Klarinet Archive - Posting 000348.txt from 1994/11

From: Josias Associates <josassoc@-----.COM>
Subj: Percy Grainger
Date: Thu, 24 Nov 1994 15:30:13 -0500

Dan,

Your reminiscences of Percy Grainger were most interesting and
valuable. I vaguely remember posting something in the past that I had
heard about Grainger that seemed so unusual to me as to make it worthy
of repeating.

In a Public Radio retrospective on Grainger presented by a
musicologist like Jim Svejda (if not Svejda himself), Grainger was said to
have maintained on a number of occasions that the three greatest composers of
all time were Beethoven (or one of the other acknowledged masters like
Mozart, Bach, or Brahms), Frederick Delius, and Duke Ellington. I also
recall that he was very fond of George Gershwin and that he had done some
quirky arrangements of Gershwins's music (somewhat like Shostakovich having
arranged Vincent Youman's "Tea for Two"). My guess as to why he had chosen
Delius and Ellington had to do with their having created their own unique
musical idioms, which immensely appealed to Grainger.

In addition to the marvelous pieces of his that you mentioned
(The Immovable Do, Lincolnshire Posey, Handel in the Strand) plus others
that are played frequently, there are some other worthy, though angular,
pieces like his Mountain Songs, which democratically distribute solos
to nearly everyone -- pieces that seem to be programmed only rarely.

I am pleased that you were able to share your memories of
Grainger with us.

Connie

Conrad Josias
La Canada, California