Grainger, Percy (1882 - 1961)

[verismissimo]

Andrew says that Grainger never outstays his welcome. I liked what he played, but I find a little goes a long way.

What a pity he called the delightful piece currently playing a Colonial Song. Not at all PC in Australia nowadays.

[MarkG]

An interesting survey I'll have to give it a full listen on LA.

This is a beautiful version of Lotus Land composed by Grainger's friend Cyril Scott:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jOslQGCgw8&feature=BFa&list=FLpnvj0GbDQGk&index=42

[BBMmk2]

I completely forgot all about this! I have always loved Grainger's music. One of my favourites is the English Dance and his araangem,ent of Byrd's Four Note Pavane. Quite a moving piece this one.

[Black Swan]

I'm afraid, I like Grainger in very small doses. I like some of his work but not enough to listen through even the BAL this morning.

John

[StephenO]

A fascinating survey. I've always loved Grainger's setting of Shallow Brown. Although he was best known for 'novelty' pieces like Country Gardens, his longer works, though not exactly long by most other composers' standards, are well worth exploring - The Warriors, In a Nutshell and the Love Songs from The Song of Solomon to name three.

[JoeG]

I'm looking forward to the late night Prom with The Wilson Family and Kathryn Tickell on Tuesday.

[HighlandDougie]

Listening - in the background - to the super-smooooth Sean Rafferty, who has just played some Percy Grainger, has reminded me of how much his music sets my teeth on edge. I'd almost rather listen to Philip Glass. Is there any merit in his music? As opposed to his extra-curricular interests??

[cloughie]

Listening - in the background - to the super-smooooth Sean Rafferty, who has just played some Percy Grainger, has reminded me of how much his music sets my teeth on edge. I'd almost rather listen to Philip Glass. Is there any merit in his music? As opposed to his extra-curricular interests??

At least PGr produced some cheery tunes, which is to his credit!

[Serial_Apologist]

Listening - in the background - to the super-smooooth Sean Rafferty, who has just played some Percy Grainger, has reminded me of how much his music sets my teeth on edge. I'd almost rather listen to Philip Glass. Is there any merit in his music? As opposed to his extra-curricular interests??

In early Glass, maybe.

[smittims]

Oh dear, Dougie,I'm sorry to see that Grainger's music isn't to your taste. And I suppose that's what it comes down to: a matter of taste. He did have a very individual approach to music and if that's not to one's liking,then that's it! I would suggest though that you try either of the two 'Hill Songs' which I think are his best orginal compositions.

Although I enjoy his music I'm not an out-and-out Grainger fan and I think there's little doubt that his best talent lay in arrangements of traditional melodies. When he tried a more extended work of his own invention he tended to come apart. The Warriors, for all its idiosyncratic exuberance, shows his limits in this respect.

[Sir Velo]

Pace Smittims I would consider a Lincolnshire Posy to be Grainger's masterpiece, particularly in the military band arrangement. I would add that it's a very dangerous approach to judge a composer's merits on the basis of what is played on Radio 3 these days!

[rauschwerk]

When I was a lad, the only Grainger piece I can recall hearing on the radio was Country Gardens. It wasn't until I heard Britten's splendid Grainger album that I realised there was much more to his music. However, Radio 3 seems to have returned to playing only Country Gardens and Molly on the Shore. It's very dispiriting. A dose of 'Lord Melbourne' from the Lincolnshire Posy would wake everybody up, especially in the wonderful recording by the Cleveland Symphonic Winds under Frederick Fennell.

I regularly return to Seventeen Come Sunday which is on that Britten album. Britten heard this on the radio as a young man and wrote in his diary that it knocked the arrangements by Vaughan Williams and R O Morris into a cocked hat.

[smittims]

Well, he would say that. Britten had a deep-seated psychological reason for rubbishing a lot of musicians including Henry Wood, Adrian Boult and Constant Lambert. He rubbished VW's and Lambert's music and then copied it in his own: see how much War Requiem owes to The Hymn of Jesus and Dona Nobis Pacem, while Lambert's Summer's Last Will and Testament begins, as Christopher Palmer pointed out, where Spring Symphony leaves off. Vaugha Williams helped Bitten inhis earlty career; while Britten was hardly more than a schoolboy VW was writing to his contacts in publishing and the BBC urging them to play Britten's then very early wotrks, saying they had promise. He had no thanks from Britten, nor when he saved rhe premiere of Our Hunting Fathers, Britten's first orchestral work to be played, by telling the orchestra to take it seriously when they had been ridiculing it. .

[LMcD]

One has to doff one's cap to anybody who composes a piece of music with the word 'humlet' in the title.

[Padraig]

One has to doff one's cap to anybody who composes a piece of music with the word 'humlet' in the title.

. . . or, who turned 'Danny Boy' into an orchestral gem, to mention just one piece. I first heard The Air from County Derry on Alan Keith's programme. It was his theme tune. Here is a brass band version of Percy Grainger's arrangement.

percy grainger danny boy - Google Search