Strike up the Band!
Sousa • Coates • Gounod • Schubert • Gershwin
Julius Fučik (1872-1916) was born in Prague and studied
at the conservatory in that city at a time when Antonín Dvořák was also a
pupil there. He was an extremely productive composer with over 400 works to his
name, among them operettas, chamber music, masses and songs. Today, however, he
is almost exclusively known for his marches, more than a hundred of them, of
which two have become especially famous: Einzug der Gladiatoren (Entry
of the Gladiators, [Track 5]) and Florentiner Marsch [1]. The first of
these was originally called Grande Marche Chromatique but, inspired by
the gladiatorial combats in ancient Rome, Fučik later gave it its present,
much more thought-provoking title. Anyone who has ever been to the circus
cannot have avoided hearing it. One might imagine that this was Fučik's
most popular march, but an international survey placed the Florentiner
Marsch in first place. It has the subtitle Grande Marcia Italiana,
and the word Florentiner is an allusion to the city of Florence.
Eric Coates (1886-1957) was a viola player and a founder
member of the Beecham Symphony Orchestra; he later became section leader in the
Queens Hall Orchestra, where he remained until he resigned in 1918 to devote
himself entirely to composition. One of the reasons for his masterful
orchestration was certainly that he had seen and heard the orchestra from
within. The 1920s and 1930s were a golden age for Coates, with the development
of broadcasting. Unlike many other English composers he does not seem to have
been especially interested in writing film music, but his score for The Dam
Busters (1954) includes the well-known The Dam Busters March ([2]).
It is said that Carl Teike (1864-1922) lost all interest in
military matters when a newly arrived regimental conductor suggested that he
should throw away a newly composed march. It happened to be Alte Kameraden ([3]),
so it is to be hoped that the conductor was forced to eat his words. Teike left
the army for the police-force, continuing to write marches. Ever since it first
appeared, Alte Kameraden has been one of the world's most frequently
played marches.
George Gershwin (1898-1937) composed a whole series of
unforgettable songs with texts by his brother Ira; his first major hit was Swanee.
Gershwin was also the first who seriously understood how to combine jazz and
symphonic music, in his Rhapsody in Blue, which was composed in January
1924 and was orchestrated by Ferde Grofé. The première was given by Paul Whiteman's
orchestra, with Gershwin himself as soloist. When Gershwin sought out Maurice
Ravel in Paris with a view to taking lessons, Ravel apparently asked if he could
take lessons from Gershwin instead. He also wrote a series of musicals, and
many of his most famous songs were first heard in such a context. This applies,
for instance, to Strike Up The Band ([4]), from the musical of the same
name, first given in Philadelphia in 1927.
Josef Franz Wagner (1856-1908) (no relative of Richard) has
sometimes been called 'the Austrian march king' and it is certainly true that Austria - especially Vienna - was close to his heart. In 1899, after 21 years, he gave up a career
in the armed forces and organized his own military band, which soon became
popular. He composed more than four hundred pieces, but it was his marches that
brought him the greatest fame. Unter dem Doppeladler (Under the Double
Eagle, [6]), the name is an allusion to the two eagles in Austria's coat of arms, is one of the most famous of all marches.
It is exceptional for a person's name to be applied not only
to a type of ensemble but also to a type of music, but that is exactly what
happened to Johann Schrammel (1850-93) and his brother Joseph. They were both
violinists in the Schrammel Quartet that they formed in 1877. The other
instruments were the guitar and clarinet (later accordion). At first the music
they played was typically Viennese, and the Austrian capital was also the
subject for Johann's march Wien bleibt Wien (Vienna will always be Vienna, [7]).
Victor Herbert (1859-1924) is nowadays best known for his
operettas, but he was one of the most significant figures in American music in
the early twentieth century. Born in Dublin, he received his musical education
in Germany and Austria, and in 1886 arrived in America, where he became
principal cellist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He was an exceptionally
talented musician and an outstanding conductor. He was also one of the first to
compose music for films, and an enthusiastic champion of the phonograph. The
well-known March of the Toys ([8]) comes from his operetta Babes in
Toyland, first performed in Chicago in June 1903.
