King William's March: A Song History

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Jeremiah Clarke was a Londoner, born about 1674, who died there on 1 December 1707; he was in charge of the choristers at St. Paul's Cathedral in 1704, and that year he also began sharing the post of Chapel Royal organist with William Croft.[1] "King William's March" is a march in D major written in honor of William of Orange, who took the English throne as William III after the Glorious Revolution of 1688.[2] IMSLP catalogues this keyboard piece under the plainer name "King's March," and it and the Traditional Tune Archive both date its first printing to 1702, in the third book of The Harpsichord Master.[3][2] The London publisher John Walsh issued that series of instruction books for learners on the harpsichord or spinet in numbered volumes between 1697 and 1734.[4]

A wooden wing-shaped spinet keyboard instrument on a turned-leg stand, lid open

Bentside Spinet, French, wood and various materials, about 1700. A spinet of Clarke's time, the kind of keyboard the march was first printed for.

It is a different piece from Clarke's "Prince of Denmark's March," which IMSLP also lists under the title "Trumpet Voluntary."[5] That march reached print two years earlier, in 1700, in A Choice Collection of Ayres For the Harpsichord or Spinett, published in London by John Young.[5][6] The Trumpet Voluntary was at one time credited to Henry Purcell rather than to Clarke.[1] Modern editions of "King William's March" posted on IMSLP include a piano score and a string-orchestra arrangement, both marked Grade 1 for beginning string players, along with settings for trumpet and organ and for horn, trumpet and euphonium.[3]

Larry Conger arranges it in DAD tuning in The Classical Dulcimer, a downloadable book of 29 arrangements, mostly of music older than the dulcimer, with a 46-page PDF and an MP3 recording of each tune, published by Fingers Of Steel.[7]

Our book that contains the song "King William's March"

Sources

  1. Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Jeremiah Clarke".
  2. The Traditional Tune Archive: "King William's March (2)" (annotation).
  3. IMSLP: "King's March (Clarke, Jeremiah)".
  4. IMSLP: "The Harpsichord Master (Walsh, John)".
  5. IMSLP: "Prince of Denmark's March (Clarke, Jeremiah)".
  6. IMSLP: "A Choice Collection of Ayres (Various)".
  7. Fingers Of Steel: "Larry Conger, The Classical Dulcimer".
  8. Image: Bentside Spinet, French, wood and various materials, about 1700. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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