Sax Octets

Funeral March of a Marionette

Charles Gounod, arr. Ben Tordoff

Composed:
1872 Arranged:
2019 Grouping:
sSAATTBb

Originally written to be part of a bigger "Suite Burlesque" that was never completed, this march was written during Gounod's stay in London during 1871-2. It opens with a marionette fighting and losing a duel, the majority of the piece then following the funeral procession with a brief stop off for refreshment (a short section in a major key) mid way through.

After fading into relative obscurity after Gounod's death, this piece came back to public awareness as the theme tune for the television series "Hitchcock Presents", first shown in the 1960's but shown throughout the 1970's and 1980's.

Prepared specially for Plural Sax's Autumn Gathering 2019, this arrangement for sax octet is based on Gounod's own 1879 orchestration of the piano original from 1872.

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