Funeral march

A funeral march, as the name would indicate, is a slow march often played during funerals and other sombre moments. Funeral marches are usually in minor keys; the most famous funeral march was probably the one written by Frederic Chopin, originally the 3rd movement of his Piano Sonata No. 2, in b-minor, op. 35 .

Other examples in classical music include:

• Hector Berlioz included a somewhat recognisable funeral march in his work Hamlet;
• The second movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's 3rd symphony;
• "Trauermarsch" opening Mahler's 5th Symphony.

Usually funeral marches are in a slow "simple duple" metre, imitating the pace when walking behind a coffin to a graveyard. Nonetheless, the 2nd movement of Brahms' Deutsches Requiem has been called a "Funeral March in triple metre".