Miklos Rózsa

Parade of the Charioteers

One of Miklos Rozsa's most famous pieces from his most successful film score, for William Wyler's Ben Hur (1959), Parade of the Charioteers is a fine example of the composer improvising authentic Roman-era music and also 'stealing' from himself, all in epic style. An opening fanfare by the brass builds in intensity as the players sound ever shortening, quickening notes, accompanying the image of the charioteers assembling. The second half of the piece, done to a march tempo, starts out with an almost direct quote by Rozsa from his own Roman march music from the 1949 movie Quo Vadis (another feature film set in the early Christian era).

His specific inspiration for the Parade of the Charioteers came to him on the Sunday just before Christmas of 1958, standing on the Palantine Hill in Rome, where the Caesars' palaces had been--he stood there trying to imagine the vistas they would have been, humming and whistling ideas, when the main body of the march merged in his thoughts.