Klarinet Archive - Posting 001152.txt from 1998/01

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Grainger's band music
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 12:30:07 -0500

On Sun, 27 Dec 1998, Jarle Brosveet wrote:
> According to The Percy Grainger Companion, by Lewis Foreman, 1980:
>
> Irish Tune - chorus 1902, wind band 1918
> Molly on the Shore - 4 strings or string orch. 1907, wind band 1921
> Shepherd's Hey - "room-music" (!) 1908/9, wind band 1918?
> Country Gardens - "whistlers & instr." 1908, wind band 1953
> Gumsucker's March - piano 1916, piano and wind band 1942
>
> These are publication or MS dates. According to the Foreman book, only
> the two Hill Songs (an unconventional choice of winds as originally
> composed 1901-7), Over the Hills (with piano, 1919) and most of
> Lincolnshire Posy were scored for wind band in the first place. Only
> the first movement, Lisbon (Dublin Bay), was set for chorus in 1906.
> The wind band version is from 1937. Of course, the tunes for the other
> movements were sketched much earlier.

While I (and I am sure many others on the list) appreciate your efforts
Jarle, my contention is that the works were written for band by Percy
Grainger himself. Whether they were written before or after Grainger
sketched them for another medium is unimportant to those of us who conduct
bands. If he did not sketch them for band himself, as is the case for
Spoon River, Handel in the Strand, Scotch Strahespey, and a variety of
others, it becomes much more important.

I'm not sure I am understanding the point of determining which medium it
was written for first. Could you explain it more clearly to me?

Roger Garrett
IWU

   
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