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On this week’s episode of Music in the Making, we’re listening to many styles of musical marches to celebrate the beginning of March!
Paul Hindemith – Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber – IV. Marsch
Texas Music Festival Orchestra; Franz Anton Krager, conductor
Moores Opera House
6/9/2012
Our first selection is one of Paul Hindemith’s most popular works, a suite of four movements based on works by Carl Maria von Weber. Weber, a 19th century German composer, was mostly known for his operas and virtuosic clarinet compositions. However, Hindemith used a set of Weber’s incidental music to create this work. This particular movement, the march, is the most well-known of the composition and is frequently performed as a stand alone concert piece.
Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, “Eroica” – II. Marcia Funebre
Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra; Larry Rachleff, conductor
Stude Concert Hall
2/28/2013
In contrast to our last piece, this next march is much more solemn and plodding. And perhaps that’s because this particular selection is a funeral march. Beethoven’s Third Symphony is well-known for many reasons, but one of those is the story of it’s dedication. Beethoven had initially dedicated this work to Napoleon Bonaparte, but once he had crowned himself Emperor of France, he angrily took back the dedication. He instead wrote “composed to celebrate the memory of a great man.” After this, many believe that this movement suggest a “funeral” for the version of Napoleon that Beethoven grew to respect.
Ralph Vaughan Williams – English Folk Song Suite
Moores School Symphony Orchestra; James F. Keene, conductor
Moores Opera House
12/7/2012
In the early twentieth century, many English composers developed a fondness for their country’s folk music. Ralph Vaughan Williams was the clear leader of this folk revival, and this next selection is one of his greatest pieces to have came from it. This suite contains a march, intermezzo, followed by another march. Throughout the movements, Vaughan Williams quotes many folk songs, including “Seventeen Come Sunday,” “Green Bushes,” and “Blow Away the Morning Dew.”
Pyotr Tchaikovsky – Marche slave
Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra; Larry Rachleff, conductor
Stude Concert Hall
11/7/2009
While this next selection has become popular in concert halls across the world, it also holds deep historical and cultural roots. Marche slave was commissioned and written during the Serbo-Turkish War in the late nineteenth century in support of wounded Serbian veterans. It is also sometimes known as the Serbo-Russian March. As you listen to this work, you’ll also hear the tune “God Save the Tsar” which Tchaikovsky famously wrote in his 1812 Overture.
John Philip Sousa, arr. Richard Franko Goldman – The Free Lance March
Moores School Symphonic Winds; Marion West, conductor
Moores Opera House
4/23/2013
To close the program, we’ll feature a work by the March King himself. John Philip Sousa certainly worked hard to earn that title, as he composed 137 marches throughout his lifetime, many that are still frequently performed today. His most famous work, “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” is the National March of the United States.
This episode originally aired Sunday, March 6th, 2016. Catch Music in the Making every Sunday at 7:06 PM on Classical 91.7.