Title, Duration, Place, Year, Publisher, Dedicated to, Premiere (performer(s), place, date)

FANFARE FOR NOTTINGHAM, 4', Chatou, 2010, Schott, to David S. Butterworth, David S. Butterworth, Albert Hall, Nottingham, 06.06.10

The Fanfare for Nottingham  was commissioned by the Binns Organ Trust to celebrate the centenary of the Binns Organ in the Albert Hall, Nottingham. The composer describes it as « a set of free and energetic variations on the hymn tune Nottingham  to accompany a joyous procession. »  The hymn tune is taken from what used to be known as  Mozart’s Twelfth Mass .    Vincent Novello (a friend of Mozart’s widow Constanze) attributed it to Mozart when he published it in 1819/20, but doubts about its attribution soon arose :  Ludwig Köchel regarded it with suspicion and consigned it to the appendix of  misattributed works as K. Anh. 232.   According to the scholar H.C. Robbins Landon it was probably written by the Viennese composer Wenzel Müller (1759/67 - 1837), whose work Mozart knew. An interesting early Nottingham connection is that this mass was sung at the dedication service of St Augustine's Church, Woodborough Road, Nottingham, in October 1879.

© Ian Wells