Klarinet Archive - Posting 001100.txt from 1998/01

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Re Grainger's band music
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 09:38:04 -0500

On Sun, 25 Jan 1998, Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:

> Grainger invariably made anywhere from 4-8 transcriptions of almost
> everything he wrote that was considered accessible music. The Irish
> Tune, Molly on the Shore, Shepherd's Hey, and many more of his
> folk song works have so many arrangements that it is not known
> which one came first. It could have been the band version but it
> is not likely that all of them were.

The phenomena that Dan describes, "originally for band" is ambiguous at
best. While many of Graingers works were scored for multiple genre, and
it might be difficult to determine which genre came first, when the
composer writes music down and calls it a band work, those of us in the
field refer to the work as an original band composition. In the case of
Irish Tune, Shepherd's Hey, etc.... Grainger wrote the works for band.
That he also arranged them for other genre does not change the fact that
they are also written by the composer for band. The significance to the
listener is not so much a historical issue as a credibility issue.....is
the band considered by a composer of Grainger's stature a worthy medium
for that composition? If he wrote it for band, the question can be
answered. If someone else arranged it for band, such as Scotch Strathspey
and Reel or Handel in the Strand, or Spoon River, then the question has
not been answered and Dan's point is well taken. We will never know if
the arranged works were considered good for band or not. Beyond that, it
is not necessarily important.

Roger Garrett
IWU

   
     Copyright © Woodwind.Org, Inc. All Rights Reserved    Privacy Policy    Contact charette@woodwind.org