British Band Classics 11•09•2025
Program
This concert highlights the music and composers of the British Isles whose work helped define the concert band tradition. From the rolling hills of England to the coasts of Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland, these pieces draw on the folk melodies, dances, and landscapes that inspired generations of musicians. Each one offers a glimpse of how local traditions and individual creativity shaped a distinctly British sound that continues to resonate today.
Country Gardens (English Morris Dance Tune)
Setting by Percy Grainger (1882–1961)
Adapted for band by John Philip Sousa | Arranged and edited by Brion/Schissel
Country Gardens is based on an old English folk tune that would have been familiar to rural audiences long before it ever reached the concert hall. The melody comes from the tradition of Morris dancing, a form of English folk dance often performed in open fields or village squares. Its simple, repetitive phrases and lively rhythm were meant to accompany dancers in coordinated footwork.
Although Percy Grainger was born in Australia, he made his career largely in England and became an active participant in the British folk-song revival during the early 1900s. He traveled across England collecting traditional tunes, often using wax-cylinder recording equipment to capture performances by local singers. Many of these recordings became the foundation of his folk-based compositions. John Philip Sousa adapted Grainger’s setting for band in 1931, highlighting the tune’s dance origins while giving it the structure and energy of a traditional concert march.
English Folk Song Suite
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
Composed in 1923, English Folk Song Suite is a landmark work in the wind band repertoire, built on melodies Ralph Vaughan Williams collected or adapted from rural England (counties such as Somerset, Norfolk and Sussex). The piece draws on the music of ordinary people and translates it into rich concert form, giving voice to folk traditions in a band-setting that had until then rarely admitted such serious musical intention.
Vaughan Williams, together with his contemporaries Gustav Holst and Percy Grainger, all of whom also wrote extensively for orchestra and other ensembles, helped establish the wind band as a legitimate medium for original composition rather than mere transcription or parade music. Vaughan Williams’s ability to blend his deep knowledge of English folk music with a lyrical, pastoral style gave him a distinctive voice in the emerging band repertoire, bringing a human warmth and sense of place to music that had once been largely ceremonial.
I. March: “Seventeen Come Sunday” | Built around a well-known courting song, this movement blends folk melodies into a traditional march form.
II. Intermezzo: “My Bonny Boy” | This movement is a lyrical setting of a traditional love song in which a young man mourns the loss of his beloved.
III. March: “Folk Songs from Somerset” | Weaving together three regional tunes, this movement deals with themes of love and departure.
Irish Tune from County Derry
Set for Military Band by Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882–1961) | Edited by R. Mark Rogers
Percy Grainger’s Irish Tune from County Derry is based on a melody first notated in the mid-19th century by Jane Ross of Limavady, a town in what is now Northern Ireland. Though its precise origins are uncertain, the tune became one of the most beloved Irish airs—an enduring emblem of Irish identity.
Grainger met Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg in 1906 and admired both his music and his artistic ideals. Grieg’s use of folk melodies as the basis for lyrical, serious concert music had a lasting influence on Grainger’s own work. Irish Tune from County Derry shares that belief in the expressive power of traditional music and stands as a tribute to their friendship. Frederick Fennell, founder of the Eastman Wind Ensemble and a lifelong champion of Grainger’s music, described it as the first band piece he heard that showed the ensemble “could really say something besides marching up and down the street or making a lot of noise.”
Editor R. Mark Rogers restored many of Grainger’s original markings and instrumental choices, which had been softened or altered in earlier editions. His careful work allows the music to sound as Grainger intended, honoring the folk melody and the unique sound of the concert band.
Andrew Richter, Associate Conductor
Toccata Marziale
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
Toccata Marziale was commissioned in 1924 for the British Empire Exhibition, a sprawling celebration of imperial unity held in Wembley, London. The event showcased culture, industry, and national pride across Britain and its colonies, and Ralph Vaughan Williams contributed this work to showcase the precision and power of the military band, featuring rhythm and counterpoint over melody.
This was Vaughan Williams’s second composition for military band, following the English Folk Song Suite. Best known for his deep connection to English folk song, he revealed another side of his artistry in this work, focusing on structure and momentum instead of pastoral lyricism, creating a piece that feels both modern and grounded in tradition.
There is no arranger or editor credited for either Toccata Marziale or English Folk Song Suite. Both were scored directly for wind band by Vaughan Williams himself, an uncommon practice at the time for composers of his stature, and part of what gives both pieces their lasting importance in the band repertoire.
