I found this little ditty on Youtube, played by no less than Hamelin. I went, like, if it's good enough for MAH it's good enough for me
Seems to be a well-known tune, but I never knew that Charles Gounod wrote it as an original piano piece (his only one, I think). Hope this is ok.

Gounod - Funeral march of a Marionette (5:07)

That seemed very well played to me! I have tried to follow with the score, but in the version I found there were four bars with staccato-eigths and sixteenth-tremolo which you didn´t play in your version. Also I couldn´t find the connection after the second page (bracket two). Seems that you have used another version or arrangement of this piece, which originally is for orchestra.
I have completely enjoyed it and it was interesting to meet a piano-arrangement. I only knew the version for orchestra until today.

Thanks Andreas. It's not as good as Hamelin's obviously... Dunno how he does it to make even simple things sound special.
But not bad all the same.

Not sure what score you've been using. I used the one from Mike Hawley's site which is the same version that MAH plays. It says in that score that it was first published for piano and orchestrated later. Could well be Gounod's one and only piano piece then !

I enjoyed this also. Great fun! I remember this piece from my childhood - it was the theme music to Alfred Hitchcock Presents. I didn't know there was a piano arrangement, I assume this is the composer's version? (edit: I see from your post that it is). My mischievous side is tempted to make an arrangement for comic effect with an absurdly overblown portentous introduction leading to the theme. The one thing that bothered me a little was the D maj chords in the treble where it seems the pitch of the upper notes has drifted a touch.

Thanks Andrew. You're right about the treble being slightly off. The Gaveau will be tuned next week but I wanted this one out of the way.

I have found the score on imslp under "arrangements and transcriptions". That´s why I have thought, that the original is the version for orchestra, but one never learns out...
Here is the link: http://imslp.org/wiki/Marche_fun%C3%A8b ... d,_Charles)

Ah I see ! I looked on IMSLP to start with but I seem to have missed this one. Instead I found an even simper one and decided to look elsewhere. This version contains more material than the version I used and is obviously authentic. I'll have to redo it and play this version now. That title page is so nice that I'm tempted to create a separate PS page for it.... Which is silly, because it's a typical _Various piece.

So, thanks for your effort to look up the score, so that I can provide a better recording. I now wonder why MAH, bloody amateur he is, plays an obviously abridged version. Maybe the original was too difficult

I too associate this piece with Alfred Hitchcock. And then when I was teaching kids, I had a very simplified version of this and kids liked playing it around now - close to Halloween. Anyway, fun to hear the whole piece and I think you played it very nicely!

Techneut wrote:


Yes, indeed, it´s a very nice drawing on that title page! I think, I will print it out probably.



It was a pleasure, my friend.



Yes, that must be so, of course, or he also had only Mike Hawleys site like you as source!

Hi Chris,

I had a listen and liked your interpretation. All of the silence in the beginning is kind of unusual, but when the piece gets underway it does bring to mind a Death March of a Marionette I haven't heard much Gounod, but this leaves a good impression. I will have to look at Hamelin's version.

Nice playing,

~Riley

Hi Chris,

You played this transcription very well in my opinion. It brought back a very old memory. When I was in 6th grade in 1956, the classroom had an old Victrola record player from before my time. There were very very few records in the cabinet underneath. This march for orchestra was one of the few. To set the turntable in motion we had to hand crank the Victrola, which played the records with an osmium needle. Because we had lunch right in the classroom, we used to always play the old records during lunchtime, so I probably heard this funeral march umpteen times at least! I hadn't heard it since, but as soon as your recording started, I recognized it immediately!

David

I keep hearing Hitchcock's "Good Evening" and seeing his shadow move into the line characture of him.

This is very enjoyable. Puckish in a macabre way -- perfect for Halloween.

Scott

Thanks everyone. It's one if these pieces that seem to ring a bell to most people.
If only Andreas had not found a more complete score I could leave this alone now

Techneut wrote:


I´m always the bad boy, didn´t you already know that?

Yeah I know. Somebody has to be it