The Hounds of Spring is a concert overture for winds, written by the American composer, Alfred Reed in 1980.
Reed was inspired by the poem Atalanta in Calydon (1865), by Victorian era English poet, Algernon Charles Swinburne, a recreation in modern English verse of an ancient Greek tragedy. That poem includes the line "When the hounds of spring are on winter's traces."
It was Reed's desire to capture the dual elements of the poem - high-spirited youthful jauntiness and the innocence of tender love.
The Hounds of Spring was commissioned by, and dedicated to, the John L. Forster Secondary School Concert Band of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and its director, Gerald Brown. The world premiere was in Windsor on May 8, 1980, conducted by the composer. Ever since then it has been a popular concert piece played by high school ensembles around the world.