Vaughan Williams' enthusiastic interest in English folk-tunes is known to everybody. It has influenced his own composition in a striking way, lending it much of its distinctively English character. In the Suite which we are now to hear, the tunes are presented to us quite simply, and tell their own story with no other added interest than that of effective accompaniment and instrumentation.
The first movement is on the tune 'Seventeen come Sunday'; the second, which the composer has called 'Intermezzo,' is 'My Bonny Boy,' with a short, merry section in the middle of the movement; the third is a March built up on folk-songs from Somerset-an effective and vigorous March with an alternative section in 6-8 time.

Sir Edward German's own light operas and the universally popular music which he has written for so many of the Shakespeare plays no doubt have the strongest hold on our affections. But of his purely orchestral music, of which there is a considerable volume, this 'Welsh Rhapsody is easily the best known. Specially composed for the Cardiff Festival of 1904, and produced there, it has ever since figured constantly in programmes, wherever the best British music is played. It is built up on four traditional Welsh tunes, and these are presented with constantly varied interest, and with all German's skill in the use of orchestral tone colours. The opening section is based on the tune 'Loudly proclaim.' It is in a vigorous Allegro, but after its announcement, it passes through many changes of time in the development which follows. The second part, corresponding to the Scherzo movement of a symphony, is vivacious and merry, in 6-8 rhythm. The tune used in it is 'Hunting the Hare.' A slow section comes next, quiet and thoughtful, founded on that beautiful old tune 'David of the White Rock.' The last section, often played separately, is a stirring exposition of the fine march 'The Men of Harlech.'