The Tri-County Symphonic Band, under the direction of Philip Sanborn, will present a concert titled “English Folk Song Gala: The Music of Grainger, Holst and Vaughan Williams” at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 13 in the Old Rochester Regional High School Gilbert D. Bristol Auditorium

While the three composers did not write the folk songs as such, they did use them as the inspiration for their many compositions, a practice used by composers in countries other than England over the years. 

For example, Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” from “Symphony No. 9” began as a German poem composed by Friedrich Schiller in 1785 to serve as a drinking song with his friends. “Down the Road,” an African-American spiritual, served as an inspiration for the melody in Dvorak’s “Symphony No. 9.”  

The concert will feature sea chanteys, love songs, folk dances, ballads, classic songs like “Danny Boy” and marches. 

Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door and may be purchased at the Symphony Music Shop in North Dartmouth and online at brownpapertickets.com.

For more information and COVID policy details for the concert, visit www.tricountysymphonicband.org/.