Welcome to the Ether Game Weekly Podcast! We're two-stepping our way into the month of March, looking at some martial tunes in a show we're calling "March For March"! To get you started (or for those of you who just cannot wait for Tuesday nights), you can sharpen your skills with our podcast selection. Remember to keep your ears out for a portion of Tuesday night's Teaser selection. And don't forget to tune into the full show on Tuesday, March 7th at 8:00pm for a chance to win a prize!

Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849): PIANO SONATA NO. 2 IN B-FLAT MINOR: III. Marche funèbre (Lento)

Mitsuko Uchida, piano. Chopin: Piano Sonatas No. 2 & 3 (Philips)

Most marches are written in duple meter, at around 120 beats per minute, but funeral marches are about twice as slow, appropriate for the sorrowful pace of a funeral procession. This famous funeral march was originally composed as a separate movement in 1837, but was later added to Chopin's second piano sonata, creating what Robert Schumann dubbed "four of Chopin's most unruly children under the same roof." Ironically, this funeral march soon became an elegy for Chopin himself. Shortly after completing the work, Chopin's health began to deteriorate, and he died in October 1849. He was laid to rest in the famed Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris (where Bizet, Rossini, Oscar Wilde, and Jim Morrison are also buried), and an arrangement of his own funeral march was played graveside on the day of his funeral.

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