Krasno Selo information?
Hi -- I'm doing program notes for a concert and have come up empty so far on the Krasno Selo march. I've discovered that it is a neighborhood in Sofia, Bulgaria, but not much else. Does anyone know the history of this tune and who it's composer might be? Thanks, Roger

Krasno Selo march if it is a Chiappa book, is a Louis Blache arrangement. The A&R Marenghi CD I have says composer unknown! Perhaps it is a Blache composition? Regards Robert Washington :org:

Hello everyone, I have it on a German cassette of an 89k organ. It has a different title. I shall try to dig it out. It was also on the A & R Marenghi cassette, maybe there are other notes on there? Rob.

Krasno Selo March is a complete mystery. I remember Bill Free telling me that there was a place so named in Russia and that it was a military air base. However, the march is not the sligh-*test*-('") bit Russian to my way of thinking. It bears some of the hallmarks of Luigi Chiappa's compositions (composer of the Showman's March, Van Dweller's March, Dodgems March, Big Push, etc) but I have heard the tune abroad on the 87 Gavioli that used to be in the Elztal Museum in Waldkirch where it was on old card (possibly Alfred Bruder?) and titled "The Grenadiers March". But even this title suggests that it may be English in origin. I hope one day to get to the bottom of this mystery. Many people have tried to resolve this question by finding a score but with no success so far perhaps one can be found in USA... The tune is a great favourite in England known in the familiar arrangement from Chiappa Limited.

I'll see if I can set some time aside on this one. It's interesting you give an alternate title for the piece - this can of course make all the difference! Obvious starting points : old Hawkes and Co band music lists and then Hopwood and Crew etc. Things like the Belwin Mills photoplay series are also worth a look as very likely candidates. There's tons of utterly formulaic recycled marches in those all by total nobodies. Krasno Selo sounds great on a large organ but it is a formulaic piece of writing nonetheless. A lot of the photoplay series music just came in loose-leaf bundles : it is extremely unlikely most of it was ever published separately - it's just a contents list on the back of a folio. Maybe te title has been abbreviated in some way i.e. it's neither title but some combination of both - something like "Budapest Garrison March" or something like that - but with a title in German or something! There are other possibilities too. If you take a look at my video showing Austrian sheet music from c.1890-1910 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUof4N3zY_M you will see a few glimpses of the problem. There is a phenomenal amount of material we are, in the UK and US, entirely unfamiliar with. It might be a nondescript march published in a very short run by a small publisher - something like the Dreyfus March you will see shown there. You'll also see a gigantic march potpourri listed by Komczak - more tunes than our Martial Moments and two decades earlier. Most of it's contents would fit the bill. A final possibility is that it is not a seperate tune at all : perhaps it's part of an old operette - like the Automobil March from Lincke's "Frau Luna" or something like that. Once you comprehend the quantity of now-forgotten and unknown short-run European operettas you will see the length of the task! Maybe it's a march culled from melodies in an operetta - like El Capitan for example. The name mightn't match the source either. Lehar's "Ballensirenen" title having nothing to do with "Lustige Witwe" ....and so on and so on...

If Krasno Selo is a 'formuliac' piece, I wondered why it was marked for fair organ in the first place? Most music would be the 'pops' & evergreens of the time, so that the punters wold be enticed onto your establishement! I have heard several fair organ 'riding tunes' over the years that either have been composed by the marker, or may fall into the formuliac bracket, perhaps because in the latter, markers found pieces 'on spec' & could realise its potential as a good fair organ arrangement, without the paying of little/any rights to a music publisher & squeeze a little more profit out of a music book? As an aside, does 'Krasno Selo' appear as a 46/48 key arrangement? As I havn't heard it on this scale yet! Regards Robert Washington :org:

Hi Adam With reference to your comment re Lehar's Ballsirenen having nothing to do with "Die Lustige Witwe", it is in the line 'Oh kommet doch, oh kommt, Ihr Ballsirenen, fölgt den süssen Walzertönen'. This is sung by Danilo in the finale of Act 1. Regards Norman

This march is one of my all-time favourites. I first heard it on the 87-key Gavioli in the Elztalmuseum in Waldkirch in 1984. I found this item on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krasno_Selo. Could there be clues here? Regards, John

Hi Rob and everyone, Yes, Krasno Selo is on Chiappa's 46/48 list. Next time you come to Amersham, ask for it as it's on the Limonaire. Jeremy.

Hi again, I have just unearthed the CD of the Elztalmuseum 87 key Gavioli (catalogue no CD2088 which I assume is the same as the cassette) and track is 'Grenadier Marsch' a.k.a. 'Krasno Selo'. I have to say, having been brought up on the Louis Blache marking, this version is deathly dull in comparison! I know there is some Alfred Bruder music with the organ, which are also pretty basic arrangements so this could be another marking from his factory. Jeremy.