Festival March / Festmarsj Johan Halvorsen / Arr. Jan Eriksen

Serie / Series: Concert Band Originals and Transcriptions

Festival March was written for a matinè at The National Stage, Bergen on Norway's National Day 17th of May 1898, on which Johan Halvorsen was leading the orchestra. For this first performance, the piece was performed anonymously without any credit to the composer.
After that, he brought the piece to the National Theatre in Oslo where it was used as incidental music to the works Kongsemnerne (1900) and Tordenskiold (1901). For the latter one he credited himself as the composer. After that, he also used the music for Christian Fredrik in 1905.
The original manuscript was found by Jan Eriksen in 1969. He brought it to the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra where it was performed several times under the baton of Øivind Bergh.
It is very likely that this march is one of the pieces that was saved from the fire in 1943 thirteen years after Halvorsens retirement as orchestra leader in 1930.

[NO]Festmarsj ble skrevet til en matiné ved Den Nationale Scene i Bergen 17 mai 1898 der Halvorsen var kapellmester. Den ble oppført anonymt. Siden tok han den med til Nationaltheatret der den ble brukt som mellomaktsmusikk til stykkene Kongsemnerne (1900) og Tordenskiold (1901) hvor han for første gang satte seg selv som komponist.
Videre ble musikken også benyttet i Christian Fredrik i 1905.
Det originale stemmematerialet ble funnet av Jan Eriksen i 1969 og brakt til NRK der Øivind Bergh spilte den med Kringkastingsorkestret ved flere anledninger. Etter all sannsynlighet er denne marsjen et av de musikkstykkene som ble reddet fra flammene i 1943, etter Halvorsens avgang som kapellmester ved Nationaltheatret i 1930.

Aufnahme / Recording:Norwegian Dance - New Music for Concert Band 2013-2014