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It is December and that means holiday pops concerts for many musicians. Along with sugar plum fairies, sleigh rides and jolly old elves, a toy parade by Victor Herbert is sometimes thrown into the mix.
The March of the Toys from “Babes in Toyland” is nice march that goes beyond the usual oom-pah writing of John Philip Sousa.
A theme for a muted first horn is repeated throughout the composition in several variations.
My favorite theme from this little gem is a melody that appears about halfway through. It is orchestrated with all four horns in unison.
Traditionally, the first four notes are held back and the dotted-half notes in the second measure are very drawn out. The third measure proceeds a tempo. When the 8-bar phrase repeats, sometimes this effect is repeated for extra measure.
No matter how long or tiring my day has been, this happy melody sticks with me. It ends up being incorporated into a warm-up the next day or hummed in my head while walking around.
