Some Fanfare Facts...

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.

• What is a Fanfare?

• What's the difference between a Fanfare and a Bugle Call?

• Ancient Fanfares

• Modern Fanfares

• Fanfares around the World

• Fanfare recordings

• Learn how to write a Fanfare

What is Fanfare?

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'.

Ancient Fanfares

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...

Modern Fanfares

"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?

• The famous tune from "Star Trek"

• "Last Star Fighter"

Fanfares Around the World

• Fanfare means something different in Dutch!
• Here's a Louisiana Fanfare
• Gipsy Fanfare from Romania looks and sounds like mad party fun! PLAY THE SOUND CLIP!
• Here's a fanfare from Jaipur in Rajistan, India. Wonderful sound clips!

Bugle Calls and Fanfares

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.