program notes by composition > f > Folk Song Suite for Military Band
Folk Song Suite for Military Band
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Also known as English Folk Song Suite, this work is a compilation of folk songs from the Norfolk and Somerset regions of England. The suite contains samples of Seventeen Come Sunday, Pretty Caroline, Dives and Lazarus, My Bonny Boy, Green Bushes, Blow Away the Morning Dew, High Germany, The Tree So High and John Barleycorn. It is often compared to suites by Holst and Grainger for its faithful folk song adaptations. It has become a cornerstone piece of literature and is often considered to be one of the first “serious” works for wind band.