Marche slave
orchestral Tone poem by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
The Marche slave, also Marche slav (French pronunciation: [maʁʃ(ə) slav]) in B♭ minor, Op. 31, is an orchestral tone poem by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky published in 1876. It was written to celebrate Russia's intervention in the Serbo-Ottoman War.
It has been published variously as Slavic March (Serbian: Словенски марш / Slovenski marš; Russian: Славянский марш, romanized: Slavyanskiy marsh), Slavonic March, and Serbo-Russian March (Serbian: Српско-руски марш / Srpsko-ruski marš; Russian: Сербско-русский марш, romanized: Serbsko-russkiy marsh).
Background and composition
In June 1876, Serbia and the Ottoman Empire were engaged in the Serbian-Ottoman War, in which Russia openly supported Serbia.
The Russian Musical Society commissioned an orchestral piece from Tchaikovsky for a concert in aid of the Red Cross Society, and ultimately for the benefit of wounded Serbian veterans. Many Russians sympathized with their fellow Slavs and Orthodox Christians and sent volunteer soldiers and aid to assist Serbia.
Tchaikovsky referred to the piece as his "Serbo-Russian March" while writing it. It was premiered in Moscow on 17 November [O.S. 5 November] 1876, conducted by Nikolai Rubinstein.
The march is highly programmatic in its form and organization.
The public source identifies “Marche slave” as orchestral Tone poem by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Marche, slave and orchestral.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q922953. VIAF identifies the subject as 305991583. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1876.
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This entry incorporates text from “Marche slave” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.