Who sings "There Won't Be Trumpets" in the story?

Fay Apple sings it while hiding and admitting what she wants the world to be, even as the town doubles down on its miracle spectacle.

Why do so many performers treat it as a cabaret piece?

Because it is self-contained: a clear situation, a strong point of view, and a finish that feels like a choice rather than a curtain cue.

What is the lyric arguing against?

Against the idea that goodness must arrive with public proof. Fay wants help that does not require ceremony.

Does the arrangement include trumpets?

Sondheim’s commentary on the song emphasizes that the orchestration avoids turning the title into a literal fanfare trick.

What kind of voice suits it best?

Many published audition and excerpt editions place it in a mid-range lane with an emphasis on clean diction and sustained line rather than big belting.

There Won't Be Trumpets Lyrics — Anyone Can Whistle

There Won't Be Trumpets Lyrics

FAY:
Those smug little men with their smug little schemes
They forgot one thing:
The play isn't over by a long shot yet!
There are heroes in the world,
Princes are heroes in the world,
And one of them will save us.
Wait and see!
Wait and see!

There won't be trumpets or bolts of fire
To say he's coming.
No Roman candles, no angels' choir,
No sound of distant drumming.
He may not be the cavalier,
Tall and graceful, fair and strong.
Doesn't matter, just as long as he comes along!
But not with trumpets or lightning flashing
Or shining armor.
He maybe daring, he may be dashing,
Or maybe he's a farmer.
We can wait, what's another day?
He has lots of hills to climb.
And a hero
Doesn't come till the nick of time!
Don't look for trumpets or whistles tooting
To guarantee him!
There won't be trumpets, but sure as shooting
You'll know him when you see him!

Don't know when, don't know where,
And I can't even say that I care!
All I know is, the minute you turn
And he's suddenly there,
There won't be trumpets!
There are no trumpets!
Who needs trumpets?
Last Update: February, 12th 2026

Song Overview

There Won't Be Trumpets lyrics by Lee Remick — Lee Remick delivers "There Won't Be Trumpets" in a widely shared cast-album audio upload.

Review and Highlights

Quick summary

Work: Fay Apple solo from Anyone Can Whistle (Broadway, 1964).
Character moment: Fay, cornered and hiding, admits what she wants from the world: a hero, but not a hero who arrives with pageantry.
In the score: A private prayer in a musical full of public noise.
Recording history: Often discussed as a cut song from the original Broadway period, later embraced in concert and cabaret life.

Scene from There Won't Be Trumpets by Lee Remick — "There Won't Be Trumpets" in the cast-album release: intimate and direct, with orchestration that refuses to grandstand.

Anyone Can Whistle (1964) - stage musical - non-diegetic. Fay is not performing for the town. She is talking to herself, and by extension to us, while the machinery of the miracle scheme keeps turning without her. In the plot summary commonly cited in program notes and reference sources, she has slipped away from the crowd and the police, and the song lands as the show’s rare pause button: a human being asking for help without turning it into a pitch.

Creation History

Stephen Sondheim wrote music and text for Anyone Can Whistle, with a book by Arthur Laurents. The Broadway production opened April 4, 1964 and disappeared almost immediately, but the score never behaved like a failure. As stated in a Music Theatre International feature, songs from the show became cabaret standards over time, and this title is singled out as one of them. Playbill later spotlighted a studio recording tied to the first complete recording project, which is a nice bit of theatre history irony: the song about heroes arriving quietly kept returning with very loud fanfare.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Lee Remick performing There Won't Be Trumpets — Video moments that reveal the meaning: the vocal sits forward, while the arrangement keeps the halo off the sentiment.

Plot

The town has declared a miracle at a rock, hoping to cash in, and the situation devolves into a crowd scene where no one can tell who belongs where. Fay, a nurse from the asylum, becomes the person insisting on truth. She vanishes into hiding, and the song arrives as her confession: she wants a rescuer, but she also knows the world is not staged like a civic parade.

Song Meaning

Fay’s fantasy is not about romance or celebrity. It is about relief. The lyric insists that salvation, if it comes at all, will not arrive with ceremonial signals. Sondheim.com underlines the point with an orchestration note: the arrangement avoids literal trumpet flourishes, honoring the text’s promise that the hero’s presence is the announcement. That is the show, in miniature: a musical about people manufacturing spectacle, suddenly offering a song that distrusts spectacle.

Annotations

The point is that when he comes she won't need trumpets to generate excitement; his presence will be enough.

This is Sondheim as dramatist, not just songwriter. The lyric is a direct rebuke to the town’s marketing plan, and it is also a performance instruction. Sing it as a big anthem and you miss the joke. Fay is not demanding fireworks, she is rejecting them.

Style, rhythm, and the emotional arc

In a score that often moves with civic-band swagger or crowd-driven chant, this number turns inward. The rhythm breathes. The melodic line feels like thought turning into speech, then catching itself. The arc is aspiration, then self-correction: Fay allows herself the dream of a hero, then insists the dream will be quiet or it will be false.

Images and symbols

Trumpets are a metaphor for public validation: announcements, medals, headlines, the noisy permission to believe. Fay asks for the opposite. In a town addicted to announcements, she asks for the kind of goodness that does not need a press agent.

