Concerto Grosso is a work for string orchestra

String orchestra

A string orchestra is an orchestra composed solely or primarily of instruments from the string family. These instruments are the violin, the viola, the cello, the double bass , the piano, the harp, and sometimes percussion...

 by Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...

. Originally composed in 1950 for a performance by the Rural Schools Music Association conducted by Sir Adrian Boult, the piece is unique in that the orchestra is split into three sections based on skill: Concertino (Advanced), Tutti (Intermediate), and Ad Lib (Novice) which only plays open strings. The piece is in five movements, and performances generally run for 14 minutes.

Movements

• I. Intrada: A dramatic theme that features heavy string writing
• II. Burlesca Ostinata: A sprightly movement making brilliant use of perfect fifths to allow the "Ad Lib" players (who can only play open strings (tuned in intervals of perfect fifths) to play the theme.
• III. Sarabande: A slow movement in triple time as indicated by the movement's name
• IV. Scherzo: An energetic but lyrical short scherzo
  Scherzo
  A scherzo is a piece of music, often a movement from a larger piece such as a symphony or a sonata. The scherzo's precise definition has varied over the years, but it often refers to a movement which replaces the minuet as the third movement in a four-movement work, such as a symphony, sonata, or...
  
   and a small coda
• V. March and Reprise: A very lively march
  March (music)
  A march, as a musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and most frequently performed by a military band. In mood, marches range from the moving death march in Wagner's Götterdämmerung to the brisk military marches of John...
  
   with much syncopation
  Syncopation
  In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak but also powerful beats in a meter . These include a stress on a normally unstressed beat or a rest where one would normally be...
  
  , leading seamlessly into a full reprise of the first movement.