FIRST PUBLISHED EDITION.
Orchestration: 2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets in A or Bb, 2 Bassoons, 2 or 4 Horns in F, 2 Trumpets in Bb, 3 Trombones
Timpani, Percussion (2 players: Cymbals, Bass Drum)
Strings (Violin 1, Violin 2, Viola, Cello, Bass)
Holst wrote the Folk Songs from Somerset in 1906 (originally titled "New Selection of Songs of Somerset"). It was first performed at a concert on 3rd February 1906 at the Pump Room, Bath with Holst conducting the City of Bath Orchestra. The following year, Holst completely rewrote the work and it became A Somerset Rhapsody which is performed regularly today. Holst wrote on the front of the manuscript of the earlier work "Old X" tucked it away and then it was lost . . . . . until it turned up in 2015 in the archives of an orchestra in New Zealand! It is thought that it found its way to Tauranga in New Zealand via a flautist called Stanley Farnsworth who conducted an orchestra in the area in the 1960s. It is not known how he came to have it, or what his connection was with Holst. The manuscript is now in the "Holst Victorian House" museum, located in the house in Cheltenham where Holst was born.
The first performance in modern times was given by the Bay of Plenty Symphonia conducted by Justus Rozemond on 15th April 2018 in the Baycourt Theatre in Tauranga, New Zealand.
The second UK performance (after Holst’s original in 1906 in the Pump Room, Bath) was by the Cheltenham Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Curtis on 17th September 2022 in the Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham (...in a Pump Room again!!)
Folk Songs from Somerset published here for the first time, makes use of ten different folk songs: Dicky of Taunton Dean, The Sweet Primeroses, The Trees they do Grow High, Sheep Shearing Song, The Little Turtle Dove, High Germany, The True Lovers’ Farewell, Bruton Town, The Sign of the Bonny Blue Bell and Let Bucks A-hunting Go. (The re-written A Somerset Rhapsody only used three of these tunes.)
Holst’s manuscript shows Clarinets in A and Trumpets in A - this published edition gives the clarinets in Bb as well as A, the trumpets are transposed into Bb. Holst originally included only one trombone in the score, but later added 2 more. The original trombone is now Trombone 3. He scored for two horns but later added an indication that Horns 3 & 4 should double Horns 1 & 2 in some sections. Horns 3 & 4 are consequently optional.
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