The Funeral March of a Marionette (Marche funèbre d'une marionnette) is a short piece by Charles Gounod. It was written in 1872 for solo piano and orchestrated in 1879. It is perhaps best known as the theme music for the television program Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
While residing in London, England, between 1871 and 1872, Gounod started to write a suite for piano called Suite burlesque. It was a satirical character piece that was intended to be a parody of the personality of Henry Chorley, a music critic. It greatly amused Gounod's English patron, Georgina Weldon, who described Chorley as having a "thin, sour, high-pitched sopranish voice" and moving like a "stuffed red-haired monkey." Gounod intended to publish the piece with a dedication to Chorley, but the latter died before this was possible. Weldon then invented a new program for the piece, which was re-titled Funeral March of a Marionette. After completing this piece, Gounod abandoned the rest of the suite and had the single movement published by Goddard & Co. The piece was dedicated to Madame Viguier, a pianist and the wife of Alfred Viguier, the first violin in the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire.
The following storyline underlies the Funeral March of a Marionette:
The Marionette has died in a duel.
The funeral procession commences (D minor).
A central section (D major) depicts the mourners taking refreshments before returning to the funeral march (D minor).
Additionally, inscriptions are found throughout the score as follows:
La Marionnette est cassée!!! (The Marionette is broken!!!)
Murmure de regrets de la troupe (Murmurs of regret from the troupe)
Le Cortège (The Procession)
Ici plusieurs des principaux personnages de la troupe s'arrêtent pour se rafraîchir (Here many of the principal personages stop for refreshments)
Retour à la maison (Return to the house).
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