Writing of the former, Hubert Clifford wrote in Tempo magazine, "This music moves with a simple dignity and a restrained pathos".
[7] For Henry V Walton mostly avoided pastiche of ancient music, but drew on a few old sources to add period atmosphere.
The musicologist Christopher Palmer lists the three principal ones: In 1945, with the composer's approval, Malcolm Sargent incorporated the two string movements into a four-movement suite for orchestra with chorus.
The suite is scored for 3 flutes (two doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 1 cor anglais, 3 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, harpsichord and strings.
[9] In 1963 Muir Mathieson, who had conducted on the original film soundtrack, arranged a longer, purely orchestral suite.
The narrator was Christopher Plummer, and the music was performed by the orchestra and chorus of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner.