Chopin's Funeral March: the theme in Tonic Solfa
Chopin's Funeral March, the theme by Frédéric Chopin, in Tonic Solfa (doh is Db): the solfa line by line, staff notation and a piano to sing along with.
Download the solfa (PDF)A4, free to print and share with your choir
- Key
- Bb minor
- Doh
- Db
- Time
- 4/4
- Starts on
- l, (B♭)
- Range
- l, to l (B♭ to B♭, an octave)
- Music
- Frédéric Chopin
- Also called
- Marche funèbre, Funeral March from Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 35
Tune Funeral March by Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849). Sources and licences.
The solfa
| l,-l,-,l,l,--- | l,-l,-,l,l,--- |
| l,-l,-,l,l,-d-,t, | t,-,l,l,-,l,l,--- |
| d-d-,dd-m-,r | r-,dd-,dd--- |
| l-,sf-,mm-d- | l-,sf-,mm-d- |
| l,-l,-,l,l,-d-,t, | t,-,l,l,-,l,l,--- |
The solfa line by line
The same solfa as plain text, easy to copy into your own notes or a message to the choir. To print it, download the solfa as a PDF.
Doh is Db · 4/4
Staff notation
The melody on the treble staff in Bb minor.
The staff is drawn here when you scroll to it.
About the tune
Frédéric Chopin wrote his Funeral March in 1837 and made it the slow third movement of his Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 35, published in 1840. It was played at Chopin's own funeral in Paris in 1849, and its opening, one low note tolling in a slow dotted rhythm like a bell, has been the sound of a funeral procession ever since, in concert halls, cartoons and haunted houses alike.
This is the march's opening theme, its first ten bars, read from Jan Kleczyński's Warsaw edition of the march and checked against a St. Louis printing of 1897: the tolling B flats, the turn down from D flat, the same again a third higher, and the answer that falls from the B flat above before the bell comes back. The piano plays it in chords over a rocking bass; this page has the tune alone, and the grace notes are left out.
- Music (1837), Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 35: Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849)
New to solfa? Read how to read Tonic Solfa and how to find the doh of a song.
Questions about Chopin's Funeral March
What is the doh of Chopin's Funeral March?
In this version, in Bb minor, doh is Db. If your choir sings it in another key, doh moves to the new key note and every solfa syllable stays the same — that is what movable doh means.
What note does Chopin's Funeral March start on?
It starts on l, (B♭ in Bb minor). Find doh first, then sing up or down to l,.
Is Chopin's Funeral March in the public domain?
Yes. Frédéric Chopin died in 1849; the tune was first published in 1840. Everyone named died before 1955 and it was published before 1929, so the tune is out of copyright in the UK, the EU, the United States and Nigeria. Modern arrangements of it can still be under copyright.