A funeral march is a sluggish, stately piece of music, normally in a minor key, and duple or quadruple time, that imitates the texture and tempo of a funeral procession. Designed for use as a part of an actual procession, the earliest funeral marches have been easy in character, accompanied by a gentle beat on a big drum.
Since then the style has advanced when it comes to each harmonic and rhythmic complexity, with many funeral marches forming a part of a large-scale work written to be carried out within the live performance corridor. However these, too, usually make their manner into funerals. Listed here are a number of the most well-known examples.
Mendelssohn’s Funeral March
Mendelssohn wrote this piece in Could 1836 for the funeral of his pal, the German composer Norbert Burgmüller who, earlier that month, had been discovered drowned in a tub – most likely as the results of an epileptic match. Written for wind ensemble, it’s a grandiose piece that builds to a towering climax.
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 – Marcia funebre: Adagio assai
Moments of sunshine and hope mingle with intense solemnity within the second motion of the Eroica, which encompasses a majestic threnody, juxtaposed with imitation drum rolls within the strings. Impressed by the grand funeral marches composed for public events throughout the French Revolution, this piece is one among Beethoven‘s most imposing musical statements.
Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2 – Marche funebre
Composed at the least two years earlier than the remainder of the work, the third motion of Chopin‘s Piano Sonata No.2 is among the composer’s hottest works. With its intensely elegiac ambiance, it has change into the go-to musical piece to accompany the topic of demise, and has been performed at quite a few funerals, not least these of John F. Kennedy, Sir Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher, in addition to Chopin himself.
Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 – Feierlich und gemessen, ohne zu schleppen
Impressed by a woodcut by Moritz von Schwind on which forest animals lead a funeral procession in honour of a fallen hunter, Mahler‘s funeral march is meant as a parody – however a desperately unhappy one. We hear a solemn march primarily based on a minor-key model of the favored spherical ‘Frère Jacques’. Then, with out warning, the temper adjustments, and Mahler makes use of cymbal, bass drum, oboes, clarinets and a trumpet duo to provide the sound of a small klezmer band, earlier than returning, with equal suddenness to a temper of lamentation. It is all very typical of the composer who famously juxtaposed comedy and tragedy to shockingly abrupt impact.
Brahms – Ein deutsches Requiem
Presumably impressed by his mom’s demise in 1865, Brahms‘s nice choral work is among the most grandiose and solemn works within the canon. Its second motion, specifically, is centred on the heavy rhythms of a funeral-march, with the refrain proclaiming the inevitability of man’s destiny, ‘Denn alles Fleisch es ist wie Gras’ (Behold, all flesh is because the grass).
Elgar’s Symphony No. 2 – Larghetto
This piece was devoted to Edward VII, after whose demise it was written. However many additionally consider that it’s extra private to Elgar, as he had misplaced his shut associates August Johannes Jaeger and Alfred Edward Rodewald across the time he was engaged on the symphony. Starting with a dreamlike introduction, it descends into an outpouring of grief, full with sluggish drum faucets and heavy brass chords. The temper lightens for some time, with an episode of near-bucolic tranquility, earlier than the music takes on an elegiac character that grows steadily extra intense.
