A Thames Journey is a 10-minute work which follows the journey of the river Thames, from its origins as a few drops of water in Wiltshire to the point where it meets the open sea. Hess draws upon many musical links along the Thames, such as an old Wiltshire melody, morris dancing in Oxfordshire, boating songs from Berkshire. With such rich and diverse sources of music across several counties and centuries, this has quite understandably become one of Hess's most popular wind band works to date.

A Thames Journey