Meaning of dead march | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A mournful, deliberately-paced musical work suitable for a funeral or remembrance ceremony.
2. Any of several particular notable musical works of this kind, such as the Marche funèbre by Frédéric Chopin or the funeral anthem in George Frideric Handel's Saul.
   capitalized

Examples

“I see⟳ a sad procession, And I hear⟳ the sound⟳ of coming full-key'd bugles, All the channels of the city streets they're flooding, As with voices and with tears. . . . Now nearer blow⟳ the bugles, And the drums strike⟳ more convulsive, And the daylight o'er the pavement quite has faded, And the strong dead-march enwraps me.”

“A captain's guard marched before the corpse, the captain of it in the rear, the firelocks reversed, the drums beating the dead march⟳.”

“Lord Cramer . . . described the burying of his company's colonel after it—the open⟳ grave in a cleft of hills dark with pines, the solemn dead march⟳, the noble words spoken as they left their leader forever.”

“At the end⟳, the orchestra played a somber dead march⟳ that was punctuated by harsh, chilling blows on the timpani.”

“[W]hat divine ravishments may we not anticipate from this venerable, embrowned old organ, which might almost have⟳ played the Dead March⟳ in Saul, when King Saul himself was buried.”

“Conner's Band preceded the procession, playing the Dead March⟳. The body was conveyed to Cypress Hill Cemetery.”

“It was 12:35 p.m. when the train⟳ pulled slowly out on its 21-mile journey to Windsor for the King's burial with his ancestors. As it left, the bands played their final farewell, Chopin's "Dead March⟳."”

CEFR level