The Turkish March (Marcia alla turca) is a classical

march March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of March. The March equinox on the 20 or 2 ...

theme by

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

. It was written for the 1809 ''Six Variations'', Op. 76, and in the Turkish style. Later, in 1811, Beethoven included the Turkish March in a play by

August von Kotzebue August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue (, ; – ) was a German playwright, who had also worked as a Russian diplomat. In 1817, one of Kotzebue's books was burned during the Wartburg festival. He was murdered in 1819 by Karl Ludwig Sand, a ...

called '' The Ruins of Athens'' (Op. 113), premiering in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, in 1812. The march is in

B-flat major B-flat major is a major scale based on B, with pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. Its key signature has two flats. Its relative minor is G minor and its parallel minor is B-flat minor. The B-flat major scale is: Changes needed for ...

, tempo vivace, and time. Its dynamic scheme highly suggests a procession passing by, starting

pianissimo In music, the dynamics of a piece are the variation in loudness between note (music), notes or phrase (music), phrases. Dynamics are indicated by specific musical notation, often in some detail. However, dynamics markings require interpretation ...

, poco a poco, rising to a fortissimo climax, and then receding to pianissimo by the coda.

In popular culture

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic music, Romantic period. With a diverse List of compositions by Franz Liszt, body of work spanning more than six ...

wrote a version for piano and orchestra in 1837 entitled "Fantasie über Motiven aus Beethovens Ruinen von Athen" (S. 122). He also wrote a piano transcription titled "Capriccio alla turca sur des motifs de Beethoven" (S. 388) in 1846.

Anton Rubinstein Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein (; ) was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He was the elder brother of Nikolai Rubinstein, who founded the Moscow Conservatory. As a pianist, Rubinstein ran ...

arranged a popular piano version of the march in B major.

Sergei Rachmaninoff Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and Conducting, conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a compos ...

further arranged Rubinstein's version, heard on piano roll (1928). An electronic version known as "The Elephant Never Forgets" from the 1970 album "

Moog Indigo ''Moog Indigo'' is the ninth studio album by the French electronic music pioneer Jean-Jacques Perrey, released in 1970 on the Vanguard Records label. The album's name is a reference to the jazz song " Mood Indigo" by Duke Ellington. Compositio ...

" by

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

pioneer

Jean-Jacques Perrey Jean Marcel Leroy (20 January 1929 – 4 November 2016), better known as Jean-Jacques Perrey (), was a French people, French electronic music performer, composer, producer, and promoter. He is considered a pioneer of pop electronica.El Chavo del Ocho ''El Chavo'' ("The Kid/The Boy", Spanish also meaning " cent"), also known as ''El Chavo del Ocho'' ("The Kid/Boy from Number Eight") during its earliest episodes, is a Mexican television sitcom series created by Roberto Gómez Bolaños (Che ...

'', without authorization and without being credited to its author. On 16 November 2009, Perrey, along with Kingsley, Sylvain Meunier, and the heirs of Harry Breuer, Frances, Anthony, and Robert, sued

Televisa Grupo Televisa, S.A.B., simply known as Televisa, is a Mexican telecommunications and broadcasting company. A major Latin American mass media corporation, it often presents itself as the largest producer of Spanish-language content. In April ...

for using their melodies without permission, Xenon Pictures,

Lions Gate Lions Gate, Lion Gate or similar terms may refer to: Gates *Lion Gate at Mycenae in Greece *Lion Gate, one of the entrances to the ancient Hittite city of Hattusa, now in Turkey *Lion Gate, one of the entrances to the gardens of Hampton Court Pala ...

Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television, free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the L ...

, and

Galavisión Galavisión is an American Spanish-language pay television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. The network is unrelated to the earlier Mexican channel of the same name, though both broadcast Televisa-produced programming. As of February 20 ...

were also involved in the lawsuits. However, Chespirito was not directly involved in the lawsuit. In 2010, Perrey and the defendants reached a legal settlement in which the defendants had to pay for the use of the melodies "The Elephant Never Forgets", " Baroque Hoedown" (used as the ending theme in Chespirito's parallel TV series '' El Chapulín Colorado''), and "Country Rock Polka" (used to a lesser extent in other of his productions of that time). In addition, Perrey and Kingsley's credit is now prominently mentioned on any ''El Chavo del Ocho'' promotional materials.

Popularity

''Marcia alla turca'' is featured as piano track #13 on Yamaha's ''YDP 101'' piano model (track #6 on the ''YDP 101S'' variant).

References

External links

*
The Ruins of Athens: Turkish March and Overture, performed by Boston Civic Symphony
on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

{{Authority control Incidental music by Ludwig van Beethoven Orchestral marches 1809 compositions Compositions in B-flat major