The structure of this overture is designed to display each in turn the basic families of instruments, strings, woodwind, brass and percussion, playing as separate ensembles as well as in combination. An introductory fanfare leads to the principal subject in quadruple time on the strings, which is followed by the lyrical second subject in quintuple quavers, which is based on an English folk melody. A slow middle section which includes cadenza-like passages in which solo strings, brass, piano, celesta and even the double-bassoon take part, is followed by a shortened recapitulation of both first and second subjects and a lengthened cadenza section. The coda is developed from the opening brass fanfare.