Pridham, John

Wiki entry: None, as of 2020.

International Music Score Library Project [IMSLP] entry: John Pridham

John Pridham (1818-1896) was a British composer, mostly of easy piano pieces, several of which are in my collection.

Piece	MP3	Midi	Genre
The Battle March of Delhi		MIDI	CD1 salon
	The Battle March of Delhi, subtitled Descriptive Fantasia for the Pianoforte, is perhaps Pridham's best-known work, and presumably dates from 1857 or 1858, the time of the Indian [`sepoy'] mutiny. There are a fair number of discrepancies between Pridham's `account', and the actual history of the siege of Delhi. Apart from the actual history, I doubt whether dawn cames at 4am in India near the equinox, and the "Indian Air" doesn't sound very Indian to me, but what do I know? The original is for piano; my version is scored for suitable instruments plus sound effects. If you edit the Midi version by zapping the percussion tracks and mapping the others onto the piano, you should get pretty much back to the original. To aid in identification, the mutineers are to the right, and the British and loyalists to the left. Story: 4am, dawn. Usual camp noises. The Indians go about their business [1m25s], But are rudely interrupted by the arrival of the British [2m1s]. The mutineers are apprehensive. Cavalry arrives, and halts [3m1s] at the Kashmir gate. Mutineers fire their guns. British attack. Mutineers flee [3m49s], "hurrah!" [3m55s]. Band plays, tea and crumpets on the lawn [4m1s, Smile on in Hope, Old England]. Heroic reception [5m9s, See the Conqu'ring Hero Comes]. Sir Colin Campbell, he of the `thin red line' in the Crimean war some years earlier, arrives (late) [6m22s, The Campbells are Coming], and rushes into the rousing finale [7m1s], by Jingo! All very un-PC. Enjoy.

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Andy Walker, anw [at] cuboid4.me.uk [remove digit to construct address]