W. Walton. Autograph sketch for the film score of "Went the Day Well?", 1942

Walton, William

Autograph sketch for the film score of Went the Day Well?

notated in pencil on four systems of between 3 and 4 staves, with a few small corrections

1 page, folio (36.5 x 27cm), 14-stave paper, horizontal crease, some spotting, light browning along crease

An autograph sketch for one of Walton's classic, stirring themes.

The 1942 film Went the Day Well?, an adaptation of Graham Greene's The Lieutenant Died Last, was a heartwarming wartime drama about a small English village attacked by a band of disguised German paratroopers. The score was written by Walton between September and October 1942, with some sections being orchestrated by Roy Douglas, so that the music might be completed in time for the recording sessions.

The present sketch, for the main titles of the film, in Walton's best patriotic vein, is apparently the only known autograph music for the film; the whereabouts of the finished autograph score are unknown.

LITERATURE

Stewart R. Craggs, William Walton. A Catalogue, third edition (2014), pp.67-68 (C 47)