Funeral March of a Marionette

Funeral March of a Marionette

(…in my best Alfred Hitchcock voice) “Good Evening… Tonight, we share the story of an unfortunate marionette who died in a duel. There are exclamations of grief and great sadness by the marionettes and puppets who are part of his troupe.

The funeral procession begins, but is interrupted when the principal participants abandon the procession for libations. Eventually, their period of refreshment ends, the procession resumes and eventually concludes. Everyone then solemnly makes their way home.”

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The first version of “Funeral March of a Marionette” was written by Charles Gounod around 1872 and was originally published as a piano piece. It was part of a never-published suite that was intended to mock a then-living, little-regarded-by-Gounod-and-others music-critic. Because the critic died before the suite could be published, the March was extracted from the suite and was first published as “Funeral March of a Marionette.” Later (1879), Gounod arranged the piece for the orchestral instruments heard in this recording.

The Funeral March has been recorded many times over the years, including an early recording by John Philip Sousa. However, it likely gained it’s largest exposure as the opening and closing theme, arranged by Bernard Hermann for Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-1962) and the Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962-1965). Hermann featured two short arrangements of the March as the show’s opening and closing theme. The most remembered of these versions is an 8-bassoon arrangement.

I searched for free or online-for-sale versions of the Hermann score(s), but was unable to find them. I began to think that this would be another piece that I would be forced to transcribe. I ordered a 2-CD set containing Hermann’s scores from the Alfred Hitchcock Hour. To do the transcription, I ordered and obtained the CD containing the show’s opening and closing themes. Unfortunately, the versions of the March that are on the CD, at 30 seconds, each, do not contain enough of the composer’s original four minute and a half content. For me, it was “back to the drawing board” for this project…

After additional searching, I found Gounod’s orchestral score available on one of my favorite online resources: the International Music Score Library Project. IMSLP shares music scores that are in the public domain. An unbelievable amount of content is available from them, online.

The Funeral March score includes parts for flute, piccolo, English horn, clarinet, bassoon, tympani, bass-drum, triangle, french-horn, trumpet, trombones, ophicleide (predecessor of the modern-day tuba), violins I & II, viola, cello, and bass-violin. I played and recorded each one of these separately, one at a time, while listening to the ones I’d already recorded. Additional tweaking almost certainly occurred…

I hope that you enjoy my rendition (above).