Two Songs Without Words

Two Songs Without Words was composed in 1906 and was dedicated to Ralph Vaughan Williams and is similar in style to his two suites for band. The Country Song opens with the principal theme as an unaccompanied clarinet solo, followed by its repetition in the full woodwind section. The main theme returns in a “maestoso” setting before fading into a quite closing. Marching Song is characterized by a distinctive running sixteenth note figure. The principal melody, first played by the low woodwinds, is punctuated by these same running sixteenth note fragments. Both themes are again repeated with much variation before the tempo picks up into a short coda-style ending.