Cat No. JM51868
Price £11.95
Composer: William Walton
Category: LIGHT CONCERT MUSIC

Duration: 0:50

This short fanfare was commissioned by EMI for a concert celebrating the company’s 75th anniversary in 1973. Walton seems to have been informed that the concert was to open with his 1953 coronation march, Orb and Sceptre; In his autograph, Walton instructs that the fanfare is to be ‘immediately followed’ by Orb and Sceptre.
Already on the first main beat of the 20-bar fanfare Walton’s characteristic crushed seventh features in the bass. Midway, at bar 12, the style modifies from crisp semiquaver movement to a slightly broader marziale incorporating a well-disguised ‘Happy birthday’ quotation.

9 B-flat Tpt. (5, 7, & 9 opt.), 4 Ten. Tbn. (2 & 4 opt.), 3 B. Tbn. (3 opt.), Timp., Perc.