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This iconic march originated from film music composed by Jerry Goldsmith (1929 – 2004) for the 1970 release of the film “Patton.” He was a pianist and studied music as a young man. One of his early jobs was serving as a clerk typist at CBS. While working for the network, he was offered the opportunity of composing music for radio shows. He remained close to film music in later jobs and became acquainted with composer Alfred Newman. At one point, he was engaged by Newman to score the music for one of Newman’s projects. This led to a long and varied career. Goldsmith is the composer of many pieces that originated from his film and television work, including Chinatown, Star Trek – The Motion Picture, A Patch of Blue, Poltiergeist, Papillon, MacArthur, Aliens, The Omen, Planet of the Apes, The Russia House, Dr. Kildare, Room 222 and Barnaby Jones. Soon after the film came out, a soundtrack LP was released. Goldsmith was called “the finest young film composer writing today.” It described the march as “invigorating.”

Typically arrangements begin with an introduction of triplets on trumpet. In the film, they were played muted and slightly out of phase to give a ghostly echo effect. Most of the piece uses a 6/8 time signature. There is an intermediate strain in 2/4 time before the piece returns to the main theme in 6/8 to its conclusion. There is no “trio.” The work uses the same driving martial tempo throughout and has become a standard march performance piece.

Goldsmith was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Original Score for Patton, though the winner that year was Francis Lai for Love Story.

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Youtube link to “Patton March” – (3:24)

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