Dedicated to my best friend, Johnny Marshall, 1st chair clarinet in this band, TMEA All State Concert Band. Johnny and I were both All State, although we attended different schools. He was killed 4 months after this concert, 2 weeks after graduation.
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Story behind the song
This is dedicated to my best friend, Johnny Marshall, who was the 1st chair clarinet player in this band, TMEA All State Concert Band. Johnny from Beaumont High School and myself from Kingwood French High School were both All State Musicians. 4 months after this concert and 2 weeks after graduating, he was killed in an auto accident leaving behind his new wife and daughter.
Crown Imperial is an orchestral march by the English composer William Walton. It was first performed at the coronation of King George VI in 1937, and substantially revised in 1963. Walton composed the march originally for performance at the coronation of King Edward VIII, which was scheduled for 12 May 1937. However, Edward abdicated in 1936. The coronation was held on the scheduled day, with Edward's brother George VI being crowned instead.
Crown Imperial was also performed at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, along with another Coronation March written by Walton, Orb and Sceptre. Although there was contemporary criticism of the march as "unrepresentative of the composer" and "frankly a pastiche" of the "pomp and circumstance" style, Crown Imperial is now one of the most popular of Walton's orchestral compositions.
Walton derived the march's title from modernisation of a phrase from William Dunbar's poem "In Honour of the City of London":
"In beawtie berying the crone imperiall"
The march falls into an ABABC form: an exciting march in C major over Waltonesque long pedal points is followed by an Elgarian trio section in A flat major. Then both march and trio reappear in C again and come to a conclusion in a small heroic coda. It has been arranged for organ by Herbert Murrill. It can be found as such in A Walton Organ Album, compiled by Robert Gower, published by Oxford University Press. In keeping with the description of this work as "Elgarian", one past nickname for the march was "Pomp and Circumstance March No. 6".
Herbert Murrill arranged Crown Imperial for organ in 1937. Christopher Palmer prepared a version of Crown Imperial for solo organ, brass, timpani and percussion (with harp ad lib), specifically for the Laurence Olivier Memorial Service in October 1989.