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 performed less frequently than the First Suite in E-flat, it is still a staple of the band repertoire. The Second Suite, written in 1911 and first published in 1922, dedicated to James Causley Windram, is longer and considered more difficult to play than its sister suite.

During Holst's earlier years as a composer, he took interest (as did many composers at the time) in folk music, and wrote many pieces based on folk tunes. He provided piano accompaniments in 1909 to 16 songs collected by Dr George Gardiner, for publication in Folk Songs from Hampshire, a volume in Cecil Sharp's County Songs series.^[1] He was taken with them and incorporated several into this suite (he later made choral arrangements of several, including ones he had already used in the suite). His contemporary and friend Ralph Vaughan Williams later based his own Folk Song Suite on English folk tunes. Seven traditional tunes are compressed into the four movements of Holst's suite.

There have been several editions of the work, most recently by Boosey & Hawkes (1984), edited by Colin Mathews. In the 1940s, Gordon Jacob arranged it for full orchestra under the title "A Hampshire Suite".

Instrumentation

In contrast to the elastic scoring of the First Suite, Holst was much more specific with the scoring of the Second Suite. His original manuscript specified the following instruments:

Woodwinds

Flutes/Piccolo in D-flat

Oboe

Clarinet in E-flat

3 Clarinets in B-flat

2 Bassoons

Alto saxophone in E-flat

Tenor saxophone in B-flat

Brass

2 Cornets in B-flat

4 Horns in E-flat and F

2 Tenor trombones

Bass trombone

Euphonium in B-flat

Tubas

Percussion

Snare drum

Bass drum

Cymbals

Triangle

Tambourine

Anvil

The 1948 full score published by Boosey and Hawkes added the following instruments:

Alto clarinet in E-flat

Bass clarinet in B-flat

Soprano saxophone in B-flat

Baritone saxophone in E-flat

Bass saxophone/Contrabass clarinet in B-flat

2 Trumpets in B-flat

In his revised 1984 score, Colin Matthews omits all additional instruments except the bass clarinet and the baritone and bass saxophones.

Structure

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".^[2] After a brief climax, the second strain begins with a euphonium solo playing the second folk tune in the suite "Swansea Town".^[3] 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",^[4] 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"^[5] 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 trumpet, forming an arc of intensity. The climax of the piece is a fermata in measure 32, followed by a trumpet pick-up into the final measures of the piece.

Movement III: "Song of the Blacksmith"^[6]

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 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.^[7] 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, Greensleeves, 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.^[8] It is also known as 'Sedony' (or Sedany) or 'Welsh Sedony'.

Holst later rewrote and rescored 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.^[9]

External links

• Second Suite in F for Military Band: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project

References