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Folklore: Percy Grainger
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Percy Grainger: existing recordings? (27)
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Folklore: Percy Grainger Related thread: Percy Grainger: existing recordings? (27) |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Percy Grainger From: dick greenhaus Date: 27 Apr 05 - 09:34 PM Believe it or not, Joseph Taylor's singing of Briggs Fair is available on CD. Not too listenable (recording techniques weren't too good in 1906), but IMO very interesting historically. At CAMSCO, of course. |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Percy Grainger From: open mike Date: 27 Apr 05 - 06:44 PM COUNTRY GARDENS British Folk-Music Settings No. 22 English Morris Dance Tune, collected by Cecil J. Sharp Grainger: "Rough-sketched for 2 whistlers and a few instruments about 1908. Worked out for piano, spring, 1918. Birthday gift, mother, July 3, 1918. "Groups of countryside dancers--'teams' of 'Morris Men'--decked out with ribbons and jingling bells, still dance the Morris Dance to the accompaniment of such tunes as Shepherd's Hey and Country Gardens, in some parts of rural England. We owe our knowledge of such things to that genius among folk-music collectors, Cecil J. Sharp, and those interested in the subject should consult Morris Dance Tunes and The Morris Dance Book, both by Cecil J. Sharp and Herbert C. Macil waine and both published by Novello & Co., Ltd. "The traditional tune, as collected by Cecil J. Sharp, is [given as Mus. Exam. 3, below]." Version for piano solo "[This] English Morris-dance tune... became Grainger's curse, but equally, let it be admitted, posterity's delight."--Leslie Howard (Piano 1). "Of Country Gardens Grainger once wrote: 'The typical English country garden is not often used to grow flowers in; it is more likely to be a vegetable plot. So you can think of turnips as I play it.'"--John Bird [Adni]. "In an NBC broadcast of 1936, Grainger said of his Country Gardens, 'I arranged this Morris Dance originally to be whistled by two whistlers with a few instruments accompanying them. That was in 1908. In 1918 when I was in the Band of the 15th Coast Artillery Corps I used to improvise on Country Gardens at Liberty Loan concerts. Finally in 1919 I had it published for the piano and you have been afflicted with it ever since.' All that one can add here is that Cecil Sharp first gave Grainger the tune but lived to regret it and whilst the piece's phenomenal popularity earned the Australian (and his publishers) a small fortune it also obscured most of his other compositions. It must also be one of the few works composed by a dedicated pacifist in an army barracks."--John Bird (Rambles). |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Percy Grainger From: open mike Date: 27 Apr 05 - 06:39 PM I think the first time i recall seeing his name was on the sheet music of "An English Country Garden" a folk tune. |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Percy Grainger From: RangerSteve Date: 27 Apr 05 - 06:16 PM There's a book called "The Mammoth Book of Oddballs and Eccentrics" that says he was into flagellation and referred to his whipping scars as his "blue roses". He also established a Percy Grainger museum in Australia (Sydney, I think), and his last wish was to have his skeleton included in the exhibits. The museum trustees ignored this request. |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Percy Grainger From: GUEST,surreysinger Date: 27 Apr 05 - 05:15 PM Percy Grainger acknowledged his indebtedness to Lucy Broadwood for his first introduction to English folksong and folksong collecting in a letter to her from White Plains, USA, dated 2 November 1925... "Your work for folksong was always a source of the keenest delight to both my darling mother and myself. I don't know any woman my mother admired more than you....." He first met her at a talk that she gave on folksong collecting to the British Musical Association in March 1905 which fired him up to actively go out and start collecting himself. "Thru the beautiful spirit of that lecture I was led into paths that have meant so much to me and to my life's work, and the popularising of English folksongI have been able to do in US and the European continent etc, all had it's roots in that lecture of yrs, and the fragrance of country melody that it radiated". The lecture sparked off a friendship that was to last until her death in 1929. As already indicated he collected for the first time in 1905, the year of the lecture, and in 1906, Lucy (who was one of the judge's at the Brigg Folksong Competition) and he collected together. Lucy was actually instrumental in her capacity as Secretary of the Folk Song Society in providing him with a phonograph, and he was a pioneer in actually recording rather than annotating songs by hand. He was responsible for making the recordings of Joseph Taylor in 1906 which became the first commercially issued recording of English folksong