 Solution

Set $d=k-1$ and let $e_m(t_{i+1},\dots ,t_{i+d})$ be the elementary symmetric polynomial of degree $m$ in the interior knots, with $e_0=1$. Expand the Marsden identity in powers of $x$. The coefficient of $x^{d-m}$ on the left is $(-1{)}^m(\genfrac{}{}{0ex}{}{d}{m})t^m$; that coefficient in ${\omega }_i(x)$ is $(-1{)}^m{e}_m(t_{i+1},\dots ,t_{i+d})$. Comparing and cancelling the sign proves the monomial B-spline coefficients:For $m=0$ this gives partition of unity on the basic interval. For $m=1$ it gives the Greville abscissae, the arithmetic means of the $k-1$ interior knots. For the top degree it gives their product. When $k=1$, only $m=0$ occurs and the empty symmetric polynomial is one.