The piece was composed to commemorate victory by a great British military leader over the forces of Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's older brother. It was originally written in collaboration with an inventor to showcase his newest invention, a robot that was able to play the instruments of a military band. This composer then took the piece one step further and arranged it for a full orchestra with two on-stage wind bands playing tunes to represent the two battling armies. A huge battery of percussion instruments is also used to create battle sounds. The fully-orchestrated work was a huge crowd-pleaser at is premiere in 1813, but has since become only more than a "novelty" piece.