American composer Arthur Foote's most famous piece of orchestral concert music, the Suite for string orchestra in E major, Op. 63, of 1907-1909 (not to be confused with either the Suite for string orchestra in E major, Op. 12, of 1886 or the Serenade for strings in E major, Op. 25) is a piece of which he himself was quite fond, as he specifically mentions in his autobiography, and of which the American—and especially New England—musical public was quite fond for a full two or three decades after it was first composed. The suite, Op. 63, was premiered on April 16, 1909, by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, August Max Fiedler conducting.

The suite originally had four movements, but Foote eventually cut one of them and left only: 1. Praeludium, 2. Pizzicato and Adagietto, 3. Fugue. (The discarded movement was a Theme and Variations.) The Praeludium begins with a tune in the first violins and some syncopated accompaniment in the seconds and violas, and never veers more than a few degrees from this basic layout or that particular melody. Still, the tune is carefully planned for maximum effect, and there is great breadth and variety of expression drawn from it, including a not-too-strong climax moment. The Pizzicato and Adagietto is, as its name implies, a movement containing two quite contrasting types of music (it is not, however, the two-section movement its name would also seem to imply, but rather a three-section one—the opening Pizzicato music comes back after the Adagietto). Plucked music, Capriccioso, Allegretto, in a galloping 6/8 time A minor fills the opening portion, and then the strings throw mutes on their instruments for the introspective (and arco) central Adagietto. The Fugue is built from an Allegro giusto E minor subject first offered by the second violins and then given a go by the first violins, cellos/basses, and finally the violas.

© Blair Johnston, All Music Guide