Ferenc Deák, “the sage of the country”, one of 19^th-century Hungary’s most important public figures, died on 28 January 1876. In the same year, the young Ödön Mihalovich composed a large-scale, moving funeral march for orchestra, which he dedicated to the memory of Ferenc Deák. A pupil of Mihály Mosonyi, Mihalovich was known in Hungary as a “Wagnerian” in spite of his efforts to meld universal musical achievements with the Hungarian style. Funeral Music is a case in point, with many references to Liszt over a solid German-music background.