Procession of Princes and Priests

From Wind Repertory Project
Modest Mussorgsky

Modest Mussorgsky (arr. Donald Patterson)


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Subtitle: From Mlada


General Info

Year: 1872 / 2001
Duration: c. 5:30
Difficulty: V (see Ratings for explanation)
Original Medium: Orchestra
Publisher: Keiser Southern Music, through Hal Leonard
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - $60.00   |   Score Only (print) - $8.75


Instrumentation

(Needed - please join the WRP if you can help.)


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

In 1872, the director of the Imperial Theater in St. Petersburg commissioned a team of six composers, including Modest Mussorgsky, to jointly write a grand opera-ballet titled Mlada. Based on both fantastical and real-life themes from Slavic folklore, the Mlada project eventually fell through for lack of funding. (Incidentally, Rimsky-Korsakov later completed an opera-ballet of the same name.) However, individual pieces from the abandoned collaboration survive, including this processional segment that Mussorgksy salvaged. He reworked the piece in 1880 for an event celebrating the reign of Czar Alexander II, which also fell through, but later that year, the Russian Music Society finally performed the Procession of Princes and Priests publicly. The piece is also known by alternate names such as Festive March and The Capture of Kars because of its subsequent uses following Mlada.

The procession opens with a trumpet fanfare and then moves to the main theme, a folk song written in the style of a stately march. The middle section contrasts the grandiose opening and features the woodwinds. Though it shifts to the minor mode, this section maintains a driving, energetic feel that eventually leads back to the noble fanfare and main theme heard at the opening.

- Program Note from U.S. Marine Band concert program, 26 August 2021


Media

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State Ratings

  • Maryland: V
  • Mississippi: VI-A
  • Tennessee: IV


Performances

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  • United States Marine Band (Washington, D.C.) (Jason K. Fettig, conductor) - 26 August 2021
  • University of Delaware Symphonic Band (James P. Ancona, conductor) – 1 November 2017


Works for Winds by This Composer

Adaptable Music


All Wind Works


Resources

  • Mussorgsky, M.; Patterson, D. (2001). Procession of Princes and Priests: Triumphal March from Mlada [score]. Southern Music: San Antonio, Tx.