October, 2013: March in E Flat / Kenneth W. Megan / United States Coast Guard Band

The United States Coast Guard Band While this month's download is not a big composition, it is a significant recording. During his career, Bruckner wrote two marches - the orchestral March in D Minor, composed along with the Three Orchestral Pieces, and the March in E Flat (WAB 116), composed in August of 1865. While an "Apollo March" was once attributed to Bruckner, it has been proven quite conclusively that it was actually composed by Bela Keler (see Essay by Paul Hawkshaw) But the March in E Flat is clearly by Bruckner, yet it has received very few recordings (The Discography shows only three). So it was a significant set of circumstances that (1) Martin Tousignant offered abruckner.com the instrumental parts for the March and that (2) an old professional relationship I had with Ken Megan, Director of the United States Coast Guard Band supplied the opportunity for the Band to record a reading of the March at one of their rehearsals. The result is perhaps the best performance we have of this rarely-performed Bruckner composition.