Turkish March (Ruins of Athens) Op.113 - brass quintet Arranged for standard brass quintet of 2 trumpets, horn. trombone and tuba. The Turkish March (Marcia alla turca) is a well-known classical march theme by Ludwig van Beethoven. It was written in the Turkish style popular in music of the time. The theme was first used in Beethoven's "6 Variations on an Original Theme", Op. 76, of 1809. In 1811 Beethoven wrote an overture and incidental music to a play by August von Kotzebue called The Ruins of Athens (Op. 113), which premiered in Pest in 1812. The Turkish March appears as item No. 4 of the incidental music. Many music lovers associate the theme with The Ruins of Athens, although that was not its original appearance. The original march is in B flat major, tempo vivace and 2/4 time. Its dynamic scheme is highly suggestive of a procession passing by, starting out pianissimo, poco a poco rising to a fortissimo climax and then receding back to pianissimo by the coda. Unlike much of Beethoven's other orchestral music, the woodwinds are the dominant voice rather than the strings. I have transposed it to Eb major to suit the brass instruments' ranges. In my arrangement the melody is held by the three "top" instruments. The tuba takes the bass line, and the trombone adds harmony It is quite short and is tutti throughout.

In 1880, Edvard Grieg composed twelve songs based on the poetry of A.O. Vinje. Two of those he arranged for string orchestra as Two Elegiac Melodies. Four years later Grieg composed a five-piece suite to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Ludvig Holberg, the Norwegian-born writer who played a major role in the founding of Danish literature. Originally written for piano, Grieg soon arranged From Holberg?s Time for string orchestra. Nearly one hundred years later, Kathryn Forbes? novel, Mama?s Bank Account, was published, recounting the tale of a Norwegian family living in San Francisco in the early Twentieth Century. Forbes? book inspired a number of dramatic presentations, Broadway and Hollywood productions. Most relevant to ?Two By Grieg,? however, was Mama, a TV series CBS launched in 1949 that ran for eight years. This weekly half-hour program used two Grieg compositions as themes: ?Sarabande? from Holberg Suite and ?The Last Spring? from Two Elegiac Melodies. For many viewers, this was the first time they had ever heard these beautiful songs, and the two melodies have been forever linked thereafter. ?Sarabande? and ?The Last Spring? are the compositions that comprise ?Two By Grieg.? This arrangement is based on Grieg?s string orchestration and stays as close as possible to the original. Completed in 2016, this arrangement runs about 7 minutes, 3 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.