Frederick J. Ricketts (1881-1945) composed under the
pseudonym Kenneth J. Alford. When he was just fourteen he lied about his age in
order to join the First Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment and, after seeing
service in India, he joined the Royal Military School, Kneller Hall. He is
supposed to have helped a number of other students who were given the task of
composing music but were not as proficient as he was. In 1930 he became director
of music for the Plymouth Division, Royal Marines. Under his leadership this
ensemble achieved worldwide fame, with tours to France and Canada. During the Second World War, Alford, by then promoted to the rank of major, took the
ensemble all over England. He retired a year before his death. His most famous march
is Colonel Bogey ([9]), not least because of the prominent rôle it plays
in the film The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). It also became
extremely popular during the Second World War among British soldiers, who
provided it with texts unsuitable for printing.
John Philip Sousa (1854-1932) is indeed the march king, in
all categories. He personified turn-of-the-century America, with its relatively
unsuspecting character and irresistible energy. His own orchestra often
undertook tours around the globe and did pioneering work in introducing music
to hundreds of towns all over America. Sousa composed a large number of
marches, of which The Stars and Stripes Forever, Washington Post and
Semper Fidelis are among the most popular. Here we have chosen to
represent him with a march that is not played quite so often, The Liberty
Bell, from 1893 ([10]). Sousa was inspired to write the piece in Chicago, when he saw a painting of Philadelphia's famous Liberty Bell. By a happy coincidence
he received a letter from his wife the next day in which she explained how
their son had taken part in a ceremony centred on this very bell and had thus shown
himself to be a true patriot. Patriotism, of course, was a matter of honour for
Sousa. Even if the march is relatively seldom played, it may nevertheless sound
strikingly familiar, perhaps because John Cleese and his colleagues used it as
the signature tune for the BBC comedy Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Not much is known about Kurt Noack (1895-1945), the composer
of Heinzelmännchens Wachtparade (Brownie's guard parade). He was active
in Berlin and Stettin (Szczecin) and wrote a number of works for salon
orchestra, among them Valse Scandinave and Marionetten um Mitternacht.
Heinzelmännchens Wachtparade was his 'big hit'.
During his lifetime Louis Ganne (1862-1923) was regarded as
one of the leading composers of lighter music in France. He studied at the
Paris Conservatoire, where Massenet taught him composition and César Franck
taught him the organ. He had scarcely left the Conservatoire when he started to
make a name for himself as the composer of marches, waltzes and mazurkas. For
many years he was in charge of music at the Monte Carlo Casino, where he
directed a very popular concert series, Les Concerts de Louis Ganne. He also
wrote a number of operettas and ballets, but nowadays he is remembered most for
a single piece, Marche lorraine (1892, [12]), using an old
folk-song from the district. During the Second World War, Marche lorraine assumed a special significance as a battle song for the Free French and their
allies.
Franz von Blon (1861-1945) saw marches more as concert
pieces than as music to help soldiers keep in step. Although little recorded,
he is regarded, along with Carl Teike, as among the finest German march composers.
He studied at the Stern Conservatory and was one of six promising violinists
who were granted private lessons with Joseph Joachim. He worked as an orchestral
leader and conductor, and composed a large number of works in a wide range of
genres, not least music for wind orchestra. Solinger Schützenmarsch ([13])
is dedicated to a shooting club in Solingen, a town in the Nordrhein-Westfalen
(North Rhine-Westphalia) region.
Charles Gounod (1818-1893) received his first musical
tuition from his mother, and in 1836 entered the Paris Conservatoire. He wrote
his first opera, Sappho, for the singer Pauline Viardot-Garcia, and a
series of operas followed, among them Faust, Mireille and Roméo
et Juliette. His Marche funèbre d'une marionnette (Funeral
March of a Marionette, [14]) became well-known as the signature tune of the television
programmes Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1960-62) and The Alfred
Hitchcock Hour (1962-65).
Johannes Hanssen (1874-1967) was a tenor horn player in the
Norwegian band Brigademusikken when his Valdres March ([15]) was first
performed at an outdoor concert in 1904. Apparently only two members of the
audience applauded, and they were his best friends. Later the march achieved
international fame, and was included on a recording by the Boston Symphony
Orchestra entitled 'The World's Ten Best Marches'. From 1926 onwards, Hanssen
was a lieutenant and director of Brigademusikken, although he also worked as an
orchestral musician.
