Sir William Turner Walton (1902–1983) was an English composer born in Oldham, Lancashire, the son of a choirmaster. He was a chorister and later an undergraduate at Christ Church, Oxford, before being taken up by the literary Sitwell siblings, who gave him a home and a broad cultural education. His early collaboration with Edith Sitwell, the entertainment “Façade,” first brought him notoriety as a modernist before becoming a popular ballet score. Over a sixty-year career Walton composed across nearly every genre, from film scores to opera, including the cantata “Belshazzar’s Feast,” the Viola Concerto, his First Symphony, and the coronation marches “Crown Imperial” and “Orb and Sceptre.” In middle age he settled with his wife Susana on the Italian island of Ischia, where he lived until his death in 1983.

Walton is regarded as one of the leading English composers of the 20th century, admired for a style that combined lyrical Romanticism with rhythmic drive and orchestral brilliance. His “Five Bagatelles” for solo guitar, composed in 1971 and dedicated to Julian Bream, were among the first substantial contributions to the guitar repertoire by a major mainstream British composer, and they remain a cornerstone of 20th-century guitar literature, admired for their wit and idiomatic writing for the instrument.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walton