Gustav Holst composed his First Suite for Military Band, Op. 28 no. 1, in 1909. It is a work in three movements, nowadays considered a cornerstone of the concert band repertoire. First premiered in 1920 at the Royal Military School of Music, it served as a demonstration that serious music could be written for the combination of woodwinds, brass and percussion. As there is no recorded comission for this work, the reason for Holst writing it remains unknown, though it has been observed that Holst was visibly unsatisfied with the level of the music written for bands at the time (himself being a trombonist and performing regularly with different bands). Most of the pieces played by bands in the day consisted of transcriptions of popular tunes or easy classical pieces. Holst's suite was perfectly tailored to handle the inherent challenges of a military band due to its ingenious orchestrarion. The composition is based on an original tune, albeit reminiscent of English folk songs tradition. Holst let it be known that the three movements should follow each other withouth a break.
