Entry of the Gladiators is probably the best known work by Czech composer Julius Fucik (1872-1916) – primarily because of its adoption as an upbeat ‘screamer’ march, heralding the arrival of circus clowns. In fact, Fucik’s original title for the work was Grande Marche Chromatique, because the piece makes frequent use of chromatic passages. He later substituted Entry of the Gladiators because of a personal interest in Roman history. Fucik intended the work to be played at a standard march tempo, though it is generally performed significantly faster in the ‘clowns’ context!