Description
This famous march was commissioned for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. The stirring music, skilfully conveyed in this arrangement, offers everything from sweeping melodies to playful syncopations and magnificent fanfares. This piece has often been paired with Walton's Crown Imperial.
About the Author
On retirement from a teaching career spent successively at St Paul's Boys' School, Barnes, Radley College, Oxfordshire, and Glenalmond College, Perthshire, (where he was also a Housemaster and Senior Tutor), Robert Gower worked as Organist at St Barnabas Catholic Cathedral, Nottingham, before moving briefly to the most northerly parish in the Church of England at Berwick-upon-Tweed. Returning to Scotland so as to be nearer to family, he is now Director of Music at Dundee Parish Church. Robert's commitment to English 20th-century repertoire is reflected through his founding and leadership of the Percy Whitlock Trust between 1981 and 2016 and in his longstanding Chairmanship of the Gerald Finzi Charitable Trust, from which he retired in 2022. He enjoys transcribing music for organ (with a wide range recently embracing both Leroy Anderson and Maxwell Davies) and in liturgical composition, completing a three-year cycle of responsorial psalms for the Church Music Society.
Reviews
Robert Gower's arrangement makes this second Coronation March by Walton relatively accessible despite the trickiness of the many repeated notes in the brass fanfares . . . A bit less staid than Crown Imperial, this march still has the requisite gorgeous and grand melody for the B section. A welcome re-issue in single format. * Brian P. Harlow, Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians, December 2019 *
This is an individual re-print of the arrangement that appeared in OUP's A Walton Organ Album (ed. Robert Gower) in 1996 . . . it is worth comparing it with William McKie's transcription, published in the year of the Coronation . . . Inevitably, perhaps, there are passages where McKie's and Gower's solutions are identical; but there are plenty where they are not. In essence, Gower's transcription does not contain as much of the musical detail at McKie's . . . But this is not to suggest that Gower's arrangement is an over-simplification of the music. Indeed, the art of transcribing orchestral pieces for the organ lies in knowing what to omit . . . most organists will find that there is quite enough in the Gower to give a very satisfactory rendering of Walton's intentions, without the virtuoso demands of the McKie . . . In conclusion, this reissue of this very playable arrangement is welcome . . . * Christopher Maxim, Organists' Review, December 2019 *
Book Information
ISBN 9780193532854
Author William Walton
Page Count 12
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 72g
Dimensions(mm) 298mm * 229mm * 1mm
About the Author
On retirement from a teaching career spent successively at St Paul's Boys' School, Barnes, Radley College, Oxfordshire, and Glenalmond College, Perthshire, (where he was also a Housemaster and Senior Tutor), Robert Gower worked as Organist at St Barnabas Catholic Cathedral, Nottingham, before moving briefly to the most northerly parish in the Church of England at Berwick-upon-Tweed. Returning to Scotland so as to be nearer to family, he is now Director of Music at Dundee Parish Church. Robert's commitment to English 20th-century repertoire is reflected through his founding and leadership of the Percy Whitlock Trust between 1981 and 2016 and in his longstanding Chairmanship of the Gerald Finzi Charitable Trust, from which he retired in 2022. He enjoys transcribing music for organ (with a wide range recently embracing both Leroy Anderson and Maxwell Davies) and in liturgical composition, completing a three-year cycle of responsorial psalms for the Church Music Society.
Reviews
Robert Gower's arrangement makes this second Coronation March by Walton relatively accessible despite the trickiness of the many repeated notes in the brass fanfares . . . A bit less staid than Crown Imperial, this march still has the requisite gorgeous and grand melody for the B section. A welcome re-issue in single format. * Brian P. Harlow, Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians, December 2019 *
This is an individual re-print of the arrangement that appeared in OUP's A Walton Organ Album (ed. Robert Gower) in 1996 . . . it is worth comparing it with William McKie's transcription, published in the year of the Coronation . . . Inevitably, perhaps, there are passages where McKie's and Gower's solutions are identical; but there are plenty where they are not. In essence, Gower's transcription does not contain as much of the musical detail at McKie's . . . But this is not to suggest that Gower's arrangement is an over-simplification of the music. Indeed, the art of transcribing orchestral pieces for the organ lies in knowing what to omit . . . most organists will find that there is quite enough in the Gower to give a very satisfactory rendering of Walton's intentions, without the virtuoso demands of the McKie . . . In conclusion, this reissue of this very playable arrangement is welcome . . . * Christopher Maxim, Organists' Review, December 2019 *
Book Information
ISBN 9780193532854
Author William Walton
Page Count 12
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 72g
Dimensions(mm) 298mm * 229mm * 1mm
