At the age of eleven José Vianna da Motta composed Um Passeio Militar, Great March op. 26 in E flat major which is classed with his childhood works written between 1873 and 1883. This work was orchestrated by Francisco de Freitas Gazul and directed by Vianna da Motta in his first concert at the Salão da Trindade in Lisbon on March 20, 1881.
Among the childhood works we can identify some common pianistic traits that reflect the technical research to which Vianna da Motta was dedicated and the musical trends that were influencing him. Thus, the main thematic material of subsection a (see structural analysis below), corresponding to measures 1 to 2, is reworked in the piece Armas e Letras, Fantasy op. 31. Moreover, the last four bars are almost identical to the last eight bars of the piece Victória!!, March op. 23, especially considering that the differences between the tonalities and the metrics are not, in this case, differentiating factors.
1-16
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16-32
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32-48
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48-64
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65-80
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80-88
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88-104
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104-112
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A
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B
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A'
|
|
a
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b
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a
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c1, c2
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d
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c2
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a
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E♭: I
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V
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I
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IV
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I (V/IV)
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IV
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I
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E♭
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B♭
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E♭
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A♭
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E♭
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A♭
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E♭
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The rhythmic motif presented at the anacrusis of Um Passeio Militar, Great March op. 26 is the founding element of the work’s identity since it is used in harmonic contexts (see b. 1, 5, etc.), melodic contexts (see b. 8, 12, etc.) and in accompaniment patterns (see b. 17+). As for the rest, its harmonic architecture does not present any notable peculiarity: beyond the tone of the tonic, only the tones of the dominant and of the subdominant are used (if the harmonic context is taken into account, the E flat major tone in subsection d can be understood not as the tonic but as the dominant of the subdominant).
João Costa Ferreira