William Walton composed Orb and Sceptre between 1952-53 in response to a commission by the Arts Council of Great Britain. It received its first performance in Westminster Abbey on 2nd June 1953, at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, to whom it is dedicated. It was an instant success and the availability today of a host of arrangements for small orchestra, brass band, military band, organ solo and piano solo, bears testimony to its continuing popularity. As in the case of the earlier coronation march Crown Imperial (1937), Walton unashamedly adopted the hugely successful structure of Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance Marches, and in so doing assumed the mantle (but never the title) of Master of the Queen's Musick, as to the manner born. Walton even chose to continue to use a Shakepearean quotation as the title of this second Elgarian march, just as he had done in Crown Imperial, acknowledging again his indebtedness to his great predecessor! However, Orb and Sceptre is far too individual a composition to be dismissed as mere pastiche: its jaunty opening encapsulates perfectly the new wave of post-war optimism at the dawn of a new Elizabethan era, and the elegant slow march that follows has a confident dignity that puts it among the finest of English tunes. What could be more apposite, then, than to perform this work as a dual celebration of both Walton's Centenary and the Golden Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen's succession to the throne?

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