World War II vet wrote a song the Florida Orchestra will play at Tampa park show

World War II veteran Fred Faulkner, who recently turned 99, is a very good writer, much like his distant novelist relative. He’s also an amateur musician, and a composition he wrote has caught the attention of the Florida Orchestra thanks to Fred’s persuasive personality.

Faulkner is one of the few living survivors of the Battle of the Bulge, the bloodiest battle fought by the United States in World War II. Faulkner also knows his way around music, playing clarinet and saxophone in the Richey Concert Band as a hobby in New Port Richey, near where he lives. About 10 years ago, he was thinking about the Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, and came up with a musical composition he hoped would act as a reminder of the sacrifices of his comrades and the larger war effort.

He composed “Ardennes March,” and the concert band has played it, but when he met Florida Orchestra musical director Michael Francis at a local church, Faulkner pitched him on having the orchestra play it. Francis was intrigued and turned to Ross Holcombe, the principal trombonist for the orchestra who is also a music arranger. He asked Holcombe to look over the piece and see if it had orchestra potential.

Holcombe was impressed by the melodies and the storytelling of the music. He spent two weeks mapping out how to arrange Faulkner’s piece for the orchestra.

The result will premiere on May 12 at the free Pops in the Park concert at Julian B. Lane Riverfront Park in Tampa. Faulkner is scheduled to attend and will be recognized at the concert.

“Fred has a real gift for melody,” Holcombe said. ”I started playing some of it and it was just so tuneful. I’ve got his melodies stuck in my head.”

Faulkner, who lives in Trinity in Pasco County, grew up in Chicago and enlisted in the Army at age 17 to fight in World War II. In December 1944, his unit was among the 500,000 Americans who fought in one of the largest and bloodiest battles of the war, one that demonstrated the resolve of the U.S. Army despite being heavily outnumbered and in difficult circumstances, including a bitter winter snowstorm.

“You can‘t believe how cold it was,” Faulkner said. “It lasted for more than 40 days and it was never above 10 below with 18 inches of snow. Your feet were always wet and we were just frozen. I still deal with that in my legs to this very day.”

In composing “Ardennes March,” Faulkner said it was “music written to honor the people who survived that battle and to give proper recognition to the guys that didn’t and keep their memories alive.”

Since it was written for a concert band, Holcombe’s task was to bring in the orchestra’s many other instruments, such as strings and flutes and percussion.

He described it as a story with three sections, starting off as a military-style march and then proceeding into the battle. The timpani sounds like the boom of a bomb going off and snare drums are like machine gun fire.

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“You really feel the action of the battle, and then the trumpet plays taps and we go back to the original march,” Holcombe said. “It’s as if we are soldiering on and still proud of our country, and it ends in a real up-beat.”

When was the last time you heard anything about the Battle of the Bulge? Faulkner asked. Memories fade, but music lives forever, he said.

Holcombe agreed with that sentiment.

“We certainly learned about this in school, but music lives on long after you are gone,” Holcombe said. “We are still playing Mozart and Florence Price and, hopefully, one day we will still be playing Fred Faulkner.”

If you go to Pops in the Park

The free Mother’s Day show on Sunday, May 12, will have music from films such as “Frozen” and “Jurassic Park,” Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture and the premiere of “Ardennes March” written by Trinity resident Fred Faulkner. The show starts at 7:45 p.m. at Julian B Lane Riverfront Park, 1001 North Blvd., Tampa.