— Intermission —
Second Suite in F for Military Band
Gustav Holst (1874–1934) | Revised and edited by Colin Matthews
Composed in 1911 and first performed in 1922, Gustav Holst’s Second Suite in F uses familiar English folk melodies as its starting point—but rather than simply preserve them, Holst transforms them with inventive rhythmic structures and modal (scale patterns other than major or minor) harmonies. The work proved that a wind band could handle serious, large-scale music rooted in tradition yet forward-looking in sound and scope.
Holst occupies a complementary but distinct role to Vaughan Williams and Grainger: his band works are less about preserving folk-song identity and more about exploring what the wind ensemble could be. Educated in England, Holst brought orchestral thinking to the band, treating it as an expressive medium in its own right
and helping define the modern British band sound.
Editor Colin Matthews revised Holst’s original manuscript in consultation with the composer’s daughter, Imogen Holst. His edition makes minor corrections and preserves Holst’s original scoring and structure.
March | This movement begins with a quick Morris dance, echoing the music once played for traditional English folk dancing. “Swansea Town,” a sailor’s farewell song from the Welsh coast, adds a broader regional flavor, while “Claudy Banks,” a river-ballad from the Midlands, lends a lyrical touch before the march returns.
Song without Words “I’ll love my love” | This tender tune tells of a young woman sent away by her parents for falling in love.
Song of the Blacksmith | Sharp rhythms and unexpected accents suggest a village forge alive with activity. Holst’s playful treatment of the melody mimics the irregular anvil strikes of a working blacksmith, a figure long associated with rural English life.
Fantasia on the “Dargason” | Dargason is an old English dance tune first printed in the 1600s. Its meaning is unclear, but the melody has survived for centuries. Holst combines it with “Greensleeves,” layering the two in a playful counterpoint.
Sine Nomine
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) | Adapted and arranged by Alfred Reed (1976)
This setting is based on Sine Nomine, a hymn tune by Ralph Vaughan Williams first published in the 1906 English Hymnal. The melody was written for the text “For All the Saints,” a processional hymn associated with All Saints’ Day in the Anglican tradition. Sine Nomine, Latin for “without name,” mirrors the hymn’s theme of honoring unnamed saints and ancestors.
Vaughan Williams worked as musical editor of the English Hymnal and wrote several original hymn tunes for it, drawing on English choral traditions. Sine Nomine is one of his most recognizable.
Alfred Reed arranged the hymn as a concert march in 1976, reimagining it for wind band while preserving its grandeur. The setting maintains the solemn dignity of the original and serves not only as a tribute to Vaughan Williams’s craftsmanship, but also as an example of how sacred melodies can thrive in new forms.
Four Scottish Dances
Malcolm Arnold, OP. 59 (1921–2006) | Arranged by John P. Paynter
Malcolm Arnold’s Four Scottish Dances was originally written for orchestra in 1957 and embodies his fondness for British folk music. Arnold modeled each movement on traditional Scottish dance types, evoking regional customs from coastal songs to energetic gatherings and showcasing his gift for blending folk idioms with his own lively voice.
Arnold was born in Northampton, England, and began his career as a professional trumpeter with the London Philharmonic Orchestra before turning full time to composition. He became one of Britain’s most prolific composers, writing everything from symphonies and concertos to film scores and lighter concert pieces. In Four Scottish Dances, that playful spirit shines through. Arnold once called the set “cheerful and uncomplicated,” but its lively rhythms and colorful scoring reveal a composer who could turn folk inspiration into music of real charm and character.
John P. Paynter’s band arrangement preserves Arnold’s colorful writing while adapting it effectively for wind instruments. The result is a piece that has become a staple of the concert band repertoire.
I. Pesante | With its heavy and deliberate character, this traditional Scottish dance form recalls the measured tread of a Highland march and suggests the sound of distant bagpipes echoing across the hills.
II. Vivace | Modeled on a lively reel, this fast-paced dance features syncopated rhythms and a slower middle section that adds humor and contrast, with a bassoon solo that staggers and slides like a tipsy dancer before the reel returns in full force.
III. Allegretto | Gently paced and slightly wistful, this dance is written in the style of a Hebridean song, conveying the impression of the sea and mountain scenery on a calm summer’s day in the Hebrides.
IV. Con Brio | The final dance is a lively fling, reflecting the joy of a country ceilidh—a traditional Scottish social gathering with music, dancing, and communal celebration.
Program notes by Sue Hinton
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