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Showing posts with the label circus music

Circus Music: Thunder and Blazes

Harty the Clown, Chief Clown at Billy Smart's Circus, 1950s. One of the best-known marches today is not really known to a lot of people as a march.   It lasts about three minutes, moving through three different movements.   It was composed in 1897 by the Czech composer Julius Fučik under the title “Grande Marche Chromatique”.   He later changed its title to “Entrance of the Gladiators”, reflecting a personal interest in the history of the Roman Empire.   Fučik was well known and well regarded in his day for the many rousing, patriotic marches he composed in his short life.   He is still remembered today as a Czech version of John Philip Sousa, and his marches are still associated with Czech patriotic feeling. Julius Fučik, Mr. "Thunder and Blazes" himself. Despite his well-earned fame and prominence in the past, Fučik’s “Entrance of the Gladiators” would achieve its greatest fame in North America.   In 1901, sheet music for the piece started to be