Movement I: "March: Morris dance, Swansea Town, Claudy Banks"

The "March" of the Second Suite begins with a simple five note motif between the low and high instruments of the band. The first folk tune is heard in the form of a traditional British brass band march using the morris-dance tune "Glorishears".^[2] After a brief climax, the second strain begins with a solo euphonium playing the second folk tune in the suite, "Swansea Town".^[2] The theme is repeated by the full band before the trio. For the trio, Holst modulates to the unconventional subdominant minor of B♭ minor and changes the time signature to ⁶
₈, thereby changing the meter. Usually one would modulate to subdominant major in traditional march form. While Sousa, reputably the "king of marches", would sometimes change time signatures for the trio (most notably in "El Capitán"), it was not commonplace. The third theme, called "Claudy Banks",^[2] is heard in a low woodwind soli, as is standard march orchestration. Then the first two tunes are repeated da capo.

Movement II: "Song Without Words, 'I'll Love My Love' "

Holst places the fourth folk song, "I'll Love My Love"^[2] in stark contrast to the first movement. The movement begins with a chord from French horns and moves into a solo of clarinet with oboe over a flowing accompaniment in F Dorian. The solo is then repeated by trumpet, forming an arc of intensity. The climax of the piece is a fermata in measure 32, followed by a trumpet pick-up into the final measures of the piece.

Movement III: "Song of the Blacksmith"

Again, Holst contrasts the slow second movement to the rather upbeat third movement which features the folk song "A Blacksmith Courted Me".^[2] The brass section plays in a pointillistic style depicting a later Holst style. There are many time signature changes (⁴
₄ to ³
₄) making the movement increasingly difficult because the brass section has all of their accompaniment on the up-beats of each measure. The upper woodwinds and horns join on the melody around the body of the piece, and are accompanied with the sound of a blacksmith forging metal with an anvil called for in the score. The final D major chord has a glorious, heavenly sound, which opens way to the final movement. This chord works so effectively perhaps because it is unexpected: the entire movement is in F major when the music suddenly moves to the major of the relative minor.

Movement IV: "Fantasia on the Dargason"

This movement is not based on any folk songs, but rather has two tunes from Playford's Dancing Master of 1651.^[2] The finale of the suite opens with an alto saxophone solo based on the folk tune "Dargason", a 16th-century English dance tune included in the first edition of The Dancing Master. The fantasia continues through several variations encompassing the full capabilities of the band. The final folk tune, "Greensleeves", is cleverly woven into the fantasia by the use of hemiolas, with "Dargason" being in ⁶
₈ and "Greensleeves" being in ³
₄. At the climax of the movement, the two competing themes are placed in competing sections. As the movement dies down, a tuba and piccolo duet forms a call back to the beginning of the suite with the competition of low and high registers.

The name dargason may perhaps come from an Irish legend that tells of a monster resembling a large bear (although much of the description of the creature has been lost over time), the dargason tormented the Irish countryside. During the Irish uprising of the late 18th century, the dargason is supposed to have attacked a British camp killing many soldiers. This tale aside, dargason is more likely derived from an Old English word for dwarf or fairy, and the tune has been considered English (or Welsh) since at least the 16th century.^[3] It is also known as "Sedony" (or Sedany) or "Welsh Sedony".

Holst later rewrote and rescored this movement for string orchestra, as the final movement of his St Paul's Suite (1912), which he wrote for his music students at St Paul's Girls' School.^[4]