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Hector Berlioz (1803 - 1869)
Hungarian (Racoczy) March
The Hungarian March
was written during a concert tour Berlioz undertook
in central Europe during 1846, and specifically for
performance in Budapest. A friend in Vienna had advised
him that success in Hungary would be certain if he were
to compose a work based on one of their national tunes.
Berlioz heeded the advice, and chose the Rakoczy March
- which he describes in the score as 'a Hungarian war
song, very ancient, and by an unknown author.' He wrote
the March in the space of one night, before leaving
Vienna for Budapest. It was a stunning success in Budapest,
and was encored every time Berlioz played it in Hungary.
Writing his opera "The Damnation of Faust" a little
later, Berlioz could not resist using such a successful
tune again. The opera is based on Goethe's version of
the Faust legend, and has nothing to do with Hungary
at all. But at the beginning of the opera, Berlioz quite
brazenly places Faust "on a Hungarian plain", just so
that he has an excuse for including this March! |