Shot of There Won't Be Trumpets by Lee Remick — A brief moment from the upload: the vocal line stays plain, and the point lands harder for it.

Technical Information (Quick Facts)

Song: There Won't Be Trumpets
Artist: Lee Remick (cast recording context)
Featured: Fay Apple
Composer: Stephen Sondheim
Producer: Goddard Lieberson
Release Date: May 13, 2003 (bonus-track album edition date)
Genre: Musical theatre
Instruments: Vocal with orchestra
Label: Masterworks Broadway (reissue and distribution), Columbia Masterworks (original cast album label line)
Mood: Hopeful; wary; private
Length: 02:37 (common bonus-track listing)
Track #: 4 (bonus-track album listing)
Language: English
Album (if any): Anyone Can Whistle (Broadway Cast Recording) - bonus-track edition
Music style: Intimate theatre ballad with pointed anti-spectacle messaging
Poetic meter: Conversational scansion with sustained phrases at key turns

Frequently Asked Questions

Who sings "There Won't Be Trumpets" in the story?: Fay Apple sings it while hiding and admitting what she wants the world to be, even as the town doubles down on its miracle spectacle.
Is it on the main 1964 cast album?: It is often discussed as material associated with the original Broadway period that later circulated through reissues, concerts, and bonus-track presentations.
Why do so many performers treat it as a cabaret piece?: Because it is self-contained: a clear situation, a strong point of view, and a finish that feels like a choice rather than a curtain cue.
What is the lyric arguing against?: Against the idea that goodness must arrive with public proof. Fay wants help that does not require ceremony.
Is the title meant to be ironic?: Yes, in the sense that the show is full of public announcements. Fay rejects announcements precisely because the town abuses them.
Does the arrangement include trumpets?: Sondheim’s commentary on the song emphasizes that the orchestration avoids turning the title into a literal fanfare trick.
What kind of voice suits it best?: Many published audition and excerpt editions place it in a mid-range lane with an emphasis on clean diction and sustained line rather than big belting.
What is the dramatic action during the song?: Fay stops running for a moment and lets herself hope, then disciplines that hope into a practical belief: rescue, if real, will arrive quietly.
Why does it feel different from the big Act I crowd numbers?: It trades crowd rhythm for inner rhythm. The number is built to make the audience lean in, not clap along.

Awards and Chart Positions

The song is not treated as a pop single with standard chart reporting. Its measurable footprint is theatrical: reference summaries note it has been performed widely outside the show, and it is frequently cited as a cabaret favorite connected to the musical’s afterlife.

Additional Info

There is a delicious theatrical contradiction here: the show ridicules manufactured spectacle, then hands its idealist a song that could be sung in a bare room with nothing but a piano. That bareness is not modesty, it is argument. According to Playbill, a major selling point of the complete-recording project was restoring material listeners had come to cherish in fragments, and this title is a prime example: a quiet number that kept refusing to disappear.

Music Theatre International’s production-history note makes a practical point that directors understand: even when the show itself is hard to mount, individual songs travel. "There Won't Be Trumpets" travels because it is dramatic without needing plot explanation, and it lets the performer play thought, not just sound.

Key Contributors

Entity	Type	Relationship
Stephen Sondheim	Person	Wrote music and text; commented on the orchestration choice tied to the title idea.
Arthur Laurents	Person	Wrote the book that places the song in Fay’s hiding and self-revelation moment.
Lee Remick	Person	Originated Fay Apple on Broadway; associated vocalist in a widely circulated recording.
Goddard Lieberson	Person	Cast-album producer whose recording decisions helped preserve the score’s reputation.
Masterworks Broadway	Organization	Released and distributed reissues and audio uploads that keep the track accessible.
Music Theatre International	Organization	Published a production-history feature noting the song’s popularity beyond the show.
Playbill	Organization	Covered the complete-recording release campaign and featured the song in that context.
Majestic Theatre	Venue	Broadway venue for the 1964 opening of Anyone Can Whistle.

How to Sing There Won't Be Trumpets

Published excerpt editions give a practical starting point: Musicnotes lists an arrangement in Bb major with a notated vocal range of D4 to C5 for the excerpt edition. Treat that as a guide for one commonly sold arrangement, not a law of nature for every key or cut.

Tempo and line: Keep the phrases moving like spoken thought. Do not park on every important word. Let the sentences carry you.
Diction: The lyric relies on clarity more than volume. Consonants should be present but not percussive, especially on the repeated negatives.
Breath: Mark breaths where the thought changes, not where the measure ends. This is a character thinking out loud.
Flow and rhythm: Aim for even rhythm through the list-like images. The text is building an argument, and arguments need forward motion.
Accents: Save emphasis for the turns where Fay corrects herself. The song gains power when conviction arrives late.
Ensemble awareness: Even as a solo, this sits inside a show full of crowd noise. Sing it as a contrast: less public, more human.
Mic and space: In cabaret, allow quieter dynamics and closer storytelling. Onstage, keep the intimacy but support the line so it reads to the back.
Pitfalls: Do not make it a big anthem. If it becomes a victory lap, the title idea collapses.

Sources

Sources: Sondheim.com analysis notes, Music Theatre International production-history article, Playbill feature on complete recording, Apple Music track listing, YouTube Masterworks Broadway audio upload, Musicnotes sheet music listing, Wikipedia reference summary

Browse by musical