Friday Performance Pick – 112

Gounod, Marche funèbre d’une marionnette

alfred-hitchcockThose of a certain age will remember it as the theme music to Alfred Hitchcock Presents. From 1956 to 1965 (the show was expanded in 1962 to become The Alfred Hitchcock Hour), the popular show presented a short stand-alone drama each week—all with the plot twists you would expect from Hitchcock. But the most memorable part was seeing Hitchcock’s shadow fill the silhouette drawing as Gounod’s Marche played. Hitchcock and Gounod seem joined forever.

The French composer Charles Gounod (1818-1893) was living in London when the work was composed in 1871-72. He intended the march as a character piece to depict music critic Henry Chorley, who was described as having a “thin, sour, high-pitched sopranish voice” and moving like a “stuffed red-haired monkey.” It’s not a very charitable description. And not at all like Hitchcock. But Chorley died before the work was completed, and Gonoud recast it as depicting the procession for a marionette that has been killed in a duel.

Funeral marches typically involve a slow procession in a minor key. Famous examples that predate Gounod’s march include the second movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (Eroica), Handel’s Saul, and, perhaps the most famous, the third movement of Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 35. But those bear little resemblance to Gounod’s march, which has the character of a jaunty humoresque.

So move over, Chorley. A humorous funeral march perfectly captures the work and persona of Hitchcock. He personally picked the work as the theme for his television show and reportedly included it on a list of 8 works that he would take to a fictional deserted island.