This overture is brash and brassy in a mid-twentieth century tonal manner. Although genial and entertaining in a generic way, it strikes this listener as a kind of imitation of Malcolm Arnold without that composer's personality or melodic gift.

The composer was born in 1928 in Swansea, Wales, and studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and at the Paris Conservatoire. He has been on the faculties of the Royal Academy and was a staff member of the BBC Music Department.

The BBC's Cardiff station commissioned this work for a concert on St. David's Day. Falling early in March, this feast day is Wales' equivalent of the Irish St. Patrick's Day. Walters has explained that during his school days the boys always wore fresh daffodils in their blazer buttonholes all day on St. David's Day. The friendly yellow flowers were an obvious sign of imminent spring, so Walters decided to make his overture a salute to the coming of that season.

The work begins with a bright flourish, then immediately settles into a melody that provides the basic material for the whole overture, which runs about seven minutes. There is no particular effort to suggest Welsh folk music in this work, which bustles merrily but soon leaves the memory as readily as it entered the ear.

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