Modern March music has the characteristics of distinctive tunes, neat rhythm, commonly used 2/4, 4/4 beats (there are also 3 beats), and more symbols and syncopated rhythms. The musical form is mostly three-part structure, and the middle part is often transferred to the subordinate key.
Sousal1854-1932), an American composer and conductor, made the greatest contribution to this kind of March. He wrote more than 1 marching songs played by wind music with beautiful and lively melodies, so he is known as the "king of marching songs" in the world.
Regarding the creation of the March, Susa said in an autobiography published in her later years: "The March has great attraction for me. March must adapt to the basic sense of rhythm of human body, stimulate people's vitality and arouse people's imagination. At the same time, the March must be like a marble statue, and no falsification is allowed. It should also be able to impress people who hate music, and even have the charm to make people with fake legs want to walk full of energy. "
Like the March works created by Susa, there are numerous March works at home and abroad. Among them, those March works with strong vitality, high performance frequency, outstanding practical functions, universal recognition and special research value are classified into the following categories: according to the place where the music is played, the content it contains and the social function of the music.
Although most of these works are not all created for the purpose of ceremony, people consider the social effect of a work or the content reflected in the work and use it in the ceremony, and gradually form a stereotype and become a ceremony March.
In the ceremony music played in various ceremony occasions, most of the music takes the form of marching songs, such as welcoming songs, national anthem, school songs, factory songs, store songs, line songs and so on. Since ancient times, music has been played to worship the heavens and the earth, to worship ghosts and gods, to worship ancestors, or to ascend the throne of the emperor, to celebrate court banquets, to open the way for officials, and even to welcome guests and see them off in modern times, so as to create a corresponding atmosphere. Ceremony music generally has certain contents and procedures, such as the opening of shops, the admission of athletes, and the awarding of prizes. This kind of music starts from the corresponding content of etiquette, unifies the will of the audience, inspires and educates the people, and plays a role in promoting historical progress.
The performance of ceremony music is usually performed by a wind band which is convenient to carry musical instruments and can play with the procession, so it is also called a ceremony band.
There are a large number of this kind of marches, which have been appreciated and tested by several generations, and still maintain strong vitality. The following works are generally recognized by the world: China's works: March of the Volunteers by Nie Er (1935); March of the Eighth Route Army by Zheng Lvcheng (1939); The March of Athletes by Guang Rui, Jia Shuang and Li Mingxiu (1971); March of the New Fourth Army by He Shide (1939); Song of Anti-Japanese Military and Political University written by Lu Ji, etc.
Foreign works: Radsky March by Johann Strauss Sr. (1848); La Marseillaise in France (198s); Washington Post March (1889), The Stars and Stripes March (1895), The United States and China March (1899) and so on. The main function of music art is to arouse people's artistic aesthetic feeling and meet people's artistic aesthetic needs through music sound. The task of professional musicians is to discover beauty, create and express beauty. Starting from this concept, this kind of March specially summarizes the works created directly for artistic activities. These works all create typical artistic images according to the principle of the unity of truth, goodness and beauty, and have high artistic value, deep performance skills, healthy ideological content and artistic beauty. They are different from other marches in terms of musical range, melody composition, musical form, number and combination of parts, so they have higher artistic appeal and higher appreciation level.
Concert March starts from people's real life, reflects a certain nature of life, and has the functions of understanding social life, adjusting people's emotions and satisfying people's artistic aesthetic needs. Therefore, it is generally liked by professional musicians and music lovers with high artistic accomplishment.
The creation of this kind of March music is directed at music art activities, aiming at expressing the beauty of music. Most of them belong to instrumental music, but few are acoustic music. Mainly Mozart's Turkish March (1781-1783); Army March by Schubert (1518); Rakosi March by Berlioz (1846); Chopin's "Army Polonez in A Major" (1838, which belongs to the March and Triple March in dance music) and so on.
