A Beuk o'Newcassel Sangs is the title of a nineteenth-century folk-song collection. Finnissy uses the folk-song texts, with numerous alterations, as a starting point for this own melodic material. The seven songs evoke a folkquality through the use of heavily decorated modal tunes. Only one line of melody is heard at a time, and the clarinet and piano sustain drones around the vocal part or provide linking material.