WALTON, Sir William

Spitfire Prelude & Fugue

'The First of the Few', was the film story of the designer of the 'Spitfire' fighter aircraft, R.J.Mitchell. The music for that film was written by William Walton, one of Britain's most successfull composers, especially in the genré of film music. This work was lifted, almost bodily out of the film score: exceptionally (for film music) it needed hardly any modification to turn it into a first-rate concert piece. The Prelude was used in the opening sequence which showed the construction of the Spitfire and leads directly into the Fugue. A reflective central episode (solo violin) depicts an exhausted Mitchell returning home in the small hours after spending the night at work. The climax, when the Prelude & Fugue join together, depicts the completed aircraft being wheeled out of the hangar.

There is a tragic (non-musical) postcript to the 'First of the Few'. The hero, who literally worked himself to death so that the aeroplane could be ready when needed was played by Leslie Howard. Howard had come back to England from Hollywood the moment war was declared, to act in and produce, British propaganda films, and delayed his return from Lisbon to make a personal appearance at the Lisbon premiere of the First of the Few. At the end of the film Mitchell dies, his life's work accomplished. The following day, June 1st 1943, the civil airliner on which Howard was travelling back to England was shot down by German fighters over the Bay of Biscay.