The following is taken from my forthcoming book England.
A playlist, of/for England.
1: Estuary
Dr. Feelgood, ‘All Through The City’ (1975)
The Verve, ‘History’ (1995)
George Frideric Handel, Water Music (1717)
2: Park
Blur, ‘Parklife’ (1994)
Stick in the Wheel, ‘Abbots Bromley Horn Dance’ (2018)
Martin Carthy, ‘The Famous Flower Of Serving Men’ (1972)
3: Downs
Ralph Vaughan Williams, ‘The Lark Ascending’ (1914)
Arnold Bax, ‘Summer Music’ (1917)
John Ireland, A Downland Suite for Brass Band (1932)
Frank Bridge, ‘Enter Spring’ (1927)
4: Beechwood
Arnold Bax, ‘November Woods’ (1917)
Pink Floyd, ‘Careful With That Axe, Eugene’ (1969)
Edward Elgar, ‘Owls: An Epitaph’, Op. 53, No. 4 (1907)
—‘Woodland Interlude’, from Caractacus (1898)
5: River
George Butterworth, ‘The Banks of Green Willow’ (1913)
Edward Elgar, ‘Enigma Variations’, Var. XI (1899)
Nick Drake, ‘River Man’ (1969)
Frederick Delius, ‘Summer Night on the River’, from Two Pieces for Small
Orchestra (1911)
Keane, ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ (2004)
6: Field
George Butterworth, ‘Is My Team Ploughing?’, from Six Songs from a
Shropshire Lad (1911)
Gerald Finzi, Eclogue for Piano and String Orchestra, Op. 10 (1927)
The Wurzels, ‘The Combine Harvester’ (1976)
Pink Floyd, ‘The Scarecrow’ (1967)
Henry Purcell, ‘When I Am Laid in Earth’, from Dido and Aeneas (1689)
7: Village
Gerald Finzi, By Footpath and Stile, Op. 2 (1922)
Percy Grainger, ‘Country Gardens’ (1918)
Thomas Tallis, ‘Nunc Dimittis’ (c. 1562)
The Kinks, ‘Village Green’ (1968)
The Incredible String Band, ‘Ducks on a Pond’ (1968)
8: Moor
Kate Bush, ‘Wuthering Heights’ (1978)
Traditional, ‘On Ilkley Moor baht’at’ (c. 1865)
Johnny Pearson, ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ (1978)
Frederick Delius, ‘On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring’, from Two
Pieces for Small Orchestra (1912)
Gustav Holst, A Moorside Suite, H. 173 (1928)
9: Lake
Arthur Somervell, ‘Shepherd’s Cradle Song’ (1918)
Maurice Johnstone, Tarn Hows: A Cumbrian Rhapsody (1949)
John Woodcock Graves, ‘D’ye ken John Peel?’ (1824)
Radiohead, ‘Codex’ (2011)
10: Heath
Gustav Holst, Egdon Heath, Op. 47 (1927)
Arnold Bax, ‘The Tale the Pine Trees Knew’, Symphony No. 5 (1931)
Unknown, ‘Turpin Hero’ (eighteenth century)
Thomas Arne, ‘The Woodlark Whistles’ from Eliza (1754)
Pietro Scarlatti, ‘Pianga pure al duol’, from Humanità e Lucifero (1704)
11: Fen and Broad
Ralph Vaughan Williams, ‘In the Fen Country’ (1905)
David Bowie, ‘Life On Mars?’ (1971)
Traditional, ‘On board a wherry’ (n.d.)
Benjamin Britten, ‘Marsh Flowers’, from Five Flower Songs, Op. 47 (1950)
12: Coast
Benjamin Britten, ‘Storm’, from Peter Grimes, Op. 33 (1945)
Arnold Bax, ‘On the Sea Shore’, from Deidre (1908)
British Sea Power, ‘Carrion’ (2003)
Radiohead, ‘Bloom’ (2011)
Without lowering the tone, Ian Dury's Billericay Dickie does name check a fair bit of the Thames estuary. On a more highbrow note, I always love the image of the dog falling in the river in the Enigma Variations, good choice there.
Oh my. The Incredible String Band. Now I feel a hundred years old.