Gounod wrote this in 1872 as a piano piece and orchestrated it seven years later. He originally conceived of it as one part of a satirical piano suite, the subject of which had nothing to do with puppetry. Once it was completed, however, he had it published as a stand-alone composition with the present title. The occasion of the music is that the Marionette has lost a duel and died; a funeral cortege takes place; the bereaved troupe takes a break then returns to the cortege. Recorded numerous times, the music was also used in several early films but reached its largest audience by far as the theme song for the TV series, ?Alfred Hitchcock Presents," 1955-1965. The current arrangement is based on the composer?s original piano score but has been augmented slightly to take advantage of brass quintet instrumentation. This arrangement was completed in 2016, and performance time runs about 5 minutes, 8 seconds. The arranger, Les Smith, will be happy to provide substitute parts (for example, treble clef baritone for trombone) at no charge; contact him directly at lessmith61@bellsouth.net. For more arrangements by Les, enter "Sweetwater Brass Press" (without the quotation marks) in the SheetMusicPlus search box.

Michael Maybrick wrote music for ?The Holy City? in 1892 under the name, ?Stephen Adams.? Frederic Weatherly wrote the lyrics. The song was popular from the beginning, then experienced a resurgence when sung by Jeanette MacDonald in the 1936 film, San Francisco. Victorian in both words and melody, ?The Holy City? nonetheless remains a frequent performance piece today. The current arrangement is based on the original 1892 sheet music but has been augmented to take advantage of brass quintet instrumentation. Completed in 2012, this arrangement runs about 4 minutes, 47 seconds. The arranger, Les Smith, will be happy to provide substitute parts (e.g., Treble Clef Baritone for Trombone) at no charge; contact him directly at lessmith61@bellsouth.net. For more arrangements by Les, enter "Sweetwater Brass Press" (without the quotation marks) in the SheetMusicPlus search box.