Fanfares was written for William Peterson, to be premiered on the inaugural series of concerts on a new Fisk organ at San Luis Obispo Performing Arts Center. He suggested a celebratory piece, like a fanfare, and intended the piece to follow John Cage’s amiably quirky Souvenir and to precede Franck’s magisterial Chorale.

The term “fanfare” seemed just the thing for the occasion, and for the point in the program. Direct, festive, and joyful, the resulting piece presents several fanfare tunes in succession, and combines them near the end, in the meantime exploring a few of the many sonic possibilities of the organ.