The Wireless Military Band, conducted by Lieut. B. Walton O'Donnell, M.V.O.. F.R.A.M., R.M.
Hilda Blake (Soprano), Frank Titterton (Tenor)

The hero, Hercules, as a penance for a crime, had to hire himself out for three years. He took service with Omphule, Queen of Lydia, and worked at her side amongst the women - in so uncouth a manner as to win him many a blow. In this Symphonic Poem you may hear the whirl of the wheels. the derision of the Queen, and the sorrow of the enslaved hero.

Saint-Saens meant the work as a suggestion of the web-spinning of a woman, and of the weakness of the strong man when love ensnares him.

Sir Gerald du Maurier is one of those celebrities who really do need no introduction to any audience. He is at present appearing in Interference at the St. James's Theatre.

In spite of the immense popularity of the Military Band, it has practically never until quite lately been taken seriously by the great Composers, and Military Band music has suffered accordingly.

But at last, in our own days, some of the leading living Composers have given it their attention.

Here is the First of two Suites for Military Band which Holst has written. It is made up of three separate pieces - (1) a vigorous Chaconne (a piece in which one bit of tune is repeated over and over again in the bass. occasion ally in other parts): (2) an expressive Intermezzo; and (3) a lively March.

Tchaikovsky, during a stay in Italy, gathered together some native folk-songs that he found in collections or heard in the streets, and made this piece out of them. It is full of the spirit of peasants, in rude health.

The opening Trumpet call is a reminiscence of the military music the Composer heard when he stayed near a barracks in Rome. Then various folk-songs are brought in. The last section of the work consists of a lively Tarantella. One of the folk-tunes looks in for a moment on the Full Orchestra, and then the Tarantella is resumed, and the piece sweeps on to its riotous conclusion.