William Walton's music for the 1944 filmHenry V has been arranged by several musicians for non-cinematic performances. The first suite was arranged in 1945 by the conductorMalcolm Sargent. In 1963Muir Mathieson, who had conducted the music for the original film soundtrack, arranged a longer suite, and in 1988 themusicologistChristopher Palmer constructed an hour-long "Shakespeare Scenario" using most of the music Walton composed for the film.
Henry V was the tenth film for which Walton composed incidental music. He had begun in 1935 with a score forPaul Czinner'sEscape Me Never, andhis later cinema scores included his first Shakespeare film,As You Like It (1936), which starredLaurence Olivier.[1] When Olivier was planning his film ofHenry V his co-producer,Dallas Bower, suggested that Walton should write the music, and Olivier agreed.[2] The importance of Walton's score to the success of the film was widely recognised,[2] and Olivier later called it "the most wonderful score I've ever heard on a film".[3]
Walton was doubtful of the value of film music when heard without the screen images it was written to accompany. He said, "Film music is not good film music if it can be used for any other purpose".[4] But he was prepared to make exceptions. In 1942 he had extracted theSpitfire Prelude and Fugue from his score forThe First of the Few,[5] and fromHenry V he allowed two self-contained sections of the score to be played in concert: thepassacaglia "Death of Falstaff" and "Touch Her Soft Lips and Part", both for strings only. Writing of the former,Hubert Clifford wrote inTempo magazine, "This music moves with a simple dignity and a restrained pathos".[6] Walton conducted thePhilharmonia Orchestra in a recording of the two, issued byHMV in 1946.[7]
ForHenry V Walton mostly avoided pastiche of ancient music, but drew on a few old sources to add period atmosphere. The musicologistChristopher Palmer lists the three principal ones:
In 1945, with the composer's approval,Malcolm Sargent incorporated the two string movements into a four-movement suite for orchestra with chorus. It consists of:
The first studio recording of the suite was made in 1986 by theLondon Philharmonic Orchestra andLondon Philharmonic Choir, conducted byCarl Davis. The suite is scored for 3 flutes (two doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 1 cor anglais, 3 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, harpsichord and strings.[8]
In 1946, HMV recorded excerpts from the film script, spoken byLaurence Olivier, who had directed and starred in the film. The composer conducted the Philharmonia in the accompanying music. This recording was reissued oncompact disc byEMI Classics in 2002.[9]
In 1963Muir Mathieson, who had conducted on the original film soundtrack, arranged a longer, purely orchestral suite. His arrangement calls for 2 flutes (both doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (one doubling cor anglais), 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba (optional), timpani, percussion, harp and strings. This suite was published by the OUP in 1969. It consists of:
Comparing the two suites, the composer's biographerMichael Kennedy writes:
In 1988 Christopher Palmer constructed what he called "Henry V: A Shakespeare Scenario" for orchestra and narrator, from Walton's score and Shakespeare's words.[11] It expands considerably on the Sargent and Matheson arrangements, and has a playing time of around an hour. The sections are:
The first performance was given at theRoyal Festival Hall, London in May 1990. The narrator wasChristopher Plummer, and the music was performed by the orchestra and chorus of theAcademy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted bySir Neville Marriner.[12] The same performers recorded the work a few days later forChandos Records.[2]
The 1963 suite arranged by Mathieson has been the most frequently recorded. The first recording, made forColumbia in 1963, was by the Philharmonia conducted by Walton. Subsequent recordings have been conducted bySir Charles Groves,André Previn,Charles Gerhardt,James Judd andAndrew Litton.[13]
After its first recording there have been issues of the 1988 "Scenario" conducted byAndrew Penny andLeonard Slatkin, withAnton Lesser andMichael Sheen sharing the narration in the former version,[n 2] andSamuel West as narrator in the latter.[13]
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