“What if we did a playlist of 32 musical marches to tie in with March Madness?” asked one VAN editor who definitely understands sportsball and did not have to google how many teams are in a bracket (or when March Madness takes place).
As classical-music-cartoonish as the idea sounded, it did get us thinking about the genre. What, exactly, defines a march? Grove cites “strong repetitive rhythms” and “an uncomplicated style,” adding that they’re most often used for military movements. But that’s a bit limiting, especially when you think of the multiverse of marches used to accompany funerals, weddings, protests, and DCI competitions.
With that in mind, the VAN English team has put together a bracket that broadly explores the march as a musical mechanism, with each of the 32 works having their own form of march-y elements. We’ll update the bracket throughout the month on Twitter as you, dear reader, help us vote on one march to rule them all (we’ve made the case for some of our particular favorites below). If you’ve already left Elon Musk’s dumpster fire, the bracket is still arranged in a way that makes for some good comparative listening. Take, for instance, two sides of the protest march in Frederic Rzewski’s “The People United Will Never Be Defeated” and Fela Kuti’s searing commentary on the Nigerian army, “Zombie.” Or the pairing of organ processions in Florence Price’s “Festal March” against its much more dressed-up cousin, the final movement of Saint-Saëns’s “Organ” Symphony.
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