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CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE CLOSURE: UPDATES, RESOURCES, AND CONTEXT

Marches Madness: 'Turkish' Mozart, Jazzed By An Expert

It's Marches Madness! Throughout this month, we're posting some of our favorite marches — from the concert hall, opera stage and parade ground. Got one we should hear? Played any yourself? Let us know in the comments section.

In the late 18th century, composers loved experimenting with new sounds. And some of the most exciting sounds and ideas then new to Western Europe were from the Ottoman Empire — particularly the bright bells, pinging wind instruments and sharp snare drums of the Turkish military bands, and the Orientalist fantasies that went along with them. Mozart was one of the composers who turned again and again to that palette, from the "Turkish" section of his Fifth Violin Concerto to his Turquerieopera Abduction from the Seraglio.

Maybe the most popular example of Mozart's Turkish fantasies is the last movement of his Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major, K. 331, now widely known as the "Turkish March." Here, it's tweaked and refracted by the very smart and musically brilliant pianist and composer Fazil Say — himself a Turk — who takes those jaunty janissary motions and juices them into jazz.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Anastasia Tsioulcas is a reporter on NPR's Arts desk. She is intensely interested in the arts at the intersection of culture, politics, economics and identity, and primarily reports on music. Recently, she has extensively covered gender issues and #MeToo in the music industry, including backstage tumult and alleged secret deals in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against megastar singer Plácido Domingo; gender inequity issues at the Grammy Awards and the myriad accusations of sexual misconduct against singer R. Kelly.