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To support the Surrey Brass fanfare contest, we thought it would be
interesting to provide some information and links to this ancient and important
musical genre.
 fanfare /"fnfe/
noun short showy sounding of
trumpets etc.
(from Cambridge
International Dictionary of English)
fanfare
noun [C]
a loud short piece of music played, usually on a
trumpet, to introduce the arrival of someone important or a special event
Fanfare is "a flourish of trumpets,
a showy outward display." (Webster's Dictionary)
Fanfar’on: A swaggering bully; a cowardly boaster who blows his own
trumpet. Sir Walter Scott uses the word for finery, especially for the gold
chains worn by military men, common in Spain amongst the conquerors of the New
World. (Spanish, fanfarr’on, a bully; French, fanfare, a flourish of trumpets,
or short piece of military music performed by brass instruments and
kettledrums.) 1 “Marry, hang thee, with thy fanfarona about thy neck! said the
falconer.”—Scott: The Abbot. cxvii.
(E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.)
Fanfares are often referred to as Fanfare and Flourish. Here is an
old discussion about fanfares (found by Michael Chapple) - the insult at the end
is quite endearing!
Fanfare: A flourish of trumpets or other brass instruments, often with
percussion, for ceremonial purposes. Fanfares are distinct from military
signals in usage and character. In addition to its musical meaning,
'fanfare' has always had a figurative meaning. The root, fanfa ('vaunting'),
goes back to late 15th-century Spanish. Although etymologists believe the word
to be onomatopoeic, it may in fact be derived from the Arabic anfar
('trumpets'). The word 'fanfare' occurs for the first time in French in 1546 and
in English in 1605, in both instances figuratively; it was first used to signify
a trumpet flourish by Walther, although it may have been used earlier to mean a
hunting signal.
Walther, Altenburg and an anonymous 18th-century author belonging to the
Prufende Gesellschaft in Halle all agreed that a fanfare was 'usable on all days
of celebration and state occasions' and consisted of 'a mixture of arpeggios and
runs' improvised by trumpeters and kettledrummers (J.E. Altenburg, 1791); a
'flourish' in the British Army during the same period was 'without any set
rule'. Heyde has shown that this type of unreflective improvisation, the purpose
of which was to glorify a sovereign, goes back to trumpeters' classicum-playing
during the Middle Ages.
The effect of a medieval classicum (a field or battle signal) or an
18th-century fanfare was due to sheer noise rather than musical merit. About 100
trumpeters and fifers produced 'such a din' at the wedding of George the Rich in
1475 'that one could hardly hear one's own words'. Walther said that a fanfare
'indeed makes enough noise and strutting, but otherwise hardly smacks of art'.
Here is an old-ish one - The legend of the TRUMPETER
OF KRAKOW from 1241.
If you are in Krakow, Poland, please go to the Church of St. Mary (Mariacki)
on the corner of the main Market Square - you really can't miss it. Listen to
the bugle that announces the hour: its call, known for centuries as the Hejnal
Mariacki, is curiously truncated. Many people in Kracow today will explain
this as a tradition which dates back to 1241, when a bugler was allegedly killed
by an arrow from Tatar invaders as he sounded his alarm. This bugle call was
adopted in 1927 by national radio, and a live rendition is transmitted every day
at midday. It's a good steady job for a trumpet player, if a little boring...
and before that...... The Romans
were pretty keen on Fanfares! They used a range of instrument at civic occasions
for example you could imagine a few fanfares working rather well at the
Coliseum.
and before that...... Fanfares were written for the
Shofar. A
'shofar' is a ram's horn trumpet, one of the earliest wind
instruments known to man. This powerful instrument was responsible for a bit of
destruction a while ago...
| Joshua 6:4:
| And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of
rams' horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven
times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.
5: And it
shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram's
horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the
people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall
fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before
him...
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"Fanfare for the Common
Man" by Aaron Copland is extremely
well known. Perhaps it's rather too well known, so here are some
others....
Arthur Bliss (1891-1975)
wrote a whole series of Royal Fanfares for the marriage of HRH Princess Margaret
in Westminster Abbey on 6th May 1960. He also wrote others for example
"Greetings to a City" for three brass choirs. This is meant to be
played with the three groups of musicians a distance apart. Bliss acknowledes a
tradition of antiphonal music pioneered centuries before, by Andrea and Giovanni
Gabrieli who wrote music for St. Marks Cathedral in Venice. It's the first
music in stereo!
Paul Dukas wrote a fantastic fanfare in
1912 for the ballet "La Peri", which turned out to be the high point
of the work - the ballet is not often seen, but the fanfare, scored for an
orchestral brass section (like the Surrey Brass line-up) is extremely popular.
Benjamin Britten, one of the greatest British composers of the
twentieth century wrote a fantastically clever Fanfare
for St. Edmundsbury
Andre Jolivet was a composer of numerous
works for trumpet, and he showed he really know what he was doing with the
fanfare "Narcisse", one of a set he wrote for a production of Racine's
Britannicus at the Comedie Francais in Paris.
Richard Strauss wrote a massive fanfare
in 1943 for the city of Vienna Trumpet Choir (Wiener Trompeten Chor) as the
opening part of "Festmusik der Stadt Wien". The rest of the festival
music is pretty good too!
Sir Harrison Birtwhistle has created a special
fanfare to mark the Royal opening of Tate Modern.
An intriguing one from Theldon Myers is Fanfare
for a New Millennium (USA, 1927). He wrote this with plenty of
rehearsal time in mind!!!
Many of these fanfares have been recorded by
The Philip Jones Brass Ensemble.
Film Music is also a great source of fanfares - Do you
think the following music counts as a fanfare?
A Bugle call is not the same as a Fanfare. Bugle calls are
written for one instrument, whilst Fanfares generally (but not always) are
written for many instruments. Bugle calls have been used for centuries as
Military signals, whilst a Fanfare does not fulfil any particular signalling
purpose (other than "look out, Royalty has arrived!")
Listen to some
Bugle Calls.
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