Kenneth Clark, an influential figure in the arts world, secured Ashton six weeks' leave of absence from the Air Ministry to create a new ballet for the Sadler's Wells company.
[2] By 1943 the company was performing mostly away from London, taking ballet round the country, with its dancers, orchestra and backstage staff heavily depleted by wartime conscription.
[8] The ballet historian Geraldine Morris suggests that the work fell out of favour after the war because of its wartime "propagandist, patriotic elements".
[8] One critic wrote in 1943 that The Quest should be seen by everyone, "for as the curtain falls one is tempted to cry with Shakespeare: 'God for Harry, England and St George'".
The performing edition of the score published by the Oxford University Press and edited by John Eric Floreen and Christopher Palmer is scored for three flutes (two doubling piccolos), two oboes (one doubling cor anglais), two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, one tuba, two harps, and percussion comprising timpani, glockenspiel, xylophone, tam-tam, cymbals and suspended cymbal, bass drum, side drum, snare drum, tambourine, castanets, triangle, wood block, temple blocks, whip, tubular bells, sleigh bells, and piano, celeste and strings.
[14] For this suite, about 13 minutes in length, Tauský − with Walton's approval − added extra instruments in the orchestral parts, bringing the originally small orchestra up to more Waltonian proportions.
[15] In the late 1980s, the musical scholar Christopher Palmer reconstructed the five-movement ballet score, further amplifying the original sparer orchestration.