English Folk Song Suite

It was first published for the military band as Folk Song Suite and its premiere was given at Kneller Hall on 4 July 1923, conducted by Lt Hector Adkins.

[1] The piece was then arranged for full orchestra in 1924 by Vaughan Williams' student Gordon Jacob and published as English Folk Song Suite.

The piece was later arranged for British-style brass band in 1956 by Frank Wright and published as English Folk Songs Suite.

The suite uses the melodies of nine English folk songs, six of which were drawn from the collection made by Vaughan Williams' friend and colleague Cecil Sharp.

The first march is called "Seventeen Come Sunday", the Intermezzo is subtitled "My Bonny Boy" and the final movement is based on four "Folk Songs from Somerset".

It originally had a fourth movement, "Sea Songs", which was played second, but the composer removed it after the first performance and published it separately, with his own orchestration.

This tune was derived from a recording made in 1908 by Ella Mary Leather from Ellen Powell of Westhope, Herefordshire, using a phonograph loaned to her by Vaughan Williams.

This tune comes from the collection of Vaughan Williams himself: he notated the song "The Red Barn", set to a variant of the well-known "Dives and Lazarus" melody, from a Mr John Whitby in Norfolk in 1905.

Midway through the movement, a Poco Allegro begins on "Green Bushes"[6] (Roud 1040), first sounded by a piccolo, E♭ clarinet, and oboe in a minor harmonic context, then repeated by the lower brass with major harmony.

Vaughan Williams noted on his score that "My Bonny Boy" was taken from the book English County Songs[9] while the "Green Bushes" melody seems to have been adapted from two versions collected by Cecil Sharp, one in the Dorian and one in the Mixolydian mode, the modal ambiguity being reflected in the composer's harmonization.