Your Top Ten Favorite Marches

[Florestan]

Music only, regardless of text.

My list, in no particular order

Franz Lehar - Nechledil Marsch (from Wiener Frauen)

Johann Strauss I - Radetzky Marsch

L'Internationale

Bandiera rossa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMpdHhuT-is

Horst Wessel Lied

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8oH3hnCXaQ

Sfântă tinerețe legionară (Romanian)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVKZaZ9Yi5c

Giovinezza (Italian)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w0yOg9wjmg

Tripoli bel suol d'amore (Italian)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0RGPVWi80A

Cara al sol (Spanish)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4qvZT_y2g4

Oriamendi (Spanish))

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4qvZT_y2g4

[Luke]

Not really the same species of March as Florestan's, but these cover quite a range...

1 Mahler, Symphony no 3, 1st movement, 'Summer marches in' (and many other Mahler marches)

2 Berlioz, Symphonie funèbre et triomphale, 1st movement, Marche funèbre

3 Wagner, Siegfried's Funeral March

4 Berg, Three Orchestral Pieces, no 3, Marsch

5 Albeniz, Iberia, Fête-dieu à Séville

6 Holst (a master of the march!) Saturn, for example

7 Stravinsky, Histoire du soldat, Royal March

8 Respighi, Pines of Rome, 4th movement, Pines of the Appian Way

9 partly for sentimental reasons, Janáček, Pochod Modráčků, or its reworking in Mladi

10 Vaughan Williams, Flos Campi, 4th section

[Lisztianwagner]

In no particular order, and without exaggerating with the Strauss Family:

Wagner - Siegfried Funeral March from Götterdämmerung
Mahler - Symphony No. 1, 3rd movement
J. Strauss I - Radetzky Marsch
J. Strauss II - Egyptischer Marsch
J. Strauss II - Persischer Marsch
J. Strauss II - Revolutions Marsch
Berlioz - Marche Hongroise from La Damnation de Faust
Tchaikovsky - March from The Nutcracker
Holst - Saturn from The Planets
Beethoven - Turkish March from The Ruins of Athens

[Jo498]

I have a certain fondness for real military marches, maybe just for being contrarian (because as an "intellectual" one is supposed to despise them I utterly despise ESC instead ) or because when I was a small kid my dad had an LP with marches and popular marching songs that I loved, partly also because the cover had a colorful ca. Napoleonian era army; I am pretty sure that was the cover.



So I'll pick some from classical music, some "real ones".

- Berlioz/trad. Hungarian, Rakoczy March/Marche hongroise (from Faust)
- Strauss jun., Einzugsmarsch from Gypsy Baron
- Beethoven, March in Fidelio
- Gounod, Soldier's Chorus from Faust (I also like all the marchy tunes in Carmen from the street urchins to the Torero)
- Prokofiev, March from the 3 oranges

- in between: Elgar, "Pomp & Circumstances" No. 1 (Land of Hope and Glory), 1901

- trad Irish?/ Purcell?, Lilliburlero (late 17th century)
- Friedrich II of Prussia, Hohenfriedberger Marsch (1740s, although that he composed it right after the eponymous battle is probably a legend)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hohenfriedberg
- Beethoven, Yorckian March (org. March for the Bohemian Militia) WoO 18,1 1808/09 (If I understood as much about the art of war as about the art of music I would beat Bonaparte)
- Piefke, Preussen's Gloria (1871)

[Luke]

Berlioz, Symphonie funèbre et triomphale, 1st movement, Marche funèbre

Quoting myself I know, but I just listened to this again this morning for the first time in a few years, and.... wow ... it is such a unique piece! Gloriously unsubtle, wailing, bludgeoning, almost terrifying, apocalyptic like very little else, it is a march to end all marches!

