 In the years before the First World War, Holst composed in a variety of genres.Matthews considers the evocation of a North African town in the "Beni Mora" suite of 1908 the composer's most individual work to that date; the third movement gives a preview of minimalism in its constant repetition of a four-bar theme.Holst wrote two suites for military band, in E flat (1909) and F major (1911) respectively, the first of which became and remains a brass-band staple.