Camille Saint-Saëns: March Militaire Francaise

Paris-born Charles Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 - 1921) was a child prodigy, composing his first piece for piano at the age of three. He studied with Stamaty and Boëly. before entering the Paris Conservatory in 1848. He was a private student of Gounod. Saint-Saëns had total recall; any book he read or tune he heard was forever committed to his memory. He held the coveted post of organist at the Madeleine from 1857 to 1875. He was also an accomplished pianist, conductor, score reader, and astronomer. As a composer, he wrote in many genres, including opera, symphonies, concertos, sacred and secular choral music, concertos, and chamber music. His highly popular works, including Danse macabre (1875) and Samson and Delilah were written during a short and tragic marriage, that included the loss of his two young sons within a period of six weeks.

March Militaire Francaise is the finale movement of a four-movement symphonic poem, Suite Algérienne, Opus 60, that was inspired by Saint-Saëns' trips to Algeria, then a French colony on the continent of Africa. Although, no authentic Algerian music exists in this piece, Saint-Saëns used melodic tendencies of the native Algerian culture. The last movement, March Militaire Francaise has become famous independently of the others both as an orchestral favorite and as a French concert march for the wind ensemble and concert band. It was transcribed for band by Mayhew Lake in the early twentieth century and was a favorite of Arthur Fiedler and all of the famous bands of the day.