The piece is generally arranged for a full marching band or orchestra, though piano and organ versions have also been composed.
Maurice Jarre's score used an arrangement for piccolos (in lieu of fifes) with drums within his overture for Lawrence of Arabia, and he also rearranged the piece for a military band, assembled from the London Philharmonic Orchestra, which segues in an out of fragmentary motifs from the Lawrence theme, later during the film.
The song starts out with three brief musical phrases, followed by a segue into the main triumphant, fast-moving marching theme which remains throughout the rest of the piece.
An arrangement of it was famously used in David Lean's film Lawrence of Arabia (1962), to represent the military power of the British Empire.
Its most notable use in the film occurs during the scene when Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) and General Allenby (Jack Hawkins) discuss strategy while descending the stairs of the British army headquarters in Cairo.