The Colonel’s Bogey (Piano Duet)

By: KENNETH J ALFORD arr. Philip R Buttall
For: Piano four hands
page one of The Colonel’s Bogey (Piano Duet)

Buy this score now

The Colonel’s Bogey (Piano Duet)

$7.95

(+ VAT when applicable)
PDF icon

Instant download

You are purchasing high quality sheet music PDF files suitable for printing or viewing on digital devices.
Composer
KENNETH J ALFORD arr. Philip R Buttall
Year of composition
1914
Year of arrangement
2015
Publisher
Difficulty
Difficult (Grades 7+)
Duration
3 minutes
Genre
Classical music
License details
For anything not permitted by the above licence then you should contact the publisher first to obtain permission.

The Colonel Bogey March is a popular march that was written in 1914 by Lieutenant F. J. Ricketts, a British Army bandmaster who later became the Director of Music for the Royal Marines at Plymouth, my home town.

At that time service personnel were not encouraged to have professional lives outside the armed forces, so Ricketts published Colonel Bogey and his other compositions under the pseudonym Kenneth J Alford.

Supposedly, the tune was inspired by a military man and golfer who whistled a characteristic two-note phrase (a descending minor third interval, instead of shouting ’Fore!’. It is this descending interval that begins each line of the melody. The nameColonel Bogey began in the later 19th century as the imaginary "standard opponent" of the Colonel Bogey scoring system in golf, and by Edwardian times the Colonel had been adopted by the golfing world as the presiding spirit of the course. Edwardian golfers on both sides of the Atlantic often played matches against ’Colonel Bogey’. ’Bogey’ is now a golfing term meaning ’one over par’.

I have kept essentially to Alford’s original, but, just to spice things up a little (hopefully!), I have not only found that the main theme can fit at other places in the piece, but I also couldn’t resist the urge just to give the horn, and trombone something different to play at times - especially the former, which kind of links Alford with his American counterpart, Sousa, just near the end.

Usually, when making multi-arrangements, I have tended to start from a ’Piano Duet’ version. On this occasion, it’s been the other way around!

If you’re a solo pianist, and would just like to play Alford’s original march, then I have included a piano transcription in my PRB Piano Music Series.

To purchase this score, please add it to your cart above. To purchase music not currently available on Score Exchange or for extended license requests, please contact the publisher directly.

Reviews of The Colonel’s Bogey (Piano Duet)

Sorry, there's no reviews of this score yet. Please .