Something for Thursday

I’ve had marches on the brain for a while, but I think it’s time to change the pace a bit. All marches — funeral marches, circus marches, military marches, grand marches — are, at heart, processionals; but there are other ways to write processional music. Here is one of my favorite processional works of all.

I couldn’t decide which of these two renditions of this piece of music to use, so I’m using both. From Wagner’s opera Lohengrin, here is “Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral”, with original orchestra and chorus:

And here it is, with a wonderful animation, played by wind ensemble in a wonderful arrangement that is a staple of wind ensemble repertoire:

Note that both end differently, as well — this is because in the opera, the piece doesn’t end at all but immediately segues into a dramatic scene. For concert performance of just the “Procession”, new endings had to be composed.