Timbre and Texture

The most obvious and apparent element of this composition is the instrumentation and texture of it. It utilizes a monophonic texture with a single Bb Trumpet independently playing the melodic line. Historically, fanfares were played by a trumpet player, or an ensemble of trumpet players, as the trumpet was typically associated with royalty. Specifically, the Herald Trumpet, which is a trumpet specially made for fanfares. It has a long straight tube that you can hang banners from.

Basic Elements

Remember, this is written for Bb Trumpet, which is a transposing instrument, meaning that it is going to sound different than it is written on the sheet music. In order to get the proper note names and key, we will simply transpose all notes down a Major 2nd from as they are written. So G becomes F, C becomes Bb and so on.

• Tonality: F Mixolydian
  • Degrees: R - 4 - 5 - 6 - b7 - 8
  • Could also be F Major/Ionian, if you consider the b7 note a chromatic passing tone.
• Meter: 4/4
• Tempo: 70 bpm
• Dynamics
  • This is a MIDI soundfont, with no real dynamic range, however, i think the contour of the melody suggests a dynamic range starting in mezzo-forte and ending in fortississimo.
• Texture & Harmony
  • This is a monophonic piece of music and therefore has no implicit harmony, it is just a standalone melody. This melody could have some harmonic implications, however, they are just implications. The only thing we actually hear is the melody, no chords and no counterpoint.
• Rhythm
  • Liberal use of dotted and triplet rhythms in conjunction with each other.
• Melodic Shape
  • The melody ascends with relatively disjunct motion in its first part.
  • In its second part, it maintains a wavelike quality before sharply descending back down to the root at the very end.
  • Sharply rises a full octave higher at the very start of its last part, in which it plays the exact same pitch throughout, giving it no motion or contour.
• Energy
  • Starts with anticipatory energy and releases it with the scale run mixtures.
  • Ends with a culmination of energy appropriate for the entrance of a distinguished leader.

Development & Form

Repitition, Variation and Contrast

This fanfare is really only a single "section", however, we can divide this section up into three distinct parts.

Now, before we get into dissecting its parts, i want to point out a motif that we see recur and develop throughout this fanfare. Its this 'long-short' figure here to the right, which sees a long note answered by a quick succession of triplets. It starts in our first part as a dotted quarter note answered by a group of eighth note triplets, but it is developed as the fanfare progresses. This is the primary element of this composition, with some scale runs thrown in there to fill in the melody.

Phrase One

The first part of the fanfare is where we see our rising action. We begin the section with a rhythmic motif, composed of, as we said before, a dotted quarter note and 3 eighth note triplets. This motif is presented first as all F notes. It is then used in sequence, in which it is transposed up to Bb and then sequenced a third time, this time up to C. The motif has gone from root to perfect forth to perfect fifth. On the third sequence, however, the motif evolves.

Instead of a dotted quarter note with three eighth note triplets, we get an eighth note with 3 sixteenth note triplets. Interestingly, the composer does not half the length of the first note of the motif (which would have been a dotted eighth note), instead opting for a standard eighth note. Here is where the first part ends and the second part begins. Speeding up the motif like this is a great way to transition into the more "energetic" section of music. We also see here that two notes are tailing our motif. I would hesitate to call this apart of the motif, but you could definitely make the argument for it, as some sort of trailing figure like this will appear every time this motif appears, in various forms.

Phrase Two

The second part is the busiest section of this fanfare. After the initial two descending notes, we are introduced to a second motif, one that is exclusive to this middle section. It is a scale run figure. We are then shown our first motif again, almost identical to the last time we saw it, at the end of the first part, however, this time, we have some variation in pitch. Instead of being all on the same note, our first note of the motif starts on C before falling down to our low F that we began on. From there we jump back up to variations on that second motif, just scale runs really. We then see our first motif used again, in almost the exact same way as we saw most recently, however, instead of punctuating it with two eighth notes, as previously, it is trailed by a dotted half note, leaving a lot of breathing room after those fast scale runs. This makes the next section hit even harder than if they just jumped right into it.

This phrase builds itself off of a motific pattern. It goes 'Motif 2 - Motif 1 - Motif 2 - Motif 2 - Motif 1', with each motif of course being varied in some manner.

Phrase Three

The third part consists entirely of F notes, an octave higher than the F we started on and the highest consistent pitch our melody has lingered around during this entire piece. As you can see, the melody starts to slow down towards the end. This is a common technique used at the end of a section to signal, well, the end! It builds anticipation for the next thing to come, as we did at the end of the previous section. In this case, however, the next thing to come is not another section of music, but rather a person or ceremony!

Historical Context

Now, you may have been thinking "medieval" or even of Ancient Rome while reading this analysis. however, despite similar instruments existing in those eras, this style of fanfare (as a flourish to announce someone/something's arrival) really only came about at the tail end of the middle ages (bugle calls, however, seem to date to much earlier). The earliest surviving examples we have are from French hunting treatises from the 14th century, however, trumpets were not used for these. Instead, hunting horns (aka blowing horns) were instead, which were quite limited in range. This kept the form of these fanfares quite limited. This changed with the European Renaissance, where we saw fanfares reminiscent of our modern conception of them emerging.

We will not be doing an analysis on strictly "traditional" fanfares and how to write "traditional" fanfares, instead, we will be analysizing and learning to write the modern day idea of a "medieval royal fanfare".