from a source singer. Vaughan Williams who was collecting from December 1903 to 1913,(and therefore at the same time as Grainger) was also introduced to folksongs and collecting by Lucy Broadwood (and also according to a letter he wrote to her in 1924 to Bach and Purcell). He was a family friend (living in Leith Hill near Dorking, while her family home was in Rusper on the Surrey/Sussex border nearby), and together with her and two others founded the Leith Hill Music Festival which has just taken place again in Dorking in the last month. Like Grainger he remained a friend of hers until she died. Whether the two composers met at one of the musical soirees and other parties that she held or attended I am unaware - her diaries record the names of various visitors to her home in London, or in Rusper, and both figure frequently therein (as do Holst, Butterworth and other classical music luminaries). It doesn't seem too fanciful to think it might have occurred! As to Grainger's proclivities and peculiarities, well, they've been quite well documented as other contributors to this thread have indicated. Incidentally he not only collected English songs, but Danish amongst others. (I think his partner of later years may have been Danish - must admit that I'm not a specialist in his area... I'm more interested in Lucy!) Sorry about the length of this - hope it's of interest. |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Percy Grainger From: Uke Date: 27 Apr 05 - 04:53 PM That movie is called "Passion" and it has Barbara Hershey in it (as Grainger's mother). Can't remeber who played Grainger. About his recordings, apparently he felt that ordinary transcriptions of folk songs left so much out, and produced a false impression, when singers had all sorts of interesting, but hard to transcribe, effects in their singing. He called it "the impress of personality". I also have read that he collected music from the Pacific Islands and New Zealand Maori, which he was fascinated by. Uke |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Percy Grainger From: GUEST,Tunesmith Date: 27 Apr 05 - 04:45 PM There is a movie about Grainger - a Hollywood style biopic. I saw it - the dvd - remaindered somewhere but for some reason didn't buy it. |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Percy Grainger From: Stilly River Sage Date: 27 Apr 05 - 04:27 PM I should have added that I used to play some of his pieces on that box with strings and hammers. He was a tough-minded fellow, it seems from his music. His arrangements are beautiful but difficult. SRS |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Percy Grainger From: Stilly River Sage Date: 27 Apr 05 - 04:24 PM There are bound to be a lot of redundancies here, but I went into the biographical database at the university and came up with a number of locations with citations. Some had only one or two, a couple of them had 25 or more. They're comingled here, and you can cross out the duplications. SRS George Percy Aldridge Grainger Citations: Grainger, (George) Percy (Aldridge) (1882-1961) (5)
Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. Ninth edition. Edited by Laura Kuhn. New York: Schirmer Books, 2001. [BakBD 9] Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Classical Musicians. By Nicolas Slonimsky. New York: Schirmer Books, 1997. [BakBDTw] Baker's Dictionary of Music. By Nicolas Slonimsky. New York: Schirmer Books, 1997. [BakDcM] The Oxford Companion to Music. 2002 edition. Edited by Alison Latham. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. [OxCMus 2002] Grainger, (George) Percy Aldridge (1882-1961) (2)
The Penguin International Dictionary of Contemporary Biography from 1900 to the Present. Second edition. By Edward Vernoff and Rima Shore. New York: Viking Penguin, 2001. First edition published by New American Library as The International Dictionary of 20th Century Biography. [PenIntDc] Grainger, George Percy (1882-) (1)
Grainger, George Percy (1882-1961) (1)
Grainger, Percy (1882-1961) (25)
Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 14: September, 1984-August, 1986. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1986. [BioIn 14] Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 15: September, 1986-August, 1988. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1988. [BioIn 15] Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 16: September, 1988-August, 1990. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1990. [BioIn 16] Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 18: September, 1992-August, 1993. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1993. [BioIn 18] Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 20: September, 1994-August, 1995. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1995. [BioIn 20] Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 21: September, 1995-August, 1996. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1996. [BioIn 21] Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 26: September, 2000-August, 2001. New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 2001. [BioIn 26] Britannica Book of Music. Edited by Benjamin Hadley. