Sir William Turner Walton

Sir William Turner Walton 1902-83, English composer, b. Oldham. Walton studied at Oxford. One of his earliest works was a piano quartet (1918-19). In 1923, Façade, satirical poems by Edith Sitwell read to Walton's jazz-inflected music, had enormous success in London. His orchestral works, noted for eloquent melodic structure, include the overtures Portsmouth Point (1925) and Scapino (1940) and two symphonies (1935, 1961). He wrote an oratorio, Belshazzar's Feast (1931), and coronation marches for George VI (1937) and Elizabeth II (1953). Walton's concerto for viola and orchestra (1929), a violin concerto (1939), a sonata for violin and piano (1950), and a cello concerto (1956) are also well known. Among the films for which he composed musical scores are Henry V (1944), Hamlet (1947), and Richard III (1954). Walton wrote the opera Troilus and Cressida in 1954 and the one-act extravaganza The Bear in 1967. He was knighted in 1951.

Bibliography: See The Selected Letters of William Walton (2002) ed. by M. Hayes; biographies by N. Tierny (1984), S. Walton (1988), M. Kennedy (1989, repr. 1998), and S. Lloyd (2002); H. Burton and M. Murray, William Walton: The Romantic Loner: A Centenary Portrait Album (2002); studies by F. S. Howes (rev. ed. 1974) and S. R. Craggs (1999); At the Haunted End of the Day … A Profile of Sir William Walton (video documentary, 1987).

Walton, Sir William Turner (1902–83) English composer. His best-known works, all of which are characterized by colourful harmony and orchestration, include the jazz-oriented Façade (1923), the oratorio Belshazzar's Feast (1931), and the viola concerto (1929). He composed the opera Troilus and Cressida (1954), and the coronation marches for George VI and Elizabeth II – Crown Imperial (1937) and Orb and Sceptre (1953).

http://www.williamwalton.net

Walton, Sir William Turner (1902–83), English composer, whose early association with the Sitwell family was the background to his ‘entertainment’ Façade (1922), for reciter with six instrumental soloists; twenty-one of Edith Sitwell's poems were accompanied by a score skilfully adapted to the rhythms, sounds, and allusions of the words. Osbert Sitwell contributed, from biblical sources, the score of Walton's dramatic cantata, Belshazzar's Feast (1931). The choral work In Honour of the City of London (1937) is a setting of Dunbar, and Walton's opera Troilus and Cressida (1954) is adapted from Chaucer. Walton also wrote the incidental music for Laurence Olivier's three Shakespeare films (Henry V, 1944; Hamlet, 1947; and Richard III, 1955), and the score for a stage production of Macbeth (1941).