Holst: A Somerset Rhapsody Op.21 - wind dectet/bass

A Somerset Rhapsody Op.21

Arranged symphonic wind dectet/bass
(Double wind quintet)

NB Clarinets in A as in original orchestra (Parts in Bb also provided)

Holst: A Somerset Rhapsody, Op. 21, was composed by Gustav HOLST in 1906, and was dedicated to Cecil Sharp, the renowned collector of English folksong music. It began as a work for orchestra called Folk Songs of Somerset, making use of 10 songs from the collections of Sharp. 

That work (on manuscript)was rediscovered in 2017 in New Zealand

 Holst reworked four of the tunes from that piece into the Rhapsody:

The Sheep-Shearing Song (also known as It’s a Rosebud in June), invokes idyllic pastoral settings and is played at the beginning by the oboe d’amore (English Horn in the wind band version). 

High Germany, is a song about marching off to war, and is also used by Holst’s colleague, Ralph Vaughan Williams, in his own Folk Song Suite.

True Love’s Farewell, is a song about lovers saying goodbye, and is sometimes also known as Ten Thousand Miles. 

The final tune used is The Cuckoo.
Curiously, The Cuckoo does not seem to be recognised as one of the folk tunes used in this piece...the program note in the transcription refers only to the three other folk melodies, and many program notes omit any reference to The Cuckoo whatsoever.

Though not a programmatic work, the composer once divulged to a colleague that the work told a story:

"Into a quiet country scene comes the sound of approaching soldiers. A youth who is courting a girl is persuaded to enlist and go to war. The soldiers march into the distance and the pastoral quietness returns. The girl is left alone.”

It works well for wind dectet.