When the Prussian army defeated the Austrians at the Battle
of Königgratz in 1866, they called upon Johann Gottfried Piefke (1815-1884) to
celebrate their victory. He directed an ensemble consisting of three bands in a
programme of marches and folk-songs, thereby demonstrating the popularity he
enjoyed within the Prussian army. Piefke's masterful direction and the high
standard of his players also met with the approval of the famous conductor Hans
von Bülow, among others. Preußens Gloria (Prussia's Glory, [16]) was composed
in 1871, but Piefke rarely performed it himself. After his death it was
discovered among his effects and published in a collection of marches in 1911.
For many people, the Marche militaire by Franz
Schubert (1797-1828) is indelibly associated with Christmas Eve, Disney and
Santa's workshop. In fact, however, Schubert wrote it as the first of three Marches militaires (D. 733) for piano four hands. In that form it enjoyed
great contemporary domestic success.
Semyon Tchernevsky (1881-1950) may be unknown to most of us,
but in his own country he is regarded as a Russian Sousa, the composer of a
series of excellent marches that are frequently performed. Salyut Moskvy ([18])
is one of his most popular works and begins, as often with Tchernevsky, with a
quotation, this time from Moscow Radio's interval signal, which is wholly
appropriate as this march is a tribute to Moscow.
Every time a film director requires a melody associated with
the American Marines, his choice is straightforward: he turns to Charles A.
Zimmerman (1862-1916) and his Anchors Aweigh ([19]). Zimmerman was a
lieutenant at the U.S. Naval Academy and had the habit of composing a march for
every class of cadets that graduated from that institution. He wrote Anchors
Aweigh for the class of 1906, and it was subsequently provided with a text
by a cadet who was also a member of the institute's choir, Alfred H. Miles. In
that form it was first performed at the annual football match between the Army
and the Marines, before a crowd of thirty thousand in Philadelphia. For the
first time in many years the Marines won.
Robert Planquette (1848-1903) studied at the Paris Conservatoire
and became known as a composer of popular songs. He later wrote twelve
operettas, of which Les cloches de Corneville (The Bells of Corneville, 1877)
is the only one to have retained its place in the repertoire. In its time it
was immensely popular and, during a ten-year period, it was performed more than
a thousand times. In 1871 he composed Sambre et Meuse ([20]), a setting
of a strongly patriotic poem by Paul Cezano, Le Régiment de Sambre et Meuse, that kept alive the spirit of the French Revolution. The name of the regiment
comes from two rivers: the Sambre is a tributary of the Meuse.
Paul Lincke (1866-1946) worked as a theatre conductor and
music publisher in Berlin around the turn of the century. He spent two years in
Paris as musical director of the famous Folies-Bergère, but then
returned to Berlin, where he conducted at the Apollo Theatre. A versatile
musician, he started with the violin, changed to the bassoon and then finally
to the piano. He was the foremost champion of a sort of mixture of pop tune and
operetta that became very popular in Germany and elsewhere. It is from such a
project that Lincke's most popular piece is derived: Glühwürmchen-Idyll from
Lysistrata (1902), and the march Berliner Luft ([21]) from the
musical Frau Luna (1899). The piece immediately became very popular and
Lincke used it again in 1906 in a musical that was itself named Berliner
Luft, to exploit the work's fame. Lincke apparently composed more that 500
works, some of them under the pseudonym of Ted Huggens.
Lars Johansson
English version:
Andrew Barnett
Arrangers of the Marches:
Bruno Hartmann ([1]);
W. J. Duthoit ([2]); Warren Barker ([4]); Hans Weber ([6]); Hans Kliment ([7]);
Sammy Nestico ([8]); A. Bils ([11]); Franz Mahl ([12]); M. C. Meyrelles ([14]);
Glenn C. Bainum ([15]); Grawert / Hackenberger / Deisenroth ([16]); Armin
Suppan ([17]); V. Sjnirko ([18]); Paul Yoder ([19]); J. S. Seredy ([20])
