Marche Militaire

Goldschmidt originally wrote his Marche Militaire in 1932 for the Berliner Funkstunde, a radio orchestra which he regularly conducted at that time. He later said that he wanted to make a personal statement about the ominous threat of fascism and the music’s grimly sardonic character makes it clear that this is in every sense an anti-Marche Militaire. The piece was clearly something of a favourite of the composer’s – he made an arrangement for wind band in 1938, and also this version for solo piano. Later still, in 1986, he incorporated the original version into his orchestral suite, Chronica.