Marche Militaire Française
Camille Saint-Saëns (trans. Mark Hindsley)
Subtitle: From Suite Algérienne
General Info
Year: 1880 / 1958
Duration: c. 4:40
Difficulty: V (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Hindsley Transcriptions
Cost: Score and Parts - $66.00 | Score Only - $13.00
Instrumentation
Full Score
C Piccolo
Flute I-II
Oboe I-II
English Horn
Bassoon I-II
Contrabassoon (optional)
E-flat Soprano Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III-IV
E-flat Alto Clarinet
B-flat Bass Clarinet I-II
B-flat Contrabass Clarinet
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Trumpet I-II
B-flat Cornet I-II
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II-III
Euphonium
Tuba
String Bass
Timpani
Percussion, including:
- Bass Drum
- Crash Cymbals
- Snare Drum
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
Saint-Saëns (1835—1921) was a child prodigy, composing his first piece for piano at the age of three and entered the Paris Conservatory at age 13. He was a private student of Charles Gounod. He was also an accomplished pianist, conductor, score reader, and astronomer. As a composer, he wrote in many genres, including opera, symphonies, concertos, sacred and secular choral music, concertos, and chamber music. His highly popular works include Danse Macabre and Samson & Delilah.
March Militaire Française is the finale movement of a four-movement symphonic poem, Suite Algérienne, Opus 60, that was inspired by Saint-Saëns’s trips to Algeria, then a French colony on the continent of Africa. Although no authentic Algerian music exists in this piece, Saint-Saëns used melodic tendencies of the native Algerian culture. The last movement, Marche Militaire Française, has become famous independently of the others both as an orchestral favorite and as a French concert march for the wind ensemble and concert band.
- Program Note from the Owasso High School Wind Ensemble concert program, 20 December 2012
The subtitle of Saint-Saëns' Algerian Suite is "Picturesque Impressions of a Voyage to Algiers". Of its four movements, three are decidedly oriental in coloring. The fourth, the Military March, is by contrast quite French; it was intended to emphasize the contrast found at Algiers between the native and the French settlements. In a note on the score the composer emphasized the fact that he not only felt joyful at seeing French soldiers, but he was conscious of the security he enjoyed under their protection.
- Program note by Everett Kisinger from Band Music Notes
From 1880, the complete Suite Algerienne incorporates references to traditional Arab melodies. The finale acknowledges Algeria’s ultimate absorption into Metropolitan France, over a long period of colonization. Algerian independence was not restored until the fall of France’s Fourth Republic in 1958. The Marche militaire française by Camille Saint-Saëns is the fourth and final tableau of the Suite Algerienne. Biographer Arthur Hervey described the latter as a tonal record of the composer’s impressions, “during a sojourn in southern climes.” The march contrasts all the exoticism of the suite’s preceding movements with an unmistakably French finale that belies the composer’s irrepressible patriotism. Nothing could be more lively, more rousing — in a word, more French — than this conclusion to an otherwise conventional work.
- Program Note from The Virginia Wind Symphony concert program, 21 December 2017
Media
- Audio: Reference recording; ensemble and conductor unknown
- Audio: Reference recording. University of Florida (Gainesville) Wind Symphony (David Waybright, conductor)
- Audio CD: Owasso High School Wind Ensemble (David Gorham, conductor)
- Audio CD: Permian High School Symphonic Band (J.R. McEntyre, conductor) - 2006
State Ratings
None discovered thus far.
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- Plano (Tx.) Community Band (Joe Frank, conductor) – 6 May 2022 (ACB 2022 Annual Convention (Santa Fe, New Mexico))
- West Virginia University (Morgantown) Wind Symphony (Scott C. Tobias, conductor) - 23 February 2021
- Texas Tech University (Lubbock) Symphonic Band (Eric Allen, conductor) – 2 May 2019
- University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) Alumni Reunion Concert Band (Gary Smith, conductor) - 23 June 2018
- Austin (Texas) Symphonic Band (Richard Floyd, conductor) - 8 April 2018
- Virginia Wind Symphony (Norfolk) (Dennis J. Zeisler, conductor) - 21 December 2017 (2017 Midwest Clinic)
- University of North Carolina, Greensboro, Symphonic Band (J. Benjamin Jones, conductor) – 2 October 2017
- Bonita Springs (Fla.) Concert Band (Gary Smith, conductor) – 5 May 2017 (ACB 2017 Annual Convention (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.))