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1980. [BriBkM] Composers since 1900. First edition. Compiled and edited by David Ewen. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1969. [CompSN] Biography contains portrait. Composers since 1900. A biographical and critical guide. First Supplement. Compiled and edited by David Ewen. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1981. [CompSN SUP] Biography contains portrait. The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music. Every listener's companion. By Eric Gilder and June G. Port. New York: Ballantine Books, 1979. Entires are found in Part One. [DcCom&M] Biography contains portrait. Dictionary of Contemporary Music. Edited by John Vinton. New York: Dutton, 1974. This book ignores prefixes in filing surnames. [DcCM] Biography contains portrait. The Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music. Composers and their music. Two volumes. By William H. Rehrig. Westerville, OH: Integrity Press, 1991. [HeriEBM] Music Makers. By Clive Unger-Hamilton. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1979. Use the 'Alphabetical List of Entries' at the front of the book to locate biographies. [MusMk] Biography contains portrait. The New American Dictionary of Music. By Philip D. Morehead with Anne MacNeil. New York: Dutton, 1991. [NewAmDM] Biography contains portrait. The New Grove Dictionary of American Music. Four volumes. Edited by H. Wiley Hitchcock and Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan Press, 1986. [NewGrDA] Biography contains portrait. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 20 volumes. Edited by Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan Publishers, 1980. [NewGrDM] Biography contains portrait. The New Oxford Companion to Music. Two volumes. Edited by Denis Arnold. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1983. [NewOxM] Biography contains portrait. The New York Times Biographical Service. A compilation of current biographical information of general interest. Volume 13, Numbers 1-12. Sanford, NC: Microfilming Corp. of America, 1982. Use the annual Index to locate biographies. [NewYTBS 13] Biography contains portrait. Obituaries from the Times. 1961-1970. Compiled by Frank C. Roberts. Reading, England: Newspaper Archive Developments, 1975. [ObitT 1961] Biography contains portrait. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Fifth edition. Edited by Margaret Drabble. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1985. [OxCEng 5] Biography contains portrait. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Revised fifth edition. Edited by Margaret Drabble. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1995. [OxCEng 5R] The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Sixth edition. Edited by Margaret Drabble. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2000. [OxCEng 6] Who Was Who in America. A component volume of Who's Who in American History. Volume 4, 1961-1968. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1968. [WhAm 4] Biography contains portrait. Grainger, Percy (1882-1961) (1)
Grainger, Percy (d1961) (1)
Grainger, Percy (1)
Grainger, Percy Aldridge (1882-1961) (28)
American National Biography. 24 volumes. Edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. [AmNatBi] The ASCAP Biographical Dictionary. Third edition. New York: American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, 1966. [ASCAP 3] Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. Sixth edition. Revised by Nicolas Slonimsky. London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, . [BakBD 6] Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. Seventh edition. Revised by Nicolas Slonimsky. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Schirmer Books, 1984. [BakBD 7] Biographical Dictionary of American Music. By Charles Eugene Claghorn. West Nyack, NY: Parker Publishing Co., 1973. [BiDAmM] Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 1: January, 1946-July, 1949. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1949. [BioIn 1] Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 2: August, 1949-August, 1952. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1953. [BioIn 2] Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 4: September, 1955-August, 1958. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1960. [BioIn 4] Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 5: September, 1958-August, 1961. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1962. [BioIn 5] Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 6: September, 1961-August, 1964. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1965. [BioIn 6] Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 7: September, 1964-August, 1967. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1968. [BioIn 7] Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 8: September, 1967-August, 1970. