Beni Mora

Beni Mora is a three-movement suite of music in E minor for large orchestra, by Gustav Holst.

The piece also includes dance rhythms and wistful, slow sections, and makes strong use of woodwinds and percussion.

[4] The first movement was originally a stand-alone piece, Oriental Dance (1909), dedicated to the music critic Edwin Evans.

The dance opens with a broadly-phrased melody on the strings into which a strongly rhythmic figure interrupts, played by trumpets, trombones and tambourine.

The rhythm slows, and the opening string tune returns, before the full orchestra resumes the quick dance theme.

[5] On the other hand, the reviewer in The Times observed, "Mr Von Holst's[n 1] suite is compiled from genuine Arab tunes treated with extraordinary skill, especially in the vivid finale, in which a number of dance tunes are combined to illustrate a night scene in Biskra.