(Arranged in 2002)
March for wind band op.69 no.3
Commissioned: Boosey and Hawkes Music Publishers.
Instrumentation:
fl / 3clt / 2crnt / 2trpt / 2Ebalto / 2Ebhrn / 3Bbten / BbBari / 3trb / 2bass / tamb / s.dr / cym / b.dr.
Timing: Complete march: c.5mins.
Programme notes:
Marches for military band Op. 69 (1935-1937)
1. March for the Spartakiade
2. Marching Song (Lyrical)
3. March
4. Cavalry march (Over the Bridge)
Until today, only the first two marches of Op. 69 were available for performance. Prokofiev composed the third march for a competition but never orchestrated it, which might explain the absence of a title.
On the manuscript of the piano score he wrote: ‘If the March is too long or the second trio too difficult, cut the trio out’. The suggestion was taken up by V. Shpirko, editor of the publisher Muzyka, who orchestrated part of this work in 1968.
With the trio re-instated in an orchestration by Samuel Becker, tonight’s performance will be the world première of the complete march. When Prokofiev realised that the fourth march, Cavalry March, would not be published either, he incorporated it into another work of the same period, Songs of our Days Op. 76.
The Cavalry March has now been re-united with the other three marches, which makes this performance of Op. 69 the first ever of the work as conceived by Prokofiev in 1937.
Programme note by Noelle Mann, curator of the Prokofiev Archive.
Performances:
- January 2003: The op.69 marches were first performed complete at the Prokofiev Festival Symposium weekend at the Royal Northern College of Music. Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra, conductor Clark Rundell
You can get more information on this work by contacting Boosey and Hawkes Music Publishers or the Serge Prokofiev Association