Fireside Fusiliers

Class: Original Piano Solo

Published: 1943.

Comment: The title was inspired by the phrase used in a wartime speech by Winston Churchill. Billy was very excited by this and said 'What a wonderful title he has given me'.

In keeping with this, it has a fanfare like opening leading into a jaunty main theme. The middle section is reached by a reminiscence of 'Come to the Cookhouse Door' with whole-tone harmonies and is in quite a different style. The same military fragment is used to round the piece off.

Click here for an mp3 clip from this piece. played by Eric Parkin.