[Le Buisson Ardent]

Some that come to mind:

All of the Mahler marches
Ives: Central Park in the Dark (I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure this piece is a march or contains one at least)
Berlioz: the march from Symphonie funèbre et triomphale, Op. 15
Britten: the Lacrimosa movement from Sinfonia da Requiem

[pjme]

A hotch potch of great marches:

Claude Debussy: Marche Ecossaise

Miklos Rozsa; any march for Ben Hur, King of Kings, Ivanhoe

Darius Milhaud: Marche nuptiale from les mariés du 14 juillet

Gabriel Pierné; Marche des petits soldats de plomb and  L'école des aegipans from Cydalise et le chêvre pied

Camille Saint Saens: marche héroique opus 34
Dimitri Tiomkin: Lost horizon / Funeral procession

Alfredo Casella: marcia guerriera from La donna serpente

[Luke]

Ives: Central Park in the Dark (I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure this piece is a march or contains one at least)

Ives is a good call on marches! Lots of other great ones, too

[Karl Henning]

Quoting myself I know, but I just listened to this again this morning for the first time in a few years, and.... wow ... it is such a unique piece! Gloriously unsubtle, wailing, bludgeoning, almost terrifying, apocalyptic like very little else, it is a march to end all marches!

Love it!

[Jo498]

The first example shows that the marches actually used in marching/battle (as opposed to parades) were probably mostly fife and drums, not a large band including brass.

The tune of the St. Patrick's day quick march was set as an Irish song by Beethoven "The pulse of an Irishman" (ever beats quicker when war is the story, or love is the theme...)

Second example from Barry Lyndon is Frederick II's "Hohenfriedberger".

[Karl Henning]

TD:

Holst, Mars from The Planets
Berlioz, Marche au supplice from Symphonie fantastique
Tchaikovsky, Marche miniature from The Nutcracker
Tchaikovsky, Allegro molto vivace from the b minor Symphony
Stravinsky, Soldier's March from L'histoire
John Philip Sousa, The Washington Post
Sousa, The Stars and Stripes Forever (yes, I still love this)
Leroy Anderson, March of the Two Left Feet
Alex Lithgow, Invercargill
Jn Williams March from the Spielberg film 1941

[Luke]

Holst, Mars from The Planets

Martians have 5 legs.

[Jo498]

This one here is supposedly closer to 18th century sound, not beefed up for big modern brassy bands:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWNPwU5Wffg

[Luke]

Holst has so many great processionals and marches. Mars, yes, and Saturn, which I suggested, but also Uranus. The march in Egdon Heath is very beautiful; Hammersmith, in a way, starts as a slow march; and then there are so many more in the choral works and elsewhere.

Mahler and Ives, as mentioned - chock full of marvellous marches.

And - I almost hate to say it - good ol' HB is always a moment away from something march like. It's the textural type that is most present in his music

[Florestan]

Gabriel Pierné; Marche des petits soldats de plomb

A peach!

[Symphonic Addict]

Beethoven - Marcia funebre, from his Third Symphony
Nielsen - Oriental festival march, from Aladdin
Saint-Saëns - Marche militaire française, from Suite Algérienne
Raff - III. Marsch-Tempo, from his Fifth Symphony
Honegger - Marche funèbre, from Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel
Chabrier - Joyeuse marche
Britten - IV. March, from his Piano Concerto
Hindemith - Marsch, from Symphonic Metamorphoses on themes by Weber
Tchaikovsky - Marche miniature, from his Orchestral Suite No. 1
Gounod - Marche funèbre pour une marionnette

[atardecer]

The Mozart Turkish March is one of my favorites, either in the original or Volodos transcription.

[Que]

Music only, regardless of text.

My list, in no particular order

Oh my, what a charming little list!

It manages to list in a top ten the anthems of the Romanian, German, Italian and Spanish fascists. The Horst Wessellied... for crying out loud... Not that I'm keen on the listed socialist and communist "battle songs" either.

It's a pity this forum doesn't have a "throwing up" emoji... 

Try to picture it >>HERE<<

[Le Buisson Ardent]

Ives is a good call on marches! Lots of other great ones, too

Ives is one of musical heroes. I'll have to take a closer look into all of the marches he composed.

[Florestan]

Oh my, what a charming little list!

It manages to list in a top ten the anthems of the Romanian, German, Italian and Spanish fascists. The Horst Wessellied... for crying out loud... Not that I'm keen on the listed socialist and communist "battle songs" either.

It's a pity this forum doesn't have a "throwing up" emoji... 

Try to picture it >>HERE<<

Hey, you know very well that I am neither a communist nor a fascist, but the bastards had some really good marching tunes (and I stated from the very beginning that I enjoy the music, not the message.) 

Btw, the text of the Romanian Iron Guard march is absolutely ridiculous, what with its martial pomposity and absurd metaphors. It's unbelievable that anyone, let alone not a few very smart persons, could have taken it seriously.