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Second Suite in F (adapt Longfield)

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Gustav Holst

Gustav Holst (adapt. Robert Longfield)


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Subtitle: For Military Band (1911), Op. 28, No. 2


General Info

Year: 1911 / 2007
Duration: c. 11:40
Difficulty: IV (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - $85.00   |   Score Only (print) - $10.00


Movements

1. March - 4:45
2. Song without Words - 2:25
3. Song of a Blacksmith - 1:10
4. Fantasia on the 'Dargason' - 3:10


Instrumentation

Full Score
C Piccolo
Flute I-II
Oboe
Bassoon
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
B-flat Bass Clarinet
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Trumpet I-II-III
Horn in F I-II
Trombone I-II
Euphonium
Tuba
String Bass
Percussion I-II

(percussion detail desired)


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

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

Movement I: March: Morris dance, Swansea Town, Claudy Banks. "The "March" of the Second Suite begins with a simple-five note motif between the low and high instruments of the band. The first folk tune is heard in the form of a traditional British brass band march using the Morris-dance tune "Glorishears". After a brief climax, the second strain begins with a euphonium solo playing the second folk tune in the suite, Swansea Town. The theme is repeated by the full band before the trio. For the trio, Holst modulates to the unconventional sub-dominant minor of B-flat minor and changes the time signature to 6/8, thereby changing the meter. (Usually one would modulate to sub-dominant major in traditional march form. While Sousa, reputably the "king of marches", would sometimes change time signatures for the trio (most notably in El Capitan), it was not commonplace.) The third theme, called Claudy Banks, is heard in a low woodwind soli, as is standard march orchestration. Then the first strain is repeated da capo.

Movement II: Song Without Words, 'I'll Love My Love'. Holst places the fourth folk song, I'll Love My Love, in stark contrast to the first movement. The movement begins with a chord from French horns and moves into a solo of clarinet with oboe over a flowing accompaniment in F Dorian. The solo is then repeated by the trumpet, forming an arc of intensity. The climax of the piece is a fermata in measure 32, followed by a trumpet pickup into the final measures of the piece.

Movement III: Song of the Blacksmith. Again, Holst contrasts the slow second movement to the rather upbeat third movement which features the folk song A Blacksmith Courted Me. The brass section plays in a pointillistic style depicting a later Holst style. There are many time signature changes (4/4 to 3/4) making the movement increasingly difficult because the brass section has all of their accompaniment on the up-beats of each measure. The upper-woodwinds and horns join on the melody around the body of the piece, and are accompanied with the sound of a blacksmith tempering metal with an anvil called for in the score. The final D major chord has a glorious, heavenly sound, which opens the way to the final movement. This chord works so effectively perhaps because it is unexpected: the entire movement is in F major when the music suddenly moves to the major of the relative minor.

Movement IV: Fantasia on the Dargason. This movement is not based on any folk songs, but rather has two tunes from Playford's Dancing Master of 1651. The finale of the suite opens with an alto saxophone solo based on the folk tune Dargason, a 16th century English dance tune included in the first edition of The Dancing Master. The fantasia continues through several variations encompassing the full capabilities of the band. The final folk tune, reensleeves, is cleverly woven into the fantasia by the use of hemiolas, with Dargason being in 6/8 and Greensleeves being in 3/4. At the climax of the movement, the two competing themes are placed in competing sections. As the movement dies down, a tuba and piccolo duet forms a call back to the beginning of the suite with the competition of low and high registers.

The name 'dargason' may perhaps come from an Irish legend that tells of a monster resembling a large bear (although much of the description of the creature has been lost over time). The dargason tormented the Irish country side. During the Irish uprising of the late 18th Century, the dargason is supposed to have attacked a British camp, killing many soldiers. This tale aside, 'dargason' is more likely derived from an Anglo-Saxon word for dwarf or fairy, and the tune has been considered English (or Welsh) since at least the 16th century. It is also known as 'Sedony' (or Sedany) or 'Welsh Sedony'.

Holst later rewrote and re-scored this movement for string orchestra, as the final movement of his St Paul's Suite (1912), which he wrote for his music students at St Paul's Girls' School.

- Program Notes by Imogen Holst


Holst composed the Second Suite in 1911, but he was so preoccupied (and later fatigued) by the details of supervising a performance by Morley College students of Purcell’s Fairy Queen (the first since the 17th century) that he forgot about the work until asked to compose another suite for military band in 1921. He changed his original tune Young Reilly in the opening of the march to the Morris dance Glorishears and made some slight changes in the instrumentation to comply with the instrumentation adopted by the Kneller Hall Conference of December 1921. The suite was premiered on June 30, 1922, at Royal Albert Hall, London, by the Military School of Music Band conducted by Lt. Hector E. Adkins.

The march movement uses three tunes, set in the pattern A-B-C-A-B. After the opening Morris dance, a broad and lyrical folk song, Swansea Town, features the euphonium and is followed by Claudy Banks, which has a lilting, swinging feeling derived from its compound duple meter. In describing the entire suite, Richard Franko Goldman comments that “no more delightful contribution has ever been made by a prominent composer to the band repertory.”

- Program Note from Program Notes for Band


In this adaptation of the landmark work for band, the extreme ranges have been adjusted for young players, the instrumentation has been updated to that of the contemporary concert band and liberal cues have been added, particularly for oboe, bassoon and horn. The integrity of the original is completely intact.

- Program Note from publisher


Dedicated to James Causley Windram.

- Program Note from score


Media


State Ratings

  • Indiana: ISSMA SENIOR BAND GROUP I
  • Louisiana: III
  • Louisiana: IV
  • Louisiana: V
  • Michigan: Senior High A
  • North Carolina: IV
  • South Carolina: IV


Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

  • Loomis Chaffee School (Windsor, Conn.) Wind Ensemble (David Winer, conductor) - 20May 2018


Works for Winds by This Composer

Adaptable Music


All Wind Music


Resources

  • Gustav Holst website
  • Holst, G.; Longfield, R. (2007). Second Suite in F for Military Band (1911) Op. 28, No. 2, H. 106 [score]. Booey & Hawkes: London.
  • Holst, Imogen. (1938). Gustav Holst: A Biography. London: Oxford University Press.
  • Smith, Norman E. (2002). Program Notes for Band. Chicago: GIA Publications, pp. 297.
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