Fanfare for the Olympians, Op. 1c for Orchestral Brass & Percussion

Most of my works begin with a concept and working title in mind before I even begin composing. But Fanfare for the Olympians, on the other hand, was titled afterward, allowing the music to suggest its own title. The festive, anticipatory nature of the work seems to build excitement and tension for something celebratory and grandiose, like the Olympic Games.

The work actually began as a commercial music project for a web designer client of mine back in the Wild West days of the internet when flash websites were just beginning to become all the rage. This was in the year 2000. My client wanted a literal fanfare for his website, and I wrote this piece, first as a 30-second intro fanfare, then this extended 2-minute version.

Due to my inexperience (I was still a student at the time), I grossly underquoted the cost of producing a professional recording. (Somehow, I imagined $500 was enough to hire a studio and the necessary musicians and engineers to record, mix, and master it!) In the end, since I couldn’t make up the budget shortfall out of pocket, I could not meet the quoted price, and lost a client. Lesson learned.

However, since this is probably the first interesting piece I wrote (with the exception of certain sections of an earlier orchestral work that later became Heroes & Villains), I did gain my Opus No. 1, as I later designated the piece. At the time, I was obsessed with quartal harmonies and asymmetrical meters, as you’ll soon hear. But the driving eighth-note pulse of alternating 2+2+3 / 3+2+2 is what drives the fanfare forward to its epic climax.

J. Aaron Stanley, 2021