Funeral march

A funeral march (Marche funèbre, Trauermarsch) 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. Handel uses the name Dead March.

Examples in classical music

• The Dead March from Saul by George Frideric Handel
• 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
• Marche funèbre for piano in C minor, Op. 72 No. 2 by Frédéric Chopin
• 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
• "Marche funebre del Signor Maestro Contrapunto" in C minos for piano by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• The Trauermarsch written by Anton Diabelli in memory of Michael Haydn for solo classical guitar
• The "Funeral March" from the incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream by Felix Mendelssohn
• The Funeral March for the Final Scene of Hamlet by Hector Berlioz
• 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
• Siegfried's Funeral March from Götterdämmerung by Richard Wagner
• The Funeral March in Memory of Rikard Nordraak by Edvard Grieg
• The Marche funèbre second movement of Charles-Valentin Alkan's Symphony for solo piano, Op. 39 No. 5
• The "Funeral March on the death of a parrot" for four-part chorus, three bassoons, and oboe by Charles-Valentin Alkan.
• "Funeral March for a Marionette" from "Suite Burlesque" by Charles Gounod
• The fourth movement of Alexander Scriabin's Piano Sonata No. 1
• The third movement of 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.
• The Trauermarsch opening movement of Mahler's Symphony No. 5.
• The funeral march for Lìu in the opera Turandot, by Giacomo Puccini
• The funeral march during Tybalt's death in Prokofiev's opera Romeo and Juliet
• A funeral march for Napoleon Bonaparte, in Háry János, by Zoltán Kodály (after Napoleon has been defeated by the hero Háry János)
• The ninth variation from Benjamin Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op. 10
• The "Funeral March": Adagio Molto from Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 15
• The "Funeral Music" for Akhnaten's father in Act I of the opera Akhnaten, by Philip Glass.
• The funeral march from Fibich's opera "The Bride of Messina"
• The funeral march in Ferdinand David's Concertino for Trombone and Orchestra

Examples with the character of a funeral march but not thus entitled

• Masonic Funeral Music by W.A Mozart
• The theme from Beethoven's posthumous Nine Variations on a March by Ernst Christoph Dressler for piano is a funeral march (WoO 63)
• Song Without Words, op. 62 No.3 by Felix Mendelssohn, often entitled "Trauermarch" but without the composer's approval
• The 2nd movement of Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem has the characteristics of a Funeral March but is in a slow triple metre
• The song "Der Tamboursg'sell" ("The Drummer Boy") from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, by Gustav Mahler
• A Remix of The Funeral March, featuring rock and electronic influences, has been used as the entrance theme for The Undertaker (aka Mark William Calaway), an American professional wrestler of World Wrestling Entertainment Fame

Examples in contemporary music

• 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.

See also

• Dirge

References

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