Triumphal March from "Aida"

Giuseppe Verdi

General Info

Year: 1871 / 1983
Duration: c. 2:00
Difficulty: V (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Alliance Publications
Cost: Score & Parts - $35.00

Instrumentation

Full Score
B-flat Trumpet I-II-III
French Horn I-II
Trombone I-II-III
Baritone I-II
Tuba
Percussion I-II-II

Bass Drum
Cymbals (2 crash)

Errata

None discovered thus far.

Program Notes

Triumphal March from Verdi's opera, Aida has been arranged by Evžen Zámečník to lend humor to life. Humor has always played a serious role in classical music. We can look at the music of Haydn, Mozart, P.D.Q. Bach, perhaps all of the great masters, and we find a work or two, if not more, that employ humor as the aesthetic. Various books have been written on "the humor of music". What would life be without humor? Certainly it is a "counterbalance"!

This work, written in 1983, when the political situation in then-Czechoslovakia was a bit grim, musical humor did much to lift the spirits of the people. This publisher, as a brass performer himself, considers this work to be a "gem" crafted by the genius of Evžen Zámečník, who as a most serious classical musician/composer/conductor, realized the need for "gamery".

Parody is an art in the hands of a master artist. Musicians love to poke fun at themselves, including the established repertoire of other composers. We dare to laugh at the pompous figure, the classical musician, only as a musician can. To hear old favorites "turned upside down and inside out", as is the case with the Triumphal March from Aida, provides an irresistible delight. The wonderful mimicry of exchanging phrases in different keys and rhythms is deliciously funny. Elements of the musical "slapstick" appear in the percussion, all giving way to a grand time.

Program Note by Joel Blahnik

Aida, one of the most theatrically effective of all Verdi operas, was commissioned (for 150,000 francs) by the Khedive of Egypt in 1869 to celebrate the completion earlier that year of the Cairo Opera House and the Suez Canal. Numerous problems delayed the premiere, but it was finally presented in Cairo in 1871 to unanimous acclaim. Verdi did not attend the first performance, explaining that "it was his art and not he personally that was important."

With its constant excitement, dramatic action, and colorful pageantry, Aida can justifiably be called a "musical spectacle" -- particularly as presented before 25,000 opera lovers in the ancient arena at Verona, Italy.

This march, from scene two of the second act, presents the fanfare and splendor of the victorious army headed by Radames as it passes in review before the pharaoh.

-Program Notes from Program Notes for Band

Media

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State Ratings

None discovered thus far.

Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

Works for Winds by This Composer

Adagio (arr. Hautvast)
Ah! Fors e lui - Sempre Libera from "La Traviata" (arr. Barrow) (1973)
Aïda: Prelude (arr. Hautvast) (/2010)
Anvil Chorus (tr. McAlister and Graham) (1853/2008)
Ave Maria volgarizzata da Dante (arr. Hartman) (1880/2019)
Ballabili (arr. Van der Beek) (1847/1865/1997)
Ballet Music from "Otello" (tr. Patterson) (1887/2003)
Bolero from "The Sicilian Vespers" (tr. Sousa) (1855)
Di Quella pira (arr. Hanna) (1853/)
Dies Irae (arr. Bocook) (1874/1998)
Excerpts from "Manzoni Requiem" (arr. Mollenhauer) (1869/1874/1965)
Fanfare from "Requiem" (arr. Decker) (1874/1989)
Il Balen del Suo Sorriso from "Il Trovatore" (arr. Brittain) (2009)
La Battaglia di Legnano (arr. Kalischnig) (1986)
La Forza del Destino (tr. Cesarini) (1862/1995)
March from "Aida" (arr. Seredy) (1871/1898/1964)
Nabucco (tr. Saurer) (1841/2004)
Nabucco Overture (tr. Cailliet) (1842/1959)
Overture to "Joan of Arc" (arr. Rollinson) (1845/1902)
Overture to "La Forza del Destino" (arr. Lake and Hunt) (1862/1946)
Overture to "La Forza del Destino" (arr. Odom) (1862)
Overture to "La Forza del Destino" (arr. Patterson) (1862/2012)
Overture to "La Forza del Destino" (arr. Rogers) (1862/1980)
Overture: "La Forza del Destino" (arr. Suzuki) (1862/2017)
Overture to "Luisa Miller" (arr. Pruyn) (1849/1988)
Overture to "Nabucco" (tr. Cailliet) (1841/1959)
Overture to "Nabucco" (arr. Neumann) (1841/2020)
Overture to "Nabucco" (arr. Rhea) (1841)
Prelude to Act I of "La Traviata" (ed. Falcone) (1853/1966)
Requiem (tr. Patterson) (1874/2005)
Rigoletto-Fantasie (arr. Goldhammer) (1851/2002)
Triumphal March from "Aida" (arr. Evžen Zámečník) (1871)
Triumphal March from "Aida" (arr. McAlister; ed. Reed) (1871)
Triumphal March from "Aida" (arr. Richard) (1871/2012)

Resources

Smith, Norman E. (2002). Program Notes for Band. Chicago: GIA Publications, pp. 610.