Celebration Prelude opens with a 30 bar fanfare for brass and percussion and makes this Prelude ideal for a ceremonial or formal occasion, but the piece is equally suitable as a concert-opener. The fanfare theme is then developed in the woodwinds and taken up by the whole wind band, appearing in different guises and with different counter-melodies. Finally, the opening is restated in a much shorter form by the whole band playing fortissimo.
