WALTON, WILLIAM  BIOGRAPHY

William Walton represents a period in English music between Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten. After a period as a chorister at Christ Church, Oxford, he later failed to complete his graduate studies and was for a time dependent on the patronage and encouragement of the Sitwell family. He spent his later years on the island of Ischia.

Orchestral Music

Walton composed two symphonies, the first of which was completed in 1935 and has become part of the standard orchestral repertoire. His Violin and Cello Concertos are now frequently performed while his Viola Concerto is the most important 20th century work for that instrument. Among his most popular works are the two orchestral suites from Façade, originally designed to accompany chanted poems by Edith Sitwell, and the Overtures Portsmouth Point and Scapino, together with the coronation marches, Crown Imperial and Orb and Sceptre. Walton wrote music for a number of films, some of which has been adapted for concert performance including music for Henry V.

Choral Works

The oratorio Belshazzar's Feast, its biblical text adapted by Osbert Sitwell, remains an imposing element in English choral repertoire.