This show, first broadcast on October 14, 2016, surveys 90 years of march music. It begins with two classics by American composer John Philip Sousa, the March King – one from the 1890s and one from the 1920s (heard played by Sousa’s Band, with conductors Arthur Pryor and Sousa himself). The 1900s are represented by march music from England’s Sir Edward Elgar, Russia’s Alexander Scriabin, American composer Scott Joplin, Italy’s Ferruccio Busoni, and Austrian master Anton Webern. Further reinventions of the march are heard in the 1910s and ‘20s, from America’s Charles Ives, Viennese greats Alban Berg and Arnold Schoenberg, and Russia’s Igor Stravinsky. March music for percussion ensemble, dating from the 1930s, is heard from Americans William Russell and Johanna M. Beyer. Two great composers contributed brief piano marches in the 1940s, Béla Bartók and Dmitry Shostakovich. Postmodern march music comes from Anthony Braxton and The Residents. Quotations are included from my own interview with Braxton.
Marches played are:
JOHN PHILIP SOUSA
The Stars and Stripes Forever (1896)
Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (1923)
EDWARD ELGAR
Pomp and Circumstances Military Marches No. 1 (1901)
ALEXANDER SCRIABIN
Symphony No. 2, Marcia: Maestoso (1901)
SCOTT JOPLIN
A Breeze from Alabama – March and Two-Step (1902)
FERRUCCIO BUSONI
Turandot Suite, “Truffaldino’s March” (1905)
ANTON WEBERN
Six Orchestral Pieces, “Marcia funebre” (1909)
ALBAN BERG
Three Orchestral Pieces, “Marsch” (1914)
CHARLES IVES
Three Places in New England, “The ‘St.-Gaudens’ in Boston Common (Col. Shaw and his Colored Regiment)” (1914)
IGOR STRAVINSKY
L’histoire du soldat Suite, “The Soldier’s March,” “The Royal March,” “Triumphal March of the Devil” (1918)
ARNOLD SCHOENBERG
Serenade, “Marsch” (1923)
WILLIAM RUSSELL
March Suite (1936)
JOHANNA M. BEYER
March (1939)
BÉLA BARTÓK
Mikrokosmos, Book IV, No. 147 “March” (1940)
DMITRY SHOSTAKOVICH
Children’s Notebook, No. 1, “March” (1944)
ANTHONY BRAXTON
Composition No. 58 (1976)
THE RESIDENTS
Stars & Hank Forever!, “Sousapart” (1986) [excerpt]
Link to:
Music: Radio Shows: Contents
For more on these composers, see:
Music Book: Historical Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Classical Music, Second Edition
More Cool Sites To Visit! – Music
For more on Béla Bartók and Charles Ives, see:
Music Lecture: “Intense Purity of Feeling”: Béla Bartók and American Music
Music: Radio Show #10, Percussion in Early 20th-Century Music
For more on Alban Berg, see:
Music: Radio Show #28, Ross Lee Finney and His Teachers
For more on Alban Berg and Anton Webern, see:
Music Lecture: “Intense Purity of Feeling”: Béla Bartók and American Music
Music: Radio Show #24, The Second Viennese School: Alban Berg and Anton Webern
For more on Johanna M. Beyer, see:
Music: Radio Show #29, Electro-Acoustic Music, Part 1: New Instruments
For more on Johanna M. Beyer and William Russell, see:
Music: Radio Show #19, The Percussion Ensemble
For more on Anthony Braxton, see:
Music Book: Soundpieces 2: Interviews with American Composers
For more on Ferruccio Busoni and Igor Stravinsky, see:
Music: Radio Show #20, Neo-Classicism, part 1
For more on Charles Ives, see:
Music Lecture: The Secret of 20th-Century American Music
Music: Radio Show #16, John J. Becker and the American Five Plus One
For more on The Residents, see:
Film Review: The Eyes Scream
Film Review: Triple Trouble
Music Book: Sonic Transports: New Frontiers in Our Music
Music Lecture: My Experiences of Surrealism in 20th-Century American Music
Music: Radio Show #7, Postmodernism, part 4: Three Contemporary Masters
Music: Radio Show #26, Surrealism in 20th-Century American Music
For more on Arnold Schoenberg, see:
Music: Radio Show #23, A Tribute to Arnold Schoenberg
Music: Radio Show #25, Schoenberg in America
And be sure to read Sabine Feisst’s book Schoenberg’s New World
For more on Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky, see:
Music Lecture: “Intense Purity of Feeling”: Béla Bartók and American Music
For more on Dmitry Shostakovich, see:
Music: Radio Show #15, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and Formalism in Soviet Music
For more on Dmitry Shostakovich and Igor Stravinsky, see:
Music: Radio Show #21, Neo-Classicism, part 2
For more on Igor Stravinsky, see:
Music: Radio Show #22, Neo-Classicism, part 3
NICOLE V. GAGNÉ 