William Walton, Composer

William Walton, Composer catalogs an exhibition held at the Beinecke Library of Yale University to commemorate the centennial of one of England's foremost modern composers. The work draws on Walton's rich archive, which is present at the Beinecke in near entirety as part of the important recent accession, the Frederick R. Koch collection. Manuscript and printed scores, letters, photographs, books, and memorabilia document Walton's career beginning with his teenage years at Oxford and into his early twenties, when he was "adopted" by Edith Sitwell, who combined his music and her poems in Facade. The result enlivened the London art scene and would eventually find great fame as a ballet. Among his many works in his fifty years as a composer, Walton wrote such works as Portsmouth Point, the Viola Concerto, Belshazzar's Feast, and the coronation march of 1937. These, and his very popular patriotic scores for war-time films, would secure his place in English musical history.Vincent Giroud is the author of 'William Walton, Composer', published 2002 under ISBN 9780845731444 and ISBN 0845731440.