Suite in F

Gustov Holst’s 2nd Suite in F, composed in 1911 for wind band, uses English folk songs and folk dance tunes throughout its four contrasting movements. The opening march uses three tunes, the first of which is a lively Morris Dance. The folk song Swansea Town is next. Claudy Banks is the third tune, initially played by the bass trombones. The first two tunes are repeated to conclude the first movement. The second movement is a setting for the English folk song I'll Love My Love. It is a sad story of a young maiden driven into Bedlam by grief over her lover being sent to sea by his parents to prevent their marriage. The Hampshire folk song, The Song of the Blacksmith, is the basis of the third movement, which evokes visions of the sparks from red hot metal being beaten with a lively hammer's rhythm on the blacksmith's anvil. The English country-dance and folk song, The Dargason, dating from the sixteenth century, completes the suite in a manner that continues to cycle and seems to have no end - every player playing the tune at sometime during the movement. The Elizabethan love tune Greensleeves also appears briefly. This adaptation for trombone octet in 2 choirs follows, as far as possible, the original composition, not only in key but also in character. Derrick Parker