Funeral march

A funeral march (Marche funèbre in French, Marcia funebre in Italian, Trauermarsch in German) is a march, usually in a minor key, in a slow "simple duple" metre, imitating the solemn pace of a funeral procession. Some such marches are often considered appropriate for use during funerals and other sombre occasions, the most well-known being that of Chopin. Handel uses the name dead march, also used for marches played by a military band at military funerals and executions.

Examples

Examples in classical music include:

• The Marche funèbre second movement of Charles-Valentin Alkan's Symphony for solo piano, Op. 39, No. 5.
• Alkan's "Funeral March on the Death of a Parrot" for four-part chorus, three bassoons, and oboe
• The second movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 (Eroica).
• The third movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 12 (written in the key of A-flat minor with a middle section in A-flat major).
• A funeral march, formerly attributed to Beethoven (WoO Anhang 13), believed to be by Johann Heinrich Walch, played at the Remembrance Day Cenotaph Service.
• The Funeral March for the Final Scene of Hamlet by Hector Berlioz.
• The eighth variation from Benjamin Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op. 10.
• Marche funèbre for piano written by Frédéric Chopin in 1837, which became the 3rd movement of his Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35.
• Chopin's Marche funèbre for piano in C minor, Op. posth. 72, No. 2.
• The funeral march in Ferdinand David's Concertino for Trombone and Orchestra.
• The Trauermarsch written by Anton Diabelli in memory of Michael Haydn for solo guitar.
• The funeral march from Zdeněk Fibich's opera The Bride of Messina.
• The "Funeral Music" for Akhnaten's father in Act I of the opera Akhnaten, by Philip Glass.
• The Funeral March of a Marionette by Charles Gounod (1872); this later became known to contemporary audiences as the theme music used for the Alfred Hitchcock Presents television series (1955–65)
• The Funeral March in Memory of Rikard Nordraak by Edvard Grieg.
• The Dead March from Saul by George Frideric Handel.
• The third movement of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's String Quartet No.3 in E-Flat Minor Op.30
• A funeral march for Napoleon Bonaparte, in Háry János, by Zoltán Kodály, after Napoleon has been defeated by the hero Háry János.
• Franz Liszt's Marche funèbre, En mémoire de Maximilian I, Empereur du Mexique ("Funeral march, In memory of Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico") from Années de pèlerinage, Book 3.
• Liszt's Trauervorspiel und Trauermarsch, S.206 (written in 1885 (the year before he died), and published three years later in 1888)
• The third movement of Gustav Mahler's first symphony, "Funeral March in the Manner of Callot" based on "Bruder Martin", the German minor-key variant of the children's song "Frère Jacques.", and the Trauermarsch opening movement of his Symphony No. 5.
• The funeral march for Lìu in the opera Turandot, by Giacomo Puccini.
• The March "sounded before her chariot" from Henry Purcell's Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary.
• The fourth movement of Alexander Scriabin's Piano Sonata No. 1.
• The "Funeral March:" Adagio Molto from Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 15.
• The funeral march In Memoriam by Jean Sibelius
• "Siegfried's Funeral March" from Götterdämmerung by Richard Wagner.

Classical music examples with the character of a funeral march but not specifically titled as funeral marches include:

• Masonic Funeral Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
• The theme from Beethoven's "Nine Variations on a March by Ernst Christoph Dressler" for piano, WoO 63, is a funeral march.
• Song Without Words, Op. 62, No. 3, by Felix Mendelssohn; this is often called "Trauermarsch," but it is so called without the composer's approval.
• The 2nd movement of Johannes Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem has the characteristics of a funeral march, but it is in a slow triple metre.
• The song "Der Tamboursg'sell" ("The Drummer Boy") from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, by Gustav Mahler.
• Zaubermarsch, a composition for orchestra written in 1990 by Italian composer Lorenzo Ferrero.
• Surusoitto (Funeral Music) for organ, Op. 111b (1931), from "2 Pieces in memory of Akseli Gallen-Kallela", by Jean Sibelius.

Examples in contemporary music include:

• Part IX of Pink Floyd's Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Wish You Were Here, 1975) has been described as "a slow 4/4 funeral march... the parting musical eulogy to Syd [Barrett]"^[1] by David Gilmour.
• Jelly Roll Morton's Dead Man Blues
• Duke Ellington's Black and Tan Fantasy
• Chico Buarque's "Funeral de um Lavrador" which appeared in the film adaptation of João Cabral de Melo Neto's Morte e Vida Severina.
• The Protomen's "Funeral for a Son," the second track from their eponymous debut album.
• Despite not being a literal funeral march, John T. Williams's "Imperial March," from the Star Wars films, retains many characteristics of one.
• The Olympia Brass Band had a notable part in the 1973 James Bond movie Live and Let Die where they lead a funeral march for a victim assassinated during the march. Trumpeter Alvin Alcorn plays the knife wielding "baby-faced killer".
• WWE professional wrestler The Undertaker entrance theme samples Chopin's funeral march.
• Electronic music producer Deadmau5 is also using Chopin's funeral march theme in his song "Moar Ghosts 'n' Stuff". His track "Clockwork", sampled from Cygnus X - "Orange Theme", which itself uses the title music of the film A Clockwork Orange, which itself is an adaptation of Henry Purcell's Funeral March for Queen Mary.
• Funeral doom metal
• Queen's "Procession" march, opening track from their second album, Queen II.
• American rapper and actor, Mos Def. From his 2004 album The New Danger has a song titled "BedStuy parade & Funeral March" although not a literal funeral march this song has some characteristics of dirge music
• C418's Ward, includes the Funeral march as its intro in the popular game Minecraft.
• UFX's "Dead" from the 2006 album "Crack" includes Chopin's Funeral March as its intro
• Queens of the Stone Age's "Mosquito Song" from the 2002 album, Songs for the Deaf incorporates elements of Funeral march, most notably from Alain Johannes's Flamenco style guitar playing.

References

1. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here, Sputnik Music, January 2012

See also

• Dirge