General Balodis Parade March

Recorded in January 2011 by the National Armed Forces Band of the Republic of Latvia.
Conductor – Lieutenant Commander Guntis Kumacevs
Sound Engineer – Vilnis Kundrats.

Publisher: The Marc Lavry Heritage Society

Synopsis:
Marc Lavry composed the march in 1933 in honor of Latvian General Janis Balodis. It was written about 2 years before Lavry immigrated to Israel, and showcases his versatility in composing in different styles. The composition naturally lacks the typical Israeli style Lavry developed a few years later, but displays the characteristics of a well-written European military march.

When the Soviets occupied Riga in 1940, they burnt all the Latvian military band music. A Good Samaritan took the handwritten orchestral parts of Lavry’s “General Balodis Parade March” and hid them inside a wall of a residential building. A developer who purchased the building in 2009 found the sheet music while remodeling and donated it to the Riga Military Band Music Library. To learn more about the rediscovery of the original music and its production by Latvian Lieutenant Colonel Dainis Vuskans 69 years after it disappeared, read Efrat Lavry-Zaklad’s article, The Immortality of a Melody.

Performances:

On February 4, 2011, the march was performed at the “Juras Varti”, the Ventspils City Theater House in Riga. The March was performed by the National Armed Forces Band of the Republic of Latvia in a celebration of it’s 92nd anniversary.
Conductor: Lieutenant Commander Guntis Kumacevs