''Two Jamaican Pieces'' is a short

suite Suite may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Suite (music), a set of musical pieces considered as one composition ** Suite (Bach), a list of suites composed by J. S. Bach ** Suite (Cassadó), a mid-1920s composition by Gaspar Cassadó ** ''Suite' ...

composed in 1938 by

Arthur Benjamin Arthur Leslie Benjamin (18 September 1893 in Sydney – 10 April 1960 in London) was an Australian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. He is best known as the composer of ''Jamaican Rumba'' (1938) and of the '' Storm Clouds Cantata'', fea ...

which uses melodies from the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

. It is in two sections, ''Jamaican Song'' and ''Jamaican Rumba''. The latter has become Benjamin's most popular work. The suite was initially written for the duo-pianists

Joan Trimble Joan Trimble (18 June 1915 – 6 August 2000) was an Irish composer and pianist, and one of the most distinguished musicians to come from Ulster in the 20th century. She studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music ...

and her sister

Valerie Trimble Valerie may refer to: People *Saint Valerie (disambiguation) *Valerie (given name), feminine Songs * Valerie (Steve Winwood song), 1982, from ''Talking Back to the Night'' * Valerie (Zutons song), 2006, with Amy Winehouse, from ''Tired of Hangin ...

(Joan was Benjamin's student). Benjamin also arranged it for orchestra.

Larry Adler Lawrence Cecil Adler (February 10, 1914 – August 6, 2001) was an American harmonica player and film composer. Known for playing major works, he played compositions by George Gershwin, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Malcolm Arnold, Darius Milhaud ...

recorded a version in 1959 on Pye Records.

References

*David Ewen, ''Encyclopedia of Concert Music''. New York; Hill and Wang, 1959. 1938 compositions Compositions by Arthur Benjamin Compositions for symphony orchestra Compositions for two pianos {{classical-composition-stub