Dictionary of Music - Birding America

230 marching bandnearly always in duple meter (usually 2/4 or 4/4 butoccasionally 6/8). The music is most often in ternary(three-part) form, consisting of an opening sectionA, a middle section B, called a trio (frequently in thekey of the subdominant, that is, a fourth higher thanthe key of section A), and a final section that repeatsthe material of section A. In more elaborate marchesthe A section may alternate with several trios (B, B 1 ,B 2 , etc.) in various different keys.Some marches, especially funeral marches, arein slow tempo. Others are in so-called quick time(moderately fast, in 2/4 or 6/8 meter), and still othersare in double-quick time (very rapid, 6/8 meter).Compositions in the form of a march—althoughnot necessarily intended to serve as such—date backat least as far as the sixteenth century. They arefound in English virginal (harpsichord) music, inbaroque instrumental suites, and in piano sonatas byBeethoven and Chopin. Marches used to accompanyprocessions in operas are found from Lully and Handelthrough Verdi and Wagner. Particularly wellknownmarches are the wedding marches ofMendelssohn (from his incidental music for A MidsummerNight’s Dream) and Wagner (from the operaLohengrin); Schubert’s Marches militaires;Tchaikovsky’s Marche slave; Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstancemarches; Berlioz’s “Rákóczi” March; thefuneral marches from Handel’s Saul, Wagner’s Götterdämmerung,and Beethoven’s Eroica (Symphonyno. 3); the festive march from Act II of Wagner’sTannhäuser; and the triumphal march from Verdi’sAida. The most famous composer of marchesintended primarily for performance by a marchinggroup was John Philip Sousa.marching band See BAND, def. 6.marcia (mär′chä).The Italian word for MARCH.marcia, alla (äl′′lä mär′chä) Italian. A directionto perform a piece or section as if it were a march.mariachi (mä′′rē ä′chē) Spanish. A Mexicaninstrumental ensemble that is used for folk music. Itincludes four principal stringed instruments—violin,guitar, harp, and bass guitar—in numbers rangingfrom one instrument of each kind to a full-scaleband of as many as twenty musicians, and mayinclude two or more trumpets.Marian antiphonSee under ANTIPHON.marimba (mä rēm′bä) Spanish. A percussioninstrument of Central America, probably broughtthere by slaves from Africa. The marimba is stillused in Africa, chiefly in Angola and Zaire, and it isfig. 153 p/u from p. 236