Trauermarsch
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (rev. Erik Leidzén)
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This work bears the designation Opus 103, (MVW P 14). It may appear under the title Funeral March.
General Info
Year: 1836 / 1954
Duration: c. 5:00
Difficulty: IV (see Ratings for explanation)
Original Medium: Winds
Publisher: Associated Music Publishers
Cost: Score and Parts – Out of print.
Instrumentation
(Needed - please join the WRP if you can help.)
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
The Funeral March was composed in memory of August Joseph Norbert Burgmüller (1810-1836), a sensitive and highly gifted musician, a composition pupil of Spohr and Hauptmann.
Apart from the Overture for Winds, this funeral march is Mendelssohn's only work for pure wind instrumentation.
- Program Note from publisher
The German composer Norbert Burgmüller (1810-1836) had a difficult life. He was very talented and well trained, but something went wrong along the way. Burgmüller was never a happy man; he is described as being an “odd person, uncomfortable with social conventions and any kind of conformity”. Burgmüller himself said: ”... I was not prepared for people, I believed only in music ... and I have become too wilful, or perhaps too vain, to feel comfortable with the ways and wills of others.” A broken-off engagement in his 20s is said to have caused epilepsy. Burgmüller also began drinking -- stories of Bergmüller and his friends’ wild binges used to circulate the community.
One bright spot, however, was his friendship with Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, director of music in Burgmüller's hometown of Düsseldorf from 1833 to 1835. Mendelssohn appreciated Burgmüller's talent, putting on performances of his music, and generally having a calming, encouraging effect on the man. Mendelssohn's move from Düsseldorf after only two years however, was a disappointment to Burgmüller. Another engagement was called off, apparently due to Bergmüller’s lack of decision; the drinking increased.
In the spring of 1836, Burgmüller travelled to Aachen to take a cure at a spa. He was found dead, drowned in a bathtub, on May 7 -- probably the result of an epileptic fit. Mendelssohn, who in May 1836 had returned to Düsseldorf to conduct his oratorio Paulus, was deeply affected by his friend’s death. During a visit to the town’s military kapellmeister he rose abruptly, asked for some manuscript paper, and composed a funeral march there and then. The march was played at Burgmüller's funeral on May 11, 1836.
- Program Note by thenameisgsarci
Erik Leidzén has brought out a new edition (the only modern one) of Mendelssohn's funeral march for his friend Norbert Burgmüller (1810-1836). It is a simple, straightforward and moving work, cast in the da-capo form common to many dirges, including the familiar shudder-and-weep opus of Chopin. The simplicity of this composition brings it within the reach of most bands.
- Program Note by Wendell Margrave (in "Sapp")
Media
None discovered thus far.
State Ratings
None discovered thus far.
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
Works for Winds by this Composer
Adaptable Music
- Scherzo (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Ambrose) (1823/2021)
All Wind Works
- Concertpiece No 1 (tr. Mooren). See: Konzertstück nr. 1
- Concertpiece No 2 (arr. Gee) (1831 / 1964)
- Elegy (arr. Erickson) (1961)
- Fingal's Cave (tr. Mahaffey) (1832/2013)
- Fingal's Cave Overture (tr. Winterbottom) (1832/1910)
- Fingal's Cave Overture (tr. Seredy) (1832/1946)
- Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (arr. Holcombe) (1840/1997)
- Notturno (arr. Hautvast) (1842/2005)
- Konzertstück Nr. 1 (tr. Mooren) (1833/1998)
- Konzertstück No. 1 in F minor (tr. Knox) (1833/)
- Konzertstück Nr. 1 (arr. Goldhammer) (1833/2007)
- March, Opus 108 (arr. Stalter) (1841/2011)
- Midsummer Night's Dream (ed. Laurendeau) (1826/1904/1909)
- A Midsummer Night's Dream (arr. De Meij) (1826/2022)
- Nottorno. See: Ouvertüre in C für Harmoniemusik
- Ouvertüre in C für Harmoniemusik (ed. Hogwood) (1824/1838/2005)
- Overture for Band (ed. Garofalo) (1824/1838/1998)
- Overture for Band (adapt. Greissle) (1839/1948)
- Overture for Band, Opus 24 (tr. Fred) (1824/1981)
- Overture for Winds (adapt. Boyd) (1824/1981)
- Overture for Winds (ed. Patterson) (1824/2008)
- Piano Concerto in G minor: First Movement (tr. Dahnert) (1831/1954)
- Ruy Blas Overture (tr. Moses-Tobani) (1839/1900)
- Scherzo (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Ambrose) (1823/2021)
- Scherzo from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (arr. Blair) (1842)
- Selections from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (arr. Tarkmann) (1842/1997)
- Spring Song (arr. Laurendeau) (1844/1898)
- Symphony No. 2
- Choral (tr. Aubin) (1840/2011?)
- Trauermarsch (ed. Leidzen) (1836/1954)
- War March of the Priests (1845/2013) (arr. Balfoort)
- War March of the Priests (1845/2013) (ar. Stalter)
- Wedding March (arr. Van der Beek) (1842/1997)
Resources
- Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, F.; Leidzén, E. (1954) Trauer-Marsch: Opus 103 [score]. Associated Music Pub.: New York, N.Y.
- Sapp, Allen. Notes, vol. 12, no. 3, 1955, pp. 489–92. JSTOR. Accessed 17 Sep. 2022.
- thenameisgsarci. "Felix Mendelssohn - Trauermarsch for wind ensemble Op. 103 (audio + sheet music)." YouTube,13 August 2020 – Accessed 17 September 2022