What was that Richard, 'pretty harmless as quartertone goes'?

I tuned in late, but I seemed to have had a better time than most previous posters. I found the harmony interesting, not in itself (much unadorned major and minor triads) but in the sequences of unrelated chords especially those which seemed to be modulating to ever sharper keys (reminiscent of Havergal Brian's Gothic symphony). It certainly used the space well, I didn't get bored and I was thankful it didn't sound in any way Elgarian. Yes, there was that woman with the mile-wide wobble (a desperate attempt to cover up her lack of any real volume) which was a real pain. I didn't hear any quartertones, but they do exist in this piece though probably not for very long - there's a music example in Foulds' book "Music Today".
I shall be having another listen.

What "sort of thing" ?  Notated quarter-tones or prolonged string portamenti ? probably not a great deal of mileage in comparing Foulds to George Harrison.

If the soprano soloist was the lady with the wobble, I don't believe you !

Perhaps because you tuned in late you missed the Elgarian bits. I thought there were plenty!

Where's the Modify button gone?

Yes, I remember wondering about that at one point, martle!

My fault. It probably seemed like a good idea at the time !

Mary - I tuned in c. 7.00 pm. One of the tiresome things I find about Elgar is his notion of a harmonic progression - to me this often sounds like a succession of 2-chord cadences strung together (Gerontius seriously irks me for that reason). Foulds' harmonic progressions were often deliberately aimless, circular, slightly bizarre and based on unrelated chords - which is why they interested me. The whole thing sounded VERY English . . .

Apologies if Elgar fans are horrified. In mitigation, I did recommend to a board member Falstaff and the 2nd movement of the violin concerto as representative of Elgar works which might attract those who are otherwise lukewarm to his oeuvre.

Foulds-wise, I do look forward to hearing all these things which I appear to have missed !

Have you heard "Mirage"? There is a strange and wonderful chord progression in that (at about 3'30", approaching the end of the first section) which is absolutely riveting - and quite un-English, although I couldn't pin any other nationality on it either. I heard quite a lot of Mirage in the World Requiem. It was rather a stylistic mish-mash; and I agree both with those who share my allergy to the dreadfully wobbly soprano and those who considered it rather too long for its content. I suppose Foulds might have thought that it had to be that long to allow the 1920s audience to feel that they had had an evening's worth, or perhaps so that it would be guaranteed always to be performed on its own.

The Pasquinades Symphoniques (particularly number 1) are possibly Foulds' finest works, I think (no quarter-tones!). Number 2 appears on the excellent Barry Wordsworth Lyrita disc (SRCD 212); I had thought that the only recording of number 1, on the Forlane label, was deleted - but it is available via Amazon, where a sample can be heard:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Masters-English-Musical-Renaissance-Havergal/dp/B0000038E4/ref=sr_1_2/202-6599825-9660600?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1194953670&sr=8-2