

I quite like this one.


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## KenOC

Not exactly a march, but close enough!


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## mtmailey

For those who are interested there a few good march cds like the proarte world's greatest marches.Elgar also had a nice set of marches called POMP & CIRCUMSTANCE the number 1 is the best to me.


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## Ingélou

I ought to hate marches, when I think about it. It was Schubert's Marche Militaire that put the final nail in the coffin of my violin playing when I was at school. I'd been overpromoted to the senior section of the York Schools Strings Orchestra & it was my first concert with them at the Guildhall. I was terrified - I just couldn't play most of the repertoire, or I couldn't play it fast enough. I used to mime along on the back benches. I could play Marche Militaire - so I thought. I joined in with overconfidence and yes, almost 50 years later, I can admit it. I was the idiot who played the extra 'da-DUH' in the opening flourish.

The next week I turned up just to tell the conductor that I was jacking it in - face saver, to have more time for school work. He did not demur...


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## Guest

Being a generally lazy person, I don't particularly like marches or marching. Probably why I didn't join the military.


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## Arsakes

*Johann Strauss II*
&
*John Philip Sousa*

End of thread.


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## Novelette

Liszt's macabre and fascinating Funeral Prelude and March; extraordinarily fun to play too!


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## Mahlerian

Fun fact: Mahler's first composition (at age 6 or so, now lost along with the rest of his juvenilia and student works) was entitled _Polka with Introductory Funeral March_.

Just goes to show he was always Mahler, even as a kid.


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## Taggart

Mahlerian said:


> Fun fact: Mahler's first composition (at age 6 or so, now lost along with the rest of his juvenilia and student works) was entitled _Polka with Introductory Funeral March_.
> 
> Just goes to show he was always Mahler, even as a kid.


What you mean getting the cart before the horse? A funeral march should follow (not precede) a suitably energetic polka, as a way of either a) calming down or b) disposing of those who have fallen by the wayside.


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## BaronAlstromer

ptr said:


> I love when the local brass band comes marching by!


It has become a family tradition to watch the _tapto_ every year on June 6th. 
Too bad they didn´t continue with Arméns Musikkår Norrland.
It was always fun to sneek up to I19 and listen to them.


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## moody

Arsakes said:


> Yes. Mostly Swedish, German, British and American marches.
> 
> Teenage Pop-Rock fans of today seem to abhor Elgar's marches! :lol:


I doubt that they know what they are or ever hear them.


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## Huilunsoittaja

LordBlackudder said:


> I quite like this one.


HEY! You're playing an ensemble from my University, the Gamer symphony orchestra! :O


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## Huilunsoittaja

Russian marches PWN!

Prokofiev pwns


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

I for one care less for Marches and prefer music of less structure and military bearing.

Ps -someones gotta vote in the negative otherwise it would all too boring...........

This clip is too unstructured for me thou


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## Roland

I like marches. I'll confess to being a John Phillip Sousa fan. But Mozart wrote marches too. Here is a modern march written in the 1950s by Leroy Anderson that is rather haunting.






Leroy Anderson served in World War II and listening to this, I get the distinct impression that he knew some men who died in conflict. While not exactly sad, there is an underlying somber mood, perhaps accompanying the spirits of men marching to the next life in the "Phantom Regiment."


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## waldvogel

Tristan said:


> I love marches, "simple music" or not:
> 
> Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 6 - Third Movement
> Tchaikovsky - Coronation March for Tsar Alexander III
> Tchaikovsky - Marche Slave
> Verdi - Triumphal March from Aida
> Wagner - Entrance of the Guests from Tannhauser (it has the beat of a march)
> Wagner - Wedding March from Lohengrin
> Elgar - Pomp and Circumstance Nos. 1 & 4
> Sousa - The Gliding Girl Tango
> Minkus - Marche Caravane from La Source
> Tchaikovsky - March from Sleeping Beauty
> Tchaikovsky - March from the Nutcracker
> Delibes - Marche et Cortege de Bacchus from Sylvia
> Berlioz - March to the Scaffold from Symphonie Fantastique


And now that KenOC has brought up Berlioz, how about the Rakoczy March from _The Damnation of Faust_? Or for that matter, all three movements of the _Symphonie funèbre et triomphale_?


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## belfastboy

Dunno why - I particularly love this!


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## NightXsenator

I really enjoy marches like those from Mahler, Shostakovich, Pettersson symphonies, I mean atmospheric and imbued with certain emotional power. Does anyone have an idea of more composers?


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## maestro267

The march sections from the first movement of Mahler 3.

The many funeral marches throughout the orchestral repertoire.


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## NightHawk

From Morton Gould's _West Point Symphony_ Movement II - Marches
If the video is off-putting to anyone, please, minimize it to your task bar and listen to this wonderful concert march - very difficult and a great performance.




edit: yeah, surreal and disturbing, I guess (the video in places and the jauntiness of Gould's great score) - I don't care for the use it was put to - sorta wish I hadn't posted it, but I love the music. Hope no one is offended. nh


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## LouisMasterMusic

There are quite a few marches I enjoy. Here are several of them.

1) Johann Strauss I: Radetzky March

2) Hector Berlioz: Hungarian March (from The Damnation Of Faust)

3) Sir Edward Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance, Op.39 No.1 In D Major

4) Sir Edward Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance, Op.39 No.4 In G Major

5) Eric Coates: The Dam Busters, March

6) Eric Coates: Calling All Workers, March

7) Eric Coates: Knightsbridge, March (from London Suite)

8) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: March of the Priests (from The Magic Flute)

9) John Philip Sousa: The Stars and Stripes Forever

10) John Philip Sousa: The Liberty Bell, March

11) Trevor Duncan: March (from A Little Suite)

There are lots more that are too many to mention. Hope this selection inspires further listening.


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## david johnson

so many great marches around 

slavonic girl's farewell - agapkin
Washington grays - grafulla
eagle squadron/hm jollies - alford
stars and stripes forever, etc. - sousa
cyrus the great - kl king


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## Notung

Siegfried's Funeral March! Best one ever, along with Betthoven's funeral march from his 3rd and Verdi's March from Aida.


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## david johnson




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## contra7




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## Cadenza

Start your day with Schubert's march number 1. Repeat.


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## talx

Neo Romanza said:


> Why would anyone, who's a classical fan, not like a march?


'nuff said! Completely true!


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## Winterreisender

Yes I like marches. I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet, but my favourite march is probably _Crown Imperial _by William Walton. Stylistically it is a carbon copy of Elgar's _Promp & Circumstance_, but it contains some wonderfully rousing melodies. Perhaps the royal, "patriotic" connotations are a little off-putting, but I can usually look past that.


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## ShropshireMoose

All the above posts mention some wonderful marches, I wanted to put a link here to a film on the Pathe website of Eric Coates conducting his own "London Bridge March" but the link on their site doesn't seem to work! Here it is on youtube, Coates conducting a Symphony Orchestra, 5th May, 1934.





Orchestras love playing Coates, he always writes interestingly for them, probably as a result of having spent his formative years playing viola with Beecham and then Henry Wood. I'm sure that it must have been his time with the latter and his penchant for always programming the very latest in music that puts Coates' use of harmonic language streets ahead of his light music contemporaries.
I might add that when I asked John Wilson, after a concert in which he had conducted the CBSO in Coates' "Four Centuries" Suite, why that suite wasn't played more often, he replied, "Because it's so bloody difficult!"


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