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1971. [BioIn 8] Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 10: September, 1973-August, 1976. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1977. [BioIn 10] Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 11: September, 1976-August, 1979. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1980. [BioIn 11] Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 12: September, 1979-August, 1982. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1983. [BioIn 12] Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 13: September, 1982-August, 1984. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1984. [BioIn 13] The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia. Second edition. Edited by David Crystal. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1998. [CamBiEn] The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography. Edited by John S. Bowman. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1995. [CamDcAB] Contemporary American Composers. A biographical dictionary. First edition. Compiled by E. Ruth Anderson. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1976. [ConAmC 1] Contemporary American Composers. A biographical dictionary. Second edition. Compiled by E. Ruth Anderson. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1982. [ConAmC 2] Dictionary of the Arts. New York: Facts on File, 1994. [DcArts] The Lincoln Library of Social Studies. Eighth edition. Three volumes. Columbus, OH: Frontier Press Co., 1978. Biographies begin on page 865 of Volume 3. [LinLib S] Notable Names in the American Theatre. Clifton, NJ: James T. White & Co., 1976. Earlier edition published as The Biographical Encyclopaedia and Who's Who of the American Theatre. 'Necrology' section begins on page 343. This book often alphabetizes by titles of address, e.g.: Dr., Mrs., and Sir. [NotNAT B] Notable Twentieth-Century Pianists. A bio-critical sourcebook. Two volumes. By John Gillespie and Anna Gillespie. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995. [NotTwCP] The Oxford Companion to American Literature. Fourth edition. By James D. Hart. New York: Oxford University Press, 1965. [OxCAmL 4] The Oxford Companion to Music. 1974 edition. By Percy A. Scholes. Edited by John Owen Ward.[OxCMus 1974] Who Did What. The lives and achievements of the 5,000 men and women -- leaders of nations, saints and sinners, artists and scientists -- who shaped our world. Edited by Gerald Howat. New York: Crown Publishers, 1974. [WhDW] |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Percy Grainger From: GUEST,bigJ Date: 27 Apr 05 - 03:36 PM At the (English) National Folk Festival on Saturday the 9th April, Brian Dawson gave a talk on Grainger's visit to Brigg with Lucy Broadwood a century ago. During their visit the two of them noted down eight songs from such singers as Joseph Taylor, Dean Robinson and William Hilton, among them Brigg Fair, Creeping Jane, T'oud Yowe Wi One Horn and Come All You Merry Ploughboys. Grainger went back to Brigg later that year. |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Percy Grainger From: Tradsinger Date: 27 Apr 05 - 03:17 PM The book "The Farthest North of Humanness" published by Macmillian in 1985 is a collection of Grainger's letters 1901-1914. In his letters to his lover Karen Holten, he is explicit about his interest in S & M, with diagrams. The relationship with his mother, Rose, was very close but there is no proof that it was incestuous. Grainger's biography was written by Bird (can't think of his other name). He also collected a lot of songs in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, apart from his well-known Lincolnshire work. Gwilym |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Percy Grainger From: Liz the Squeak Date: 27 Apr 05 - 09:50 AM Gorsh.... all I did was put his name in MS search...! LTS |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Percy Grainger From: GUEST,Henry Date: 27 Apr 05 - 08:48 AM Grainger attended the North Lincolnshire Musical Competition Festival in April 1905, a hundred years ago. His collecting then included two verses of Brigg Fair from Joseph Taylor. He returned to Brigg in August 1905 and collected more songs. Grainger began his recording with a borrowed Edison cylinder phonograph which he took to the 1906 festival. His fiancee, expecting a low key wedding, was surprised when the ceremony took place on the stage of the Hollywood Bowl in front of an audience of 20,000. |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Percy Grainger From: GUEST,padgett Date: 27 Apr 05 - 08:37 AM Yes Liz an excellent LINK to book blurb outlining his personality and predelictions!! above |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Percy Grainger From: Bonnie Shaljean Date: 27 Apr 05 - 08:00 AM Great link, Liz, thanks. This isn't actually the book I was referring to, which is probably about 10+ years earlier and (I think) was written by a woman. So there are at least two intelligent books about PG, if not