Funeral March of a Marionette

Charles Gounod 1818 – 1893

AATB or SATB Saxophone Quartet

Funeral March of a Marionette by Charles Gounod, arranged for AATB or SATB saxophone quartet. Funeral March of a Marionette (Marche funèbre d’une marionnette) is a well known piece by Charles Gounod. It was written in 1872 for solo piano and later orchestrated in 1879. It is an eerie but good humored little march. It is best known as the theme for the television program Alfred Hitchcock Presents, which originally aired from 1955 to 1965.

Funeral March of a Marionette is a little piece of program music. Here’s the story it tells: A marionette dies in a duel (introduction). His friends make a funeral procession to the cemetery (beginning of the march). Along the way, the mourners stop off at a pub for refreshments and drink a toast to their lost friend (middle section). They continue the procession to the graveyard (conclusion).

This arrangement is for AATB saxophone quartet. A soprano sax substitute for alto sax 1 is included so it may be played by an SATB sax quartet as well. The original keys of Gounod’s Funeral March of a Marionette are D minor and D major. This saxophone quartet arrangement is in C minor and major.

• The range for each saxophone part are shown below.
• The audio sample above is of the first minute of the piece.
• Registered users can download a complete sample score and full length audio file of of Funeral March of a Marionette on the ‘Samples’ tab.