A Lyric Fanfare

Typically, fanfares call to mind trumpets, horns, trombones and percussion, although wind instruments are far from excluded from the conventional scenario. Less typical is the use of full-bodied and lush sonorities of a large symphonic string section, which to my mind is less customarily included in the genre. To combine thus the typical with the atypical intrigued me. From the outset, as I set about to compose my Lyric Fanfare, I wanted as much as possible to preserve the lyric, expressive charater of strings withouty neglecting the traditional ruffles and flourishes of brass instruments, winds, and percusson that give to the fanfare its special floavor. Lyric Fanfare was commissioned in 2003 by the Lima (Ohio) Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the orchestra?s fiftieth anniversary season. The conductor was music director, Crafton Beck.