This leading composition for brass band is a direct outgrowth of Britain's famous National Brass Band Competitions. The year 1932 was one of the biggest years of this historic contest, which began in 1860. Ireland, one of the leading composers of the "English pastoralist" generation (a loose group of composers who often found their inspiration and their style in English rural folk music) was goaded into writing this suite by Harry Mortimer, one of the country's leading bandleaders. "You people don't bother about brass bands," he said to Ireland, who responded to the implied challenge by writing this, his first piece for brass band, for use as the year's mandatory test piece. Ireland creates a variety of moods in the piece, ranging from the expected pastoral outdoorsy mood suggested by the title, to an inward-looking slow movement, and including in the minuet some very non-brass-like "indoors" music. The final movement contains a trick: Ireland deliberately misnamed the music, which is not a rondo at all but is a perpetual motion interrupted only for one grand statement of the theme of the Elegy movement.

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