The March, as a musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and more often than not performed by a military band.
Marches are written usually in 2/4 or 6/8 and although there are examples of 6/8 Pipe Marches being used as original tunes for dances (The Duke of Atholl’s Reel, The Hollin Buss, Bill Clement MBE) the 2/4 marches do not usually figure except where they have been used as the original music but in the context of a reel (for example Australian Ladies, The Meeting of the Waters, etc) and sometimes a Pipe 2/4 march as a Strathspey. They are often used in dance classes for ‘warm-ups’.
Many composers of Scottish Dance music both modern and old have composed marches which are used for dances like the Gay Gordons, etc.
Listen to 32 bars of an old march played for the Gay Gordons.
The tunes are Wha Wadna' Fecht for Charlie? (trad) and Roses of Prince Charlie (Ronnie Browne) played by Jim Lindsay and his Scottish Dance Band.
The first tune is a patriotic martial song of the Scottish Jacobites, Wha Wadna' Fecht for Charlie? celebrating the heroism of those fighting for the Scottish Prince Edward Stuart.
Listen to Wha Wadna' Fecht for Charlie.
The music score for Roses of Prince Charlie.
