1. Fantasia: Andante con moto
2. Soliloquy on a sailor's song: Andante tranquillo
3. Passacaglia
The first movement is a fantasia on a recomposed version of the Gregorian melody used by the 17th-century English composers in their In Nominees. The Soliloquy is a mood picture expressing the verbal content of the shanty 'Lowlands my Lowlands' and using the actual tune as its thematic material. The Passacaglia is built on the English peasant song, 'The Cutty Wren', from the Peasant Rising of 1381.