Coronation March - MVSR2420 | Musica

When Nicholas, the older son of Czar Alexander II died in 1865, the heir to the throne now became his brother Alexander. Alexander had to promise his dying brother that he would marry his fiancée after his death. This marriage then took place in October 1866 and the Danish Princess Dagmar now became Marie Fedorovna.
The reign of Alexander III began in tragedy. On March 1, 1881, on the eve of the signing into law Russia’s first constitution, two assassins threw bombs at the carriage of Alexander II in St. Petersburg, and killed the Czar. As a consequence, the new Czar revoked a number of ordinances and laws, which his father had decreed in order to further liberate the country. Above all, the constitution was not signed.

The coronation of Alexander III took place two years later in the Moscow Kremlin on May 5, 1883. For this event Tchaikovsky composed his magnificent "Coronation March in D" which is far more than easily crafted occasional music, despite that fact that Tchaikovsky himself alluded to that. It goes without saying that the careful instrumentation and the richness of its melodic structure make the “Coronation March” one of the finest dedicatory works ever written.