Funeral March of a Marionette

Funeral March of a Marionette        Charles Gounod

One wonders if it might have dismayed Charles Gounod to learn that his Funeral March of a Marionette, written in 1872, would ultimately acquire a second and more tenacious identity as the theme for the popular 1950's TV series, "Alfred Hitchcock Presents." The composer made his name in the loftier realm of opera, with his 1859 Faust becoming one of the most successful French operas in the 19th century. (England's Queen Victoria requested that parts of it be sung for her on her deathbed.) But the ironic tone of the Funeral March, written as part of a never-finished piano series, Suite Burlesque, made it a perfect fit for Hitchcocks series, with its scary - but oddly whimsical - tales.

The piece actually describes a tale of its own. Two marionettes have it out in a duel; one is shot dead. Pallbearers are organized into a procession to carry the dead puppet to the cemetery, but cannot resist a dive into an inn along the way. There, they cheerfully imbibe while recalling their late friend. Inevitably, though, they realize that the journey must continue, so the march to the cemetery resumes, with the story ending with a reverent bow to the sad transience of life (even for marionettes).

The ternary form of the work follows this plot, with the opening march - in a tempo rather too jaunty for a real funeral march, but then, these are marionettes - being followed by a more celebratory, beery section before returning to the opening march theme. It is refreshing to imagine something other than Hitchcock's portly profile on hearing this piece! Still, thanks to television, the work is one of the most recognizable of Gounod's compositions (along with his Ave Maria floating over Bach's Prelude in C), and though most people would have to google their way to the composer's identity, it may have secured him what all composers want, a measure of immortality.