Annual Events,
A St George's Day tour of England (in thirty-nine steps!)
Of the four patronal festivals of the UK's home nations, St George's Day is perhaps the hardest to mark. National celebrations in England often default to a relatively small repertoire of time-honoured favourite works in which Englishness and Britishness are conflated, at times carrying an air of self-congratulatory triumphalism.
But there's far more to the United Kingdom's largest country than that - and we're going to prove it. Scroll down for a playlist of tracks, familiar and obscure, connected to all thirty-nine of the historic counties of England - from the Tudor era, via Baroque curiosities, sweeping Romantic tone-poems and lyrical English song, right up to the present day.
A St George's Day tour of England (in thirty-nine steps!)
Curated by David Smith
A selection of music from, or inspired by, the thirty-nine historical English counties. 3 hours 25 minutes
Carson Cooman: Bedfordshire Voluntary
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Henry Balfour Gardiner: Berkshire Idyll
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Rutland Boughton: Aylesbury Games
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Pieter Hellendaal: 'Cambridge' Sonatas
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Will Todd: Alice in Wonderland
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Rutland Boughton: Queen of Cornwall
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
John Blackwood McEwen: A Solway Symphony
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Patrick Hadley: Kinder Scout
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Ralph Vaughan Williams: The Solent
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Jon Lord: Durham Concerto
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
John Dowland: The Earl of Essex's Galliard
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Gerald Finzi: Severn Rhapsody
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Hugh Benham: Hampshire Morning
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Herbert Howells: Hereford Service
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Peter Hurford: A Fancy
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Ralph Vaughan Williams: In the Fen Country
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Samuel Barber: Dover Beach
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Antonio Vivaldi: 'Manchester' Sonatas
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Percy Grainger: Lincolnshire Posy
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Franz Joseph Haydn: 'London' Symphony
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Malcolm Arnold: English Dances
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
John Jeffreys: Northumberland
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Thomas Weelkes: Since Robin Hood
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
William Byrd: The Earl of Oxford's March
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC
Malcolm Bennett: Rutland Water
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
George Butterworth: A Shropshire Lad
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Gustav Holst: A Somerset Rhapsody
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
William Harris: Almighty and Most Merciful
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
Ernest Moeran: Suffolk Folksongs
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
William Alwyn: Blackdown - A Tone Poem from the Surrey Hills
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on Sussex Folk Tunes
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Arthur Bliss: Kenilworth
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
Cecil Armstrong Gibbs: 'Westmorland' Symphony
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Harnham Down
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Thomas Tomkins: Worster Braules
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
Henry Purcell: Yorkshire Feast Song
Available Formats: Presto CD, MP3, FLAC