During the Renaissance, we saw composers start to incorporate elements of fanfare into their compositions, even creating elaborate fanfares to "introduce" their compositions. I won't be analyzing one of these, as they are a bit more "orchestral" than we are looking for in this analysis, but having the historical context is always good! An example of this would be Tielman Susato's Fanfare for Dansereye 1551.

Spongebob Fanfares

During my research, i stumbled upon a few fanfares from Spongebob Squarepants, fanfares which i distinctly remember from my childhood. So, i thought, what the heck, they're pretty short and easy so I'll throw one in!

We will be looking at two fanfares from the show. One of the fanfares is from the 'Dunces and Dragons' episode, which gives us a medieval/fantasy spin on the show's formula. The second is a fanfare used in several episodes, known as the 'I'm Ready Fanfare'.

Listen to the 'Dunces and Dragons Fanfare' here.

Briefly looking over the first one, we can see that, like our first fanfare, is also in 4/4. However, it is using a purely major tonality, in the key of C Major. We hear a C pedal tone on one of the trumpets throughout the entire piece, while the second trumpet provides the sense of melody.

The first bar is simply a repeated long-short motif with triplets, as we saw in our first example. It seems to be popular among fanfares, even in general. In the second bar, we are then greeted by a scale run down and back up the C Major scale using triplets, calling back to our first bar, before getting our cadence at the end, which is similar to our initial 'long-short' motif, however, it is quite modified. It is reversed, so it is now 'short-long' with the triplets coming first, the middle triplet is removed and the last triplet in the series dips down to an F, giving us a perfect fourth, before ending on that perfect fifth.

This gives us a very similar structure to the one we saw in our first example, where the fanfare started off with a 'long-short' figure that kind of "calls out" to the listener, then has a middle section, which is full of energy and scale runs, before finally settling into our cadence at the end, preparing us for the impending entrance.

Listen to the 'I'm Ready Fanfare' here.

Our second fanfare works a little different than the fanfares we have seen before. Instead of building up, then maintaining energy and peaking its energy, we have a continuous buildup of energy. It helps that the piece is so short, so it's easier to get away with, since you can rapidly build up energy.

Fundamentally, all we are doing here, is building up a C Major Triad with 3 different trumpets. In the first half of the first bar, it is just C, the root note. Then in the latter half of that same bar, we add the E, the major third of the chord. Then, at our climax at the end, we introduce our fifth, G, which finishes us out with a C Major Triad in close position. Interestingly enough, we still maintain that same 'long-short' pattern with triplets, as we have seen in the initial fanfare, and the 'Dunces and Dragons' fanfare.

Writing Your Own Royal Fanfare

So, how can you apply this to your own writing? Well, you can simply take the compositional devices i analyzed here and use them as ideas for your own compositions.

For example, take that 'long-short' triplet-following figure we saw so many times and write a whole composition using that! Perhaps at 110BPM in F Major? Use it in your opening phrase, transform it in your middle phrase, which is also filled with scale runs, and then finish it off with an augmentation and transformation of that triplet-following figure. You're more than welcome to use this analysis as a sort of "guide" or "rule set" for writing a fanfare, that's kind of the reason we do analyses.

If you want to write a fanfare, but don't want to be nearly as stringent, here's what i think is a good overview of the mindset you should have when writing a royal fanfare.

A Royal Fanfare should be:

• Simple and Rhythmic, lots of repeated patterns typically utilizing Dotted or Triplet Rhythms
• Show some development of theme (one theme is more than enough)
• Harmonically conservative

They are short, loud, singable, and exciting introductions. It must be a fun and memorable tune. It needs to be confident, rousing and boisterous. When you play this, it should make it nice and clear that "hey everyone, something is about to happen!"

Dynamics are another thing to consider. You will probably want to start in forte, or mezzo-forte at the very least, and end up in fortississimo by the end of it. You want to start loud but end even louder.

The best way to start your composition is to imagine that your mouth is a trumpet and sing something with a simple and aggressive rhythm. Then, develop that idea according to what sounds right to you. Try and stick with 2 or 3 primary notes (1, 3, 5 or 1, 4, 5 both are good starting points) and then worry about adding harmonies and rhythmic interest, such as horns holding low pedals while trumpets 1 and 2 play syncopated rhythms above. Adding percussion also helps contribute energy to the whole thing, especially while building energy up.

Parting Thoughts

For Further Analysis

If this subject has piqued your interest, i would highly recommend going out and doing your own analyses on fanfares that you hold in high regard. If you just google "medieval fanfare", about a hundred choices will come up for you to pick from, and most movies/tv shows set in a vaguely Medieval or Fantasy universe will have one. Even a lot of movies set in Ancient Rome erroneously used fanfare, however, that doesn't mean they aren't worth your study! If you prefer the more orchestra fanfare bent, then by all means, set your heart to it! May i recommend 'Sunrise' from Richard Strauss's 'Also sprach Zarathurstra

My personal recommendation is this one, which as far as i can tell, was composed for a Renaissance Festival in the 1970s. It's especially cool and a good next step, i think, because it brings counterpoint and polyphony into the mix. Every example we looked at thus far was either monophonic or homorhythmic, so analyzing one with polyphony would be a good next step if you still aren't satisfied.

I hope this helps you get the sound you're looking for! Happy writing :)