Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orchestration is the selection of different instruments to play the different parts of a musical work. For example, a work for solo piano could be adapted and orchestrated so that an orchestra could perform the piece, or a concert band piece could be orchestrated for a symphony orchestra.
Sir Granville Ransome Bantock was a British composer of classical music.
The Glagolitic Mass is a composition for soloists, double chorus, organ and orchestra by Leoš Janáček. The work was completed on 15 October 1926 and premiered by the Brno Arts Society, conducted by Jaroslav Kvapil, in Brno on 5 December 1927. Janáček revised the mass the next year.
Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob CBE was an English composer and teacher. He was a professor at the Royal College of Music in London from 1924 until his retirement in 1966, and published four books and many articles about music. As a composer he was prolific: the list of his works totals more than 700, mostly compositions of his own, but a substantial minority of orchestrations and arrangements of other composers' works. Those whose music he orchestrated range from William Byrd to Edward Elgar to Noël Coward.
Belshazzar's Feast is a cantata by the English composer William Walton. It was first performed at the Leeds Festival on 8 October 1931, with the baritone Dennis Noble, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Leeds Festival Chorus, conducted by Malcolm Sargent. The work has remained one of Walton's most celebrated compositions. Osbert Sitwell selected the text from the Bible, primarily the Book of Daniel, and Psalm 137. The work is dedicated to Walton's friend and benefactor Lord Berners.
The Viola Concerto by William Walton was written in 1929 for the violist Lionel Tertis at the suggestion of the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham. The concerto carries the dedication "To Christabel". But Tertis rejected the manuscript, and composer and violist Paul Hindemith gave the first performance. The work was greeted with enthusiasm. It brought Walton to the forefront of British classical music. In The Manchester Guardian, Eric Blom wrote, "This young composer is a born genius" and said that it was tempting to call the concerto the best thing in recent music of any nationality. Tertis soon changed his mind and took the work up.
Edward Gregson, is an English composer of instrumental and choral music, particularly for brass and wind bands and ensembles, as well as music for the theatre, film, and television. He was also principal of the Royal Northern College of Music.
Façade is a series of poems by Edith Sitwell, best known as part of Façade – An Entertainment in which the poems are recited over an instrumental accompaniment by William Walton. The poems and the music exist in several versions.
The Symphony No. 2 by English composer William Walton was commissioned by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society to celebrate the city's 750th anniversary in 1957. The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by John Pritchard gave the first performance on 2 September 1960 at the Edinburgh Festival. George Szell gave the Continental Premiere with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam on 19 November 1960. Szell also conducted the US Premiere of the work on 29 December 1960 with the Cleveland Orchestra in that city and a few months later they made its first recording. Leopold Stokowski gave the work another early Continental performance in Vienna in May 1961 while on tour with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Howard Ferguson was a British composer and musicologist. He composed instrumental, chamber, orchestral and choral works. While his music is not widely known today, his Piano Sonata in F minor, Op. 8 and his Five Bagatelles, Op. 9, for piano are still performed. His works represent some of the most important 20th-century music to emerge from Northern Ireland.
The Symphony No. 1 in B♭ minor is one of two symphonies by the English composer William Walton. The composer had difficulty in completing the work, and its first public performance was given without the finale, in 1934. The complete four-movement work was premiered the following year.
The Bear is the second of the two operas by William Walton, described in publication as an "Extravaganza in One Act". The libretto was written by Paul Dehn and Walton, based on the play of the same title by Anton Chekhov.
Charles William Eric Fogg was an English composer and conductor. His early works were influenced by Igor Stravinsky, though his later pieces owe more to Granville Bantock and Richard Strauss and even William Walton. Much of his music has been lost.
Johannesburg Festival Overture is a composition for orchestra by the English composer William Walton, composed for the 70th anniversary of Johannesburg in 1956.
William Walton's Cello Concerto (1957) is the third and last of the composer's concertos for string instruments, following his Viola Concerto (1929) and Violin Concerto (1939). It was written between February and October 1956, commissioned by and dedicated to the cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, the soloist at the premiere in Boston on 25 January 1957.
Benjamin Britten's Piano Concerto, Op. 13, is the composer's sole piano concerto.
Improvisations on an Impromptu of Benjamin Britten is an orchestral piece by William Walton. It was first performed by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Josef Krips, on 14 January 1970. Its European premiere was at Benjamin Britten's Aldeburgh Festival in June of that year. The work has subsequently been recorded for commercial release.
