Malcolm Arnold: Whistle Down The Wind (Full Score): Orchestra: Score

Whistle Down The Wind Small Suite For Small Orchestra is three-movement suite Prelude The Three Kings Finale played as one continuous piece. Its melodic charm and instrumentation including vibraphone glockenspiel and chimes effectively evokes the innocence of the main characters of the film. Malcolm Arnold was a British composer who earned an international reputation both as a composer of serious works including nine symphonies and as a composer of light music. He composed more than one hundred film scores among them the Oscar-winning music for The Bridge on the River Kwai the award-winning music for The Inn of the Sixth Happiness and Hobson’s Choice. Malcolm said that his favourite film composition however was the one for Whistle Down the Wind.

Malcolm Arnold's one act ballet score Homage To The Queen was commissioned in 1953 by the Royal Opera House Covent Garden to celebrate the coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The ballet was conceived and choreographed by Frederick Ashton with designs by Oliver Messel and was danced by the full company of the Sadler's Wells Ballet with an illustrious cast that comprised Nadia Nerina as Queen of the Earth Violetta Elvin as Queen of the Waters Beryl Grey as Queen of Fire and Margot Fonteyn as Queen of the Air. The conductor of the ROH orchestra was Robert Irving. Homage to the Queen was first performed on the night of the coronation 2June1953.One of the towering musical figures of the 20th century Sir Malcolm Arnold has a remarkable catalogue of major concert works to his credit including nine symphonies seven ballets two operas one musical over twenty concertos two string quartets and music for brass band and wind band. He has also written over 132 film scores and among these are some of the finest works ever composed for the medium: Bridge On The River Kwai Inn Of The Sixth Happiness Hobson's Choice Whistle Down The Wind and David Copperfield.

Malcolm Arnold wrote this little fantasy in the early 1960s as a present for his children Katherine and Robert to play together. Even as a miniature it has many of the hallmarks of the Arnold style such as the evocative melodic writing together with the occasional dark dissonance. It was written at a time when Arnold was deeply into film music. Perhaps this is why in the famous film Whistle Down the Wind the main theme is for flute/piccolo and turns out to be not entirely dissimilar to the theme found in this fantasy.

One of the towering musical figures of the 20th century Sir Malcolm Arnold has a remarkable catalogue of major concert works to his credit including nine symphonies seven ballets two operas one musical over twenty concertos two string quartets and music for brass-band and wind-band He has also written 132 film scores and among these are some of the finest works ever composed for the medium: Bridge on the River Kwai Inn of the Sixth Happiness Hobson's Choice; Whistle down the Wind and David Copperfield.