Federal Police Orchestra of Berlin: March Music

“I’ve written march music, although spiritually I hardly have any appetite to compose such music. Can one find pleasure in a genre conceived for such dubious aims?” This was Mauricio Kagel’s comment on his “10 Märsche, um den Sieg zu verfehlen” (Ten marches in order to miss victory) from 1979. Surely, Kagel is reducing the genre to its military branch here. What about wedding marches? Funeral marches? Under the direction of Arend zu Hoene, the Federal Police Orchestra tries to straighten out the picture, placing the ten Kagel works alongside marches by Verdi, Mozart, Berlioz and others which were composed for a wide variety of purposes. In defense of a genre’s honor.