dead march
See also: dead-march
English
editNoun
editdead march (plural dead marches)
- (music) A mournful, deliberately-paced musical work suitable for a funeral or remembrance ceremony.
- Synonyms: death march, funeral march
- 1892, Walt Whitman, “Dirge for Two Veterans”, in Leaves of Grass:
- I see a sad procession,
And I hear the sound of coming full-key'd bugles,
All the channels of the city streets they're flooding,
As with voices and with tears.
. . .
Now nearer blow the bugles,
And the drums strike more convulsive,
And the daylight o'er the pavement quite has faded,
And the strong dead-march enwraps me.
- 1859, Washington Irving, chapter 15, in Life of George Washington:
- A captain's guard marched before the corpse, the captain of it in the rear, the firelocks reversed, the drums beating the dead march.
- 1914, Amelia E. Barr, chapter 2, in Playing With Fire:
- Lord Cramer . . . described the burying of his company's colonel after it—the open grave in a cleft of hills dark with pines, the solemn dead march, the noble words spoken as they left their leader forever.
- 1983 November 22, Donal Henahan, “Musica: Sacra at Fisher Hall”, in New York Times, retrieved 10 Sept 2013:
- At the end, the orchestra played a somber dead march that was punctuated by harsh, chilling blows on the timpani.
- (capitalized) Any of several particular notable musical works of this kind, such as the Marche funèbre by Frédéric Chopin or the funeral anthem in George Frideric Handel's Saul.
- 1849, Herman Melville, chapter 49, in Redburn: His First Voyage:
- [W]hat divine ravishments may we not anticipate from this venerable, embrowned old organ, which might almost have played the Dead March in Saul, when King Saul himself was buried.
- 1865 March 3, “Funeral of a Policeman”, in New York Times, retrieved 10 Sept 2013:
- Conner's Band preceded the procession, playing the Dead March. The body was conveyed to Cypress Hill Cemetery.
- 1952 February 15, “King George is Laid to Rest in Simple Service”, in Evening Times, UK, retrieved 10 Sept 2013, page 1:
- It was 12:35 p.m. when the train pulled slowly out on its 21-mile journey to Windsor for the King's burial with his ancestors. As it left, the bands played their final farewell, Chopin's "Dead March."
Translations
editmournful, deliberately-paced musical work suitable for a funeral or remembrance ceremony — see funeral march
See also
editReferences
edit- “dead march”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.