Although rebuffed by the British musical establishment early on in his career as a composer of "light music," Malcolm Arnold has enjoyed considerable success with the public and fellow musicians. Born in Northampton, England (the hometown of another well known British composer, William Alwyn) he showed an early interest in music and was inspired to take up the trumpet after hearing the legendary jazz great Louis Armstrong. Arnold entered the Royal College of Music in 1938 to study composition with Gordon Jacob as well as trumpet with Ernest Hall. After only two years he left school for a second trumpet position with the London Philharmonic. It was in the 1940s that he took up composing in earnest. One of his first major orchestral works, Beckus the Dandipratt, was written in 1943 and performed by his orchestra, the London Philharmonic, in 1947.

Arnold could be called a post-romantic: he uses traditional harmonies and structure in a lyrical, melodic context. His fondness for "pop" styles and the vernacular, such as music hall, folk, and jazz, are present, but they are tinted with a dark, acerbic edge and with dissonance. This duality can be found, particularly, in the symphonies. Arnold's body of composition includes concertos, chamber music, symphonies, and ballets. But, he is perhaps best known to the public for his over 100 film scores, such as those for Whistle Down the Wind (1961), The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958), and The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won an Academy Award. Also highly respected for his conducting skills, Arnold has led many of England's finest orchestras in concert and in the recording studio.

The Fair Field, a concert overture, was dedicated to the great British composer Sir William Walton. Written to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the concert hall after which the piece is named, it received its first performance in 1973. As with most of Arnold's music, memorable melodies abound amid a beautifully scored orchestral palette. The opening waltz sounds like the music of a merry-go-round. Never content with the status quo, however, Arnold interrupts the childlike revelry with edgy, at times sinister punctuations in the brass. What started out as an innocent day at the fair, perhaps, turns into something darker and more ambiguous.

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