China's works in this field are almost blank. Among the Korean music in China, there is Cui Changkui's Modern March. "Yanbian March" by Lin Shenghao, but these are all acoustic music. In the art category, emotional expression is one of the most sensitive specialties of music art. This kind of March tries to classify the music that is solemn, sublime, grand, majestic, cordial and enthusiastic, belongs to the nature of eulogy, and belongs to a specific object in content into this category.
The ode-type March is mainly music that praises the party, the leaders, the motherland, revolutionary heroes and national heroes, the land, rivers and mountains, other revered objects and beloved things, and it has the characteristics of resolute and heroic spirit, broad melody, steady rhythm and slow speed.
Because the contents described or the emphasis emphasized by this kind of March are different, it has outstanding solemn and magnificent spirit; Have outstanding and cordial feelings; There are also passionate and passionate features, and there are also several requirements that are integrated in one work.
China's works: Singing the Motherland by Wang Cui (195); Song of the Yangtze River by Wang Shiguang (1982); Foreign Works: March of the Stars and Stripes by Susa (1895): March of Radsky (introduced) All the March works in the comprehensive art-drama music, and those refined music that meet the needs of the plot and are loved by the masses are included in this category. These pieces of music are generally short and pithy, and their musical images are particularly concentrated. This kind of music also belongs to other kinds of marches.
Drama music belongs to the category of comprehensive art, which includes several art forms, such as literature, music, dance, art, montage, etc. It belongs to an art category with both visual and auditory feelings. Drama music includes opera with singing as the main part; Dance drama with dance as the main means of expression; Movies and TV music combining music with moving pictures; To match the opening and ending of each scene or the drama soundtrack played between scenes (or as background music for monologues and dialogues).
among these kinds of music, composers arrange music written in the form of marches according to the needs of the plot, but people play or appreciate them out of context for their own practical needs, which constitutes the division type of this kind of marches.
China's works: the film music by Nie Er, and the theme song of the film "Children of the Storm" March of the Volunteers (1935); Huang Zhun's film music, women soldiers Liege in the feature film Red women soldiers (1959, later used in ballet); Song of the Red Guards, a March in the opera Red Guards of Honghu Lake by Zhang Jingan and Uncle Ouyang Qian (1959); The March "Song of the Militia" in the opera "A Gun" by Zheng Zhenyu of Yanbian.
Foreign works: The Hunter's March by Weber (182); The Wedding March by Mendelssohn and Wagner respectively (1826 and 1848); Bei Lini's Grand March (1531); Wildi's Triumphal March (also known as Grand March 187) and so on. Music written by using the rhythm characteristics of a dance music as the main creative means belongs to this category. Although the number of this kind of works is very small, they generally have national temperament and broad and heroic March style.
in a broad sense, dance music is not only directly used for dancing, but also includes acoustic music and instrumental music written on the basis of dance rhythm. Although this kind of dance music is not for the purpose of accompanying dance, it is specially made for singing and playing in concerts, so it often has high artistry. This kind of dance music has beautiful melody, lively rhythm, easy-to-understand content and is often closely linked with folk music. Therefore, it can not only accompany the dance, but also enjoy it, and it is an indispensable and important genre in people's music life.
It is a rare phenomenon that dance music is expressed in the form of March, but it is still blank in China's works. As a result, a foreigner replaced this blank with the orchestral "Beijing Good News to the Border Village", which belongs to the celebration music, not the March music.
This kind of music is unique in "Army Polonez in A Major" by Chopin, a Polish composer, but it belongs to the classification of three-time March and concert March. Can triple time also be used as the beat of March? ! Many people say that questioning is beyond reproach. Because the uniform alternation of the rhythm of human legs determines the convention that the March must be two beats or its multiple beats. However, if we study these rhythms carefully, we can associate the steps of dancing a waltz in triple time. It is not difficult to see that its unit beat is the basis of dancing in triple time, and it is not only three legs that can dance in triple time. Based on this understanding, composers also use triple beat, skillfully focus on the rhythm with dotted points, and combine other rhythm factors, mainly emphasizing the unit beat, to create this kind of March.
there are two situations in the tempo of the March with three beats. The first is that each unit beat is divided into two parts to form three beats or six beats per bar, 3/4, 6/8, etc. The second is that each unit beat is divided into three parts to form two beats or four beats per bar, namely, 6/8 and 12/8.
