Fanfare and Wedding March

Edmund Crispin was the pseudonym of Robert Bruce Montgomery (usually credited as Bruce Montgomery) (2 October 1921 – 15 September 1978), an English crime writer and composer.

Montgomery was born in Chesham Bois, Buckinghamshire, and was educated at Merchant Taylors' School. He graduated from St John's College, Oxford, in 1943, with a BA in modern languages, having for two years been its organ scholar and choirmaster. From 1943 to 1945 he taught at Shrewsbury School. He first became established under his own name as a composer of vocal and choral music, including An Oxford Requiem (1951), but later turned to film work, writing the scores for many British comedies of the 1950s.

Montgomery wrote nine detective novels and two collections of short stories under the pseudonym Edmund Crispin , but his output of music and fiction all but ceased after the 1950s, but he continued to write reviews of crime novels and science fiction works for The Sunday Times.

I am dedicating this piece to Jim Hollender (BaroqueDMX) who was become such a regular and positive presence on the Concert Hall. Through his own uploads, his faithful listening to ALL uploads, and his kind comments, he has made many friends. When I uploaded "A Pastoral Tune" by Godfrey Sampson, Jim found some info on the composer, and we discovered the connection with Montgomery.

I had never heard this work before, and when I first played it through, I hated it! After playing it through 10-15 times to learn it and record, I found that I had grown to like it quite a bit! It is NOT the typical "British sound" that we think of.

The only other work of Montgomery's that I know is his fine anthem "Jesus, my life, my joy my crown."

This work was published by World Library of Sacred Music in 1971.

The SCORE IS ATTACHED below!