It attempts to capture the atmosphere of an Irish jig, with a mixture of lively pseudo-folk tunes and ‘vamping’ harmony.

The introduction is intended to be humorous and rather musically misleading. It starts in F minor but is immediately contradicted by remote chords, openly parodying the ‘cowboy’ music of Aaron Copland. Modal harmony helps to create the folk-like mood.

The main themes are presented in D minor and are shared throughout the band; sequential modulation builds up to a key change to E minor, which presents the first theme unexpectedly softly in keeping with the humour of the piece.

The recap is contracted before the climax where the upper wind instruments play busy decorative triplets against a strong statement of the main theme in augmentation, in the bass.

After a third and final reference to the introductory material, the movement finishes with an upward flourish