China's works: Zheng Lvcheng's anti-Japanese song "March towards the motherland" (early 194s).
foreign works: Washington Post March (1889) by Susa in 6/8 beats; North Korea's 12/8 March "There is only one North Korea in the world" (197s); "Tricolor Flag" by Polombescu; Cournot's March of Soldiers; Chopin's Army Polish Dance in A Major, etc. The forms of music in mass songs are all-encompassing, but the forms of marching songs account for a large proportion. This is because the March is often good at expressing the collective thoughts and feelings, close to life, appealing and easy to unify the relationship between the will and desire of the group. In particular, the queue songs in the army and the chorus songs expressing the just struggle in the hot struggle years all take the form of marching songs.
This kind of music generally refers to the March music created by professional or amateur composers for real social life and suitable for the masses to sing. This kind of music is simple in tune, not wide in range, and commonly used in the form of segmented songs. Among them, the main song often uses several lyrics to explain the basic content, and the chorus uses repeated phrases or paragraphs to express the theme. Singing forms include chorus, chorus and chorus.
A survey of the world's modern mass songs shows that they have the following remarkable characteristics: First, they often come from the hot years of struggle, and the intense and touching scenes in real life provide the songwriters with a source of creation. After the creation of these pieces of music, they directly acted on the local struggle life at that time, which produced great impetus and encouragement.
Secondly, the content of music is mostly related to political and social activities, reflecting the ideals and aspirations of the people.
Emotionally, most of the music is majestic, heroic and firm, and the lyrics are popular and concise, which is easy to catchy.
Geographically speaking, more valuable and successful music can break through national boundaries and become a favorite music of people in our country, neighboring countries and even the world; In terms of time, it can affect one generation or even several generations.
The March of mass songs is universal in China, especially in the revolutionary songs of workers and peasants in China in the 193s and 194s. For example, March of Salvation, Song of Salvation Army, March of Sword, Song of Guerrilla, etc. in 193s; "Victory March" and "Unity is Strength" in the 194s; "Chinese people's Volunteer Army Warsong" in the 195s; In the 196s, we held high the revolutionary banner, the hard bones of the working class, and the proletarians all over the world United, among which Li Chafu's We Walk on the Road was the most influential and popular one.
Among foreign works, the most influential is La Marseillaise during the French Revolution. Comrades, March forward bravely, etc., which was produced before the October Revolution in the former Soviet Union. This kind of March is relatively divided for acoustic music, but the March in acoustic music is not one kind, it is divided into many other categories. In other words, most categories of March music belong to acoustic music, and the number of works that really belong to instrumental music is still small. However, from the perspective of performance, people still play the music that was originally performed by vocal music with bands, which has formed the misunderstanding that "marching music seems to be more instrumental music".
from the historical perspective of music development, instrumental music originated from acoustic music, that is, its development lags behind vocal music, but these music without lyrics can also reflect all the emotions of people's real social life without compromising the color of acoustic music.
March in instrumental music is different from vocal music with lyrics, but it still has high artistic value and aesthetic taste in content and form. Relatively speaking, these kinds of music are more professional than vocal music, and their performance also requires certain skills and difficulties. It can be divided into two types: the first one is created directly for playing bands or orchestras, and the second one is created for playing a certain instrument, most of which are created for piano playing.
China's works: March of Cavalry, a musical instrument composed by Che Fu and Chen Geng (early 194s); Three pieces of playing music by Xu Ruilu of Yanbian, March of Zhu Jie (1947), March of Victory and March of the People's Liberation Army; The March of Athletes (1971) by Guang Rui, Jia Shuang and Li Mingxiu.
foreign works: March of Washington Post (1889), March of the Stars and Stripes (1895) and March of Beauty in America and China (1899) by Susa; The second movement of Beethoven's Heroic Symphony, Funeral March (183); The third movement of Chopin's piano sonata in B flat minor, Funeral March (1839), etc. In addition, the foreign songs in the concert March listed in this article.