Percy Grainger

Percy Grainger’s “Lincolnshire Posy”: Portraits from the English Countryside

by

Lincolnshire Posy, a folk song suite for band by Australian-born composer Percy Grainger (1882-1961), reveals ancient sounds from the English countryside. In 1905, Grainger, who adapted England as his homeland, traveled to remote villages with pencil, notebook, and phonograph in hand. His efforts to preserve the raw, exotic sounds of the isolated countryside mirrored the work of other composers at the time, including Ralph Vaughan Williams (in England) and Zoltán Kodály and …

Read more

Percy Grainger: Irish Tune from County Derry

by

I have vague, early childhood memories of hearing my dad play trombone in Dr. Harry Begian’s band at the University of Illinois. Begian, who passed away in 2010, was the University’s Director of Bands between 1970 and 1984. He favored the full, majestic “symphonic band” sound over the leaner sound of a wind ensemble. He recounted stories of sneaking into Detroit’s Symphony Hall as a child to watch the great “old school” maestros of …

Read more