For the Royal Wedding...

To mark the special day (and no, not just the fact it's an extra Bank Holiday...), here are some extracts from the RNCM Archives which can be related to the forthcoming Royal Wedding. 



Title page of the second fanfare





First few bars of the second fanfare

Above is an extract from the score of Bax's 'Royal Wedding fanfare no. 2', written to celebrate Princess Elizabeth's marriage to Philip Mountbatten on 20 November 1947.  Note, however, that on the cover of this particular copy, the date 1948 has been written.  This particular copy of the score can be found in the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble collection in the Archives (ref. PJBE/10/Bax). 

The next item is a copy of the title page and extract from Thomas Pitfield's 'Dance of the Wedding Guests', arranged for one piano, four hands (ref. TP/4/1/1).  One hopes there will be rather more smiles on display at William and Catherine's wedding reception on Friday evening than there are on the cover page of this work!



Title page for Pitfield's 'Dance of the Wedding Guests'



First page from Pitfield's 'Dance of the Wedding Guests'



More birthday greetings

Born on 5 April 1903, on the occasion of his 79th birthday Thomas Pitfield wrote the following humorous verse:

"Now an untender age is mine
At three score years & ten, plus nine;
How long before the changed position:
Composing, to de-composition?"

Pitfield was a wonderfully talented individual who spent his life creating a large volume of works in music, art, poetry and crafts.  Much of his collection is now housed at the RNCM Archives and further information about this intriguing individual can be found by visiting the online catalogue (do a RefNo search for 'TP'). 

You may also be interested in the cross-curricular educational resource pack which has been produced and is available to download online: http://www.rncm.ac.uk/component/content/article/151/302.html.  Aimed at Key Stages 3-4 there are lessons designed for Art and Design, Citizenship and History, Drama, English and Music.