dead march

Definitions

1. 1

   A mournful, deliberately-paced musical work suitable for a funeral or remembrance…

   A mournful, deliberately-paced musical work suitable for a funeral or remembrance ceremony.

   • 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.
2. 2

   Any of several particular notable musical works of this kind, such as the Marche funèbre…

   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.

   • [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."

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