Download special memorial compositions - Whitwell

SPECIAL MEMORIAL COMPOSITIONS FOR BAND
Because the band is able to function outdoors there has been a very long
tradition for using it to provide funeral music. For this reason the band’s repertoire
has been enriched by compositions known to all band conductors, such as the
Berlioz Symphony for Band and the Brahms Begrabnisgesang for band and choir.
In addition, all band conductors know the work discussed separately in this
series, the Trauermusik by Wagner, composed to accompany the return of the
remains of von Weber to Germany. Less well-known are two similar compositions,
the Filippa Marcia funebre written to accompany the remains of Rossini to Italy
and the Halvey Marche heroique to accompany the remains of Napoleon back to
France.
Filippa, Giuseppe, Marcia funebre per il trasporto delle ceneri
dell’immortale Maestro Gioachino Rossini da Parigi nel Tempio di S.
Croce in Firenze.
The Filippa really impressed me…it is a work I have to play.
Leon Bly, Sept. 29, 1991
Stuttgart, Germany
Stuttgart School of Music
This original band composition was composed for the return of the remains
of Rossini to Florence, Italy. Compared with the Wagner Trauermusik, this Marcia
funebre is much more dramatic and operatic. I regard this as a very fine
composition.
Rossini died in 1868 and his service was performed in the Trinity Church in
Paris, with his Stabet Mater being sung by the chorus of the Conservatory. He was
was buried in the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris near the remains of Chopin.
1
In 1887 his remains were transported to the Basilica di Santa Corce in
Florence, Italy, in a ceremony which attracted 6,000 people. There he lies near the
remains of Galileo, Machiavelli and Michelangelo.
Sample pages of my modern edition of this Marcia funebre score, together with a
recording, can be found on my new website, www.whitwellbooks.com
Fromental Halevy Marche heroique (1840) for the return of the remains
of Napoleon to Paris for band.
Jacques-François- Fromental -Élie Halévy (27 May 1799 – 17 March 1862)
was a French composer remembered mainly for his opera La Juive, which was
praised highly by Mahler and Wagner. After studying at the Conservatoire with
Cherubini he became an active choral conductor, composer and was elected to the
Institut de France in 1836. His son-in-law and former student was the composer
Georges Bizet.
The Marche heroique was composed for the great occasion when the remains
of Napoleon were returned to Paris on December 14, 1940. A great procession
carried the remains across Paris in the fashion of the great processions of the
French Revolution. Indeed one of the features of this Marche are long pauses filled
only by the sound of a resonating gong, which was the central feature of one of the
great compositions of the Revolution, the March lugubre of 1790 by Gossec. One
newspaper reported on the use of the gong, as it is also used by Halvey, as “the
notes, detached from one another, break the heart, pulling at ones insides.”
Another newspaper wrote that the sound of the gong “filled the soul with religious
terror.” These accounts reflect the fact that the large gong had never before been
heard in Paris and this great public sensation caused it to be imitated in later
compositions, such as the Requiem for Louis XIV (1815) by Bochsa.
2
One observer of this solemn procession was the writer, Victor Hugo, who
gave his impressions as follows.
The whole possesses a grandeur. It is an enormous mass, gilded all over,
whose stages rise in a pyramid atop the four huge gilded wheels that bear it.
[...] The actual coffin is invisible. It has been placed in the base of the
carriage, which diminishes the emotion. This is the carriage's grave defect. It
hides what one wants to see: that which France has reclaimed, what the
people are awaiting, what all eyes were looking for - the coffin of Napoleon.
Sample pages of my modern edition of this Marche heroique score, together with a
recording, can be found on my new website, www.whitwellbooks.com.
On the same site one will also find the Four Marches for the Marriage of
Napoleon by Paer.
Amilcare Ponchielli, 1834-1886, Elegy on the Death of Garibaldi
Ponchielli was a famous 19th century Italian opera composer whose opera, La
Gioconda, with its famous “The Dance of the Hours,” is still in the international
repertory. He also served as the conductor of the Cremona Civic Band, for whom
he composed more than 70 original works and an equal number of transcriptions.
Giuseppe Garibaldi, 1807-1882, whose popularity, his skill at rousing the
common people, and his military exploits are all credited with making the modern
unification of Italy possible. He traveled widely, including a six month residence in
New York City in 1850-1851.
I regard this Elegy by Ponchielli to be one of the great band compositions of
the 19th century. It is filled with dramatic effects, some almost extraordinary in
character, and yet the general style is operatic. It is very musical, with haunting
melodies.
Sample pages of my modern edition of the Elegy score, together with a recording,
can be found on my new website, www.whitwellbooks.com
In my Whitwell Archiv in Trossingen one can also find a copy of another
original band composition by Ponchielli, the Marcia funebre for Manzoni.
3
Leon Karren, Symphonie funebre, for band
This lyric and dramatic one-movement symphony was composed by Leon
Karren was a distinguished band conductor of the French Division de Brest. A large
number of his compositions were published in Paris, c. 1881-1907, including works
for solo instruments and band and band with chorus.
Sample pages of my modern edition of the Symphonie funebre score can be found
on my new website, www.whitwellbooks.com
Wilhelm Wieprecht (1802-1872), Trauermarsch
Wieprecht certainly personified the growth and development of military
music in Germany during the first half of the 19th century and in his desire to
improve the repertoire of the military band, he composed a large number of original
compositions, not to mention numerous arrangements, for his concerts in Berlin.
Berlioz, who was touring Germany, heard a performance of this composition
and spoke of it in his autobiography.
The concert ended with a very fine and well-written funeral march,
composed by Wieprecht, and played with only one rehearsal!!
I have had reports from performances of the Trauermarsch from Wisconsin
to Australia and everyone seems to find it an exceptional composition.
Sample pages of my modern edition of the Trauermarsch score, together with a
recording, can be found on my new website, www.whitwellbooks.com
Wilhelm Wieprecht (1802-1872), Festmarsch on Themes of Beethoven
Between 1840 and 1860, a period when orchestras were just making a
transition from being private aristocratic ensembles to becoming ensembles giving
4
concerts before the public, the bands in Europe were performing outdoor concerts
before thousands of listeners. Many ordinary listeners first heard the music of
Beethoven and Wagner for the first time in such concerts. In the case of Beethoven
entire symphonies were transcribed for band and sometimes two symphonies would
be heard on a single concert!
This Festmarsch was composed as a memorial to Beethoven by Wieprecht. It
is an original composition by Wieprecht but it is based on themes from the Piano
Concerto in Eb (Nr. 5) by Beethoven.
Sample pages of my modern edition of the Festmarsch score, together with a
recording, can be found on my new website, www.whitwellbooks.com
5