Second Suite in F for Military Band

The Second Suite in F for Military Band (Op. 28, no. 2) is Gustav Holst's second and last suite for concert band. Although it is rarely listed as the First Suite, they are still part of the standard band repertoire. The Second Suite, composed in 1911 and first published in 1922, dedicated to James Causley Windram, is longer and more difficult to play than its sister suite.

During Holst's earlier years he was (like many composers at the time) to folk interested and wrote many pieces based on folk music as a composer. In 1909 he gave piano accompaniments to 16 collected by Dr. George Gardiner songs for publication in Folk Songs from Hampshire, a band in Cecil County Sharps series songs. He was carried away by them and built several in this suite (later he wrote choral arrangements of some songs, including individual, which he has already used in the suite ). His contemporary and friend Ralph Vaughan Williams based his own later English Folk Song Suite on English folk songs. Seven traditional pieces are included in the four sets of Holst's suite.

There are different versions of the work, the youngest of Boosey & Hawkes (1984 ), edited by Colin Mathews. In the 1940s, Gordon Jacob arranged it for a full orchestra under the title " A Hampshire Suite".

Instrumentation

The work is scored for a standard military band of the early 20th century.

Structure

The Second Suite consists of four movements, all based on English folk songs.

I. sentence: "March: Morris dance, Swansea Town, Claudy Banks "

The "March " of the Second Suite begins with a simple, five notes between the low and the high band instruments existing, motif. The first folk song can be heard in the form of a traditional, by a British brass ensemble played, march, which uses the tune " Glorishears ". After a brief highlight of the second section begins with a euphonium solo or the second folk tune in the suite, " Swansea Town " plays. The theme is repeated by the full band before the trio comes. For this Holst modulates to the unconventional minor subdominant of B-flat minor and change the time signature to 6 /8 ( in the traditional march form is modulated usually to the subdominant in the major. Though Sousa, who is considered the " king of the marches ", sometimes the signatures for the Trio changes (especially in " El Capitan " ), this was not common. ) the third theme, " Claudy Banks " is called to listen in a deep woodwind solo, as in the standard Marschorchestrierung. Then, the first part is repeated da capo.

Second sentence: " Song Without Words, ' I'll Love My Love ' "

Holst wrote the fourth folk song "I'll Love My Love " in stark contrast to the first set. The second movement begins with a chord of horns and changes over a flowing accompaniment in F Dorian in a solo clarinet with the oboe. Then the solo is repeated by the trumpet, an arc of intensity shaping. The climax of the play is a fermata in measure 32, followed by a trumpet opening, which leads into the final bars of the movement.

III. Sentence: " Song of the Blacksmith "

Again, Holst contrasts the slow second movement to the rather optimistic third set, in which the folk song "A Blacksmith courted Me " appear. The brass play in a pointillist style, which is a later style Holst. There are many time signature (4/ 4 to 3 /4), which make the sentence more difficult, because the brass have all their accompaniment on the upbeats of each bar. The high woodwinds and horns join the melody and the sound of a metal with an anvil blacksmith accompanied processed. The resounding conclusion on the D- major chord has an impressive effect, which paves the way to the final sentence. This chord is probably so effective because it is unexpected: The entire set is in F major and suddenly there is a skidding into the music major of the parallel minor key.

Fourth sentence: " Fantasia on the Dargason "

This rate is based on any folk song, but uses two tunes from Playford 's Dancing Master of 1651st The finale of the suite begins with a Altsaxophonsolo, which is based on the folk song " Dargason ", an English dance from the 16th century, the first in the version of the Dancing Master was included. The fantasy is that all members of the band exhaustively, continued through several variations. The final folk song Greensleeves is intricately woven into the fantasy. This is done through the use of hemiolas while the Dargason in 6/8 and Greensleeves is located at the 3 /4 time. At the height of the movement, the competing themes are arranged in competing sections. When the set is over, a duet between tuba and piccolo makes a return to the beginning of the suite with a contest between high and low registers.

The name ' Dargason ' comes possibly from an Irish legend that tells of a monster that resembles a large bear ( although lost many of the descriptions of the creature over time). This Dargason tormented the Irish countryside. During the Irish rebellion in the late 18th century, it is presumed, has the Dargason attacked a British camp and killed many soldiers. Aside from this legend, probably from an Anglo-Saxon word for dwarf or fairy ( dwarf / fairy ) is ' Dargason ' emerged. The melody was kept at least since the 16th century for English ( or Welsh ). It is also known as ' Sedony ' (or Sedany ) or ' Welsh Sedony '.

Later Holst wrote that sentence again and orchestrated for string orchestra, as the final movement of his St Paul 's Suite (1912 ), which he ' wrote School for his music students at St Paul 's Girls.