Colonel Bogey March Duet
 

The "Colonel Bogey March" was written in 1914 by Lieutenant F. J. Ricketts, a British Army Bandmaster. It was published under the pen name Kenneth J. Alford, as the military was not allowed to engage in such matters as writing music. It was featured in the 1957 film, "The Bridge on the River Kwai".

Ricketts' original score was written in Db, but I've changed it to D to simplify it. Also, the original Trio was in technically in the key of Gb, but Ricketts didn't change the key signature to Gb -- perhaps because he was worried about outright rebellion from his troops. In this version, I have changed the Trio key signature to G, rather than staying in D (and adding naturals to all of the Cs).

My apologies to any music teachers who may be using these duets for training -- I did not include slurs for phrasing. I work very hard to keep these duets to two pages or less, and slurs in this duet would push it to three pages. I could make the print smaller to accommodate this, but the pages are pretty black already, and I don't want to make it harder to read. At least the staccato notes are marked, so there are lots of places to breathe.

Ralph Rayner