more. |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Percy Grainger From: Bonnie Shaljean Date: 27 Apr 05 - 07:54 AM I read a good biog of him a few years back (can't remember the author but ABE Books or somewhere could probably turn it up if it's not still in print) which explores some of the darker areas of his life without getting lurid or cheap about it. Apparently the love of being whipped stems from his mother punishing him in childhood in this manner, and his response to it somehow became conflated with desire. Writing from memory, but it had to do with Mama, surprise surprise. He was also a racist, and went on at great length about the importance of (as he put it) "blue-eyed music". On the positive side, his piano solos are well worth investigating. My favourite is an unjustly-neglected setting of one of the Irish reels collected by Stanford (name escapes me, minor key - not Molly On The Shore, which is pretty well known). It would make a great recital piece because it's quite dramatic, fairly difficult, and not too long. I have a recording somewhere of pieces played from piano rolls which he had made himself, and fell in love with it. He didn't like calling the instrument a piano, however, and renamed it something like hammer-box-string. You're right, a fascinating character. |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Percy Grainger From: Ron Davies Date: 27 Apr 05 - 07:49 AM Thanks Liz--sounds like a great book. I'll check it out. |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Percy Grainger From: Liz the Squeak Date: 27 Apr 05 - 07:42 AM This link mentions the foibles you refer to in a book review. It sounds like it might be an interesting book to get hold of. LTS |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Percy Grainger From: Ron Davies Date: 27 Apr 05 - 07:34 AM Was he collecting at the same time as Vaughn Williams? Any stories about interaction between them? |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Percy Grainger From: padgett Date: 27 Apr 05 - 07:29 AM Yep I have come across Percy's foibles and S& M links apparently via his mother making him play piano. Also stories of his great leg power from travelling through Lincolnshire on his bicycle and being able to jump up and down flights of stairs. Vicky Clayton, pro Lincolnshire folkie is I believe quite an authority on Percy Grainger I believe Unto Brigg Fair vinyl was largely down to Percy's recording made in 1908 on wax cylinder and clearly his collecting influenced his later compositions |
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Subject: Folklore: Percy Grainger From: Ron Davies Date: 27 Apr 05 - 07:02 AM Unexpectedly fascinating character. My choral group, with the US Marine Band, is going to do a concert of some of his music this Sunday. I'm hearing and reading some amazing stories about him. One of the pieces we're doing is called "Marching Song of Democracy". On the first page it says he dedicated it to his mother (for 3 birthdays and a Christmas). Now I read he may well have had an incestuous relationship with his mother. Is there likely any truth at all to this outlandish idea?--evidently some weird letters--that's all I've run across. Also probably into S and M--what about this--again, any evidence? He rejected the Italian designations of musical instruction--and invented some of his own words to substitute like "louden" (as in "louden lots" instead of " molto crescendo") and gives instructions in the music like "Don't tire yourselves over this; keep fresh for what's to come". The "Marching Song" has no words---ta ra da di da da etc. all the way through. We're doing his choral arrangment of Londonderry Air-again no words (written 9 years before Fred Weatherly put the Danny Boy words to it). Grainger's setting is just wonderful--rich, sumptous, and emotional. Also a strange arrangement of "Shallow Brown"--unlike any sea chantey I can imagine--doesn't even keep a steady beat--keeps varying between 3/4 and 4/4--would drive any sailor crazy, I'd bet. But it's seems a dreamlike approach to it--and it seems, on those terms, to work. And a pretty good arrangement of 17 Come Sunday--but it seems strange in a folk song to be asked to pronounce each word carefully (though the instruction on "one May morning so early" is "so wurly") As I said, great stories about him. Seems to have been a real hard-core collector of English folk song. Director of the Marine Band related one story: Grainger, wanting some songs a woman had but was unwilling to sing for him, persuaded her granddaughter to let him hide under the bed while the granddaughter convinced her grandmother to sing the songs. While she did, Grainger wrote them down. How's that for a switch on the songs about the robber under the old woman's bed? He also was an international concert pianist--but didn't like that life--felt like a trained monkey (a la Mozart). Anybody had occasion to sing any of his arrangements or have information on the truth of any of these stories (or have others? |
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