- University of Texas, Arlington, Symphonic Winds (Christopher Evans, conductor) – 30 April 2017
- Kings Park Concert Band (Springfield/Burke, Va.) (Richard Bergman, conductor) – 9 April 2016
- University of North Texas (Denton) Wind Ensemble (Nicholas Enrico Williams, conductor) – 16 February 2016
- Texas Community College Band Directors Association All-State Symphonic Band (Nicholas Enrico Williams, conductor) - 13 February 2016 (2016 TMEA Conference, San Antonio)
- University of Florida (Gainesville) Wind Symphony (David Waybright, conductor) – 20 January 2015
- United States Coast Guard Band (Joel Baroody, conductor) - 15 June 2014
- Texas Tech University Symphonic Band (John Whitwell, guest conductor) - 7 February 2014
- Ely City Band, Ely MN (Nolan Hauta, conductor) - 23 July 2013
- FSU Senior High Band Camp Wind Orchestra (David Plack, conductor) - 6 July 2013
- Owasso (Okla.) High School Wind Ensemble (David Gorham, conductor) – 20 December 2012 (2012 Midwest Clinic)
- Indiana University (Bloomington) Wind Ensemble (Lester W. Hicken, conductor) – March 1, 2012 (ABA 2012 Annual Convention (Indianapolis, Indiana))
Works for Winds by This Composer
Adaptable Music
- Le Carnaval des Animaux (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Onodera) (1886/2018)
All Wind Works
- Aquarium (arr. Moore) (1886/2011)
- Bacchanale (arr. Balent) (1877/2002)
- Bacchanale (arr. Egner) (1877/1926)
- Bacchanale (arr. Hubbell) (1877/1991)
- Bacchanale from "Samson and Delila" (arr. Fall) (1877/1938)
- Bacchanale from "Samson and Delila" (arr. Hanna) (1877/)
- Carnival of the Animals (arr. Brand)
- The Carnival of the Animals (arr. Bocook) (1886/2006)
- The Carnival of the Animals (arr. Curnow) (1886/2008)
- Carnival of the Animals, The (arr. Goto). See Le Carnaval des Animaux
- Chorale for Wind Band and Melodic Percussion (arr. Giroux) (2015)
- Danse Bacchanale (arr. Steiger) (1877/1985)
- Danse Bacchanale (arr. Bocook) (1877/2004)
- Danse Bacchanale (arr. Singleton) (1877/)
- Danse Macabre (arr. Bender)
- Danse Macabre (tr Hindsley) (tr. Hindsley) (1874/197-?)
- Danse Macabre (arr. Laurendeau) (1874/1903)
- Danse Macabre (arr. Brian Sheldon) (1874/)
- Danse Macabre (arr. Slawson) (1874/2013)
- Part One, "Organ Symphony" (no. 3 (tr. Hindsley) (1886/197-?)
- Finale, Symphony No 3 in C (arr. Slocum) (1886/1974)
- Finale to "Hail! California" (ed. Martin) (1915/2015)
- Finale from "Symphony No. 3" (arr. VanDoren) (1886/2022)
- First Movement, "Organ Symphony" (no. 3) (tr. Hindsley) (1886/197-?)
- Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (tr. Bulla) (1863/)
- Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (arr. Kessler) (1863/)
- La Princesse Jaune (arr. Odom) (1872/1980)
- La Princesse Jaune (arr. Lake) (1872/1929)
- La Princesse Jaune (arr. Schyns) (1872/2002)
- Le Carnaval des Animaux (arr. Goto) (1886/2000/2012)
- Le Carnaval des Animaux (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Onodera) (1886/2018)
- March-Scherzo (arr. Marcus) (1853/2015)
- Marche Dédiée aux Étudiants d'Alger (orch. Bouchel) (1921/1925)
- Marche Heroïque (arr. Winterbottom) (1871/1906)
- Marche Interalliée (orch. Balay) (1918/2014)
- Marche Militaire Francaise (tr. Hindsley) (1880/1958)
- Marche Militaire Francaise (arr. Lake) (1880/1913)
- Mon Coeur s'ouvre à ta voix (tr. Niese) (1877/2012)
- Morceau de Concert (arr. Respresas Carrera) (1887/2013)
- Morceau de Concert (tr. Nelson) (1887/1979)
- Orient et Occident (ed. Whitwell) (1869)
- Orient et Occident (arr. Hauswirth) (1869)
- Orient et Occident (ed. Reynish) (1869/1995)
- Orient et Occident (arr. Schissel) (1869/2005)
- Pas Redoublé (arr. Frackenpohl) (1887/1972)
- Prelude and Processional (arr. Elkus) (1883/1957)
- Second Movement, "Organ Symphony" (no. 3) (tr. Hindsley) (1886/200-?)
- Sur les bords du Nil (ed. Hauswirth) (1908/2019)
- Theme from "Samson and Delilah" (arr. Davis) (1877/1964)
- Vers la Victoire (orch. Dondeyne) (1918/2014)
Resources
- Smith, Norman and Albert Stoutamire (1979). Band Music Notes. Rev. ed. San Diego: Kjos West, p. 199.
- Suite algérienne. Wikipedia. Accessed 6 August 2023