English Folk Song Suite

Written in 1923, the English Folk Song Suite is one of English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams's most famous works for military band. It was published originally as simply Folk Song Suite. Its premiere was given at Kneller Hall on 4 July 1923, conducted by Lt Hector Adkins.

In 1924, the piece was arranged for full orchestra by Vaughan Williams' student Gordon Jacob, with the word "English" at the beginning of the title. Frank Wright produced a version for an English-style brass band; it was copyrighted in 1956.

The suite consists of three movements: March, Intermezzo and another March. 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.

Seventeen Come Sunday opens after a four-bar introduction with the principal melody – the folk song Seventeen Come Sunday – played by the woodwind section (flutes in orchestrated version). This melody is repeated, and the woodwind is joined by the brass (violins in orchestrated version). The phrasing is irregular – the melody lasts for thirteen bars. This melody is followed by "Pretty Caroline" as a quiet melody for solo clarinet and solo cornet (clarinet only in orchestrated version), which is also repeated. A third tune, Dives and Lazarus then enters in the lower instruments. This third tune is particularly interesting for having a 6/8 rhythm played as a counterpoint by the upper woodwinds, against the straight 2/4 rhythm of the saxophones and brasses. This third theme is repeated, then leads straight back to the second theme. Finally, the first theme is repeated in a Da Capo al Coda. The form of this movement can be represented by A-B-C-B-A (Arch form).

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