Malcolm Arnold

Flourish

Originally written for orchestra, this Flourish was written to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the granting of a charter to the City of Bristol, which shows Malcolm Arnold at his best in producing music for festive occasions.

The work starts with a resounding splash of colour in the percussion over which the woodwind play an upward flourish leading to a resplendent fanfare in the brass. This idea is repeated with slight changes of colour until it lead to one of his typical 'big tunes'. These two ideas are then interchanged and after a long pedal F the full rich statement of the tune reasserts itself. The short coda is led by the percussion where the opening sound of tubular bells and glockenspiel underpin the jubilant B flat ending.