Fanfare for a Great Occasion (343.01.Pk.Perc.)

Fanfare for a Great Occasion (343.01.Pk.Perc.) This, the first of Walton’s published fanfares, was derived from his 1947 Hamlet film music. In 1962 Sir Malcolm Sargent and John Pritchard took the London Philharmonic Orchestra on a tour of Australia, and for a concert inaugurating a new concert hall in Hong Kong, Sargent prepared, ‘with Walton’s rather grudging permission’, this short, suitably effective fanfare, for trumpets, trombones, and timpani only. In 1964 OUP decided to publish the work, and Sargent informed them, ‘I am thinking of adding horn parts to it and, possibly, side drum’. The resulting edition of what was still titled merely Fanfare was published on 6 May 1965 in score and parts. The initial roll of timpani and snare drum is by Sargent, as are the slower repeated bars 31–8. Otherwise the main 30-bar fanfare is played in its entirety in the Hamlet film. Sargent continued to play the fanfare occasionally at his concerts, and it was probably he who eventually gave it its designation Fanfare for a Great Occasion. This title was certainly appropriate when it was played at the official opening of the Channel Tunnel on 6 May 1994. Instrumentation: 3 B-flat Tpt., 4 F Hn., 3 Tbn., Tuba, Timp., Perc.