Percy Grainger Research Paper
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Percy Grainger was a prolific composer and pianist in the 20th century. He is especially well known for his masterful compositions and pioneering for the literature of the wind band. Grainger’s works have taken on a variety of compositional approaches across a wide range of genres. His scorings, particularly for wind band, have been described as having “a rich sonority and color which compares favorably with any celebrated example of brilliant orchestration.”1 A majority of his works, specifically his wind band works, are characterized by their inclusion of folk song melodies as source material. Within his catalog of wind band compositions, Lincolnshire Posy stands out as a masterwork in the genre. While Grainger’s Lincolnshire Posy …show more content…
When America entered World War I, Percy enlisted as a bandsman and purchased a soprano saxophone.4 This experience likely served as the influence for Grainger’s propensity for wind band composition. The folk song influence on his compositions provides a characteristic quality that is unique to Grainger himself. What is also unique to Grainger was his method of folk song collection. Equipped with his backpack and an Edison-Bell Phonograph, Grainger roamed the English countryside sampling folk songs directly from the people. Grainger found this to be the most favorable method of collecting. An article by Grainger in the Journal of the Folk-Song Society in 1908 outlines the benefits and process of collecting folk song samples with the phonograph. Grainger himself wrote: “I took records of over seventy songs and versions of songs in two days in Lincolnshire, and that without undue haste. But the quality of collecting opened up by the phonograph, is, perhaps, of even greater value than the quantity.” 5 The collection of folk songs is central to Grainger’s compositional method, and these songs are the melodic source of many of his greatest compositions. Until Lincolnshire Posy, Grainger’s folk song use was strictly for the melodic material. His Irish Tune from County Derry, which was set for military band in 1909, has internal lines that “reveal instinctively crafted counterpoint, colorful chromatic movement, and Grainger’s characteristic harmonic suspensions.”6 These qualities are also true of many other Grainger wind band works including Shepherd’s Hey
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Percy Grainger was a prolific composer and pianist in the 20th century. He is especially well known for his masterful compositions and pioneering for the literature of the wind band. Grainger’s works have taken on a variety of compositional approaches across a wide range of genres. His scorings, particularly for wind band, have been described as having “a rich sonority and color which compares favorably with any celebrated example of brilliant orchestration.”1 A majority of his works, specifically his wind band works, are characterized by their inclusion of folk song melodies as source material. Within his catalog of wind band compositions, Lincolnshire Posy stands out as a masterwork in the genre. While Grainger’s Lincolnshire Posy …show more content…
When America entered World War I, Percy enlisted as a bandsman and purchased a soprano saxophone.4 This experience likely served as the influence for Grainger’s propensity for wind band composition. The folk song influence on his compositions provides a characteristic quality that is unique to Grainger himself. What is also unique to Grainger was his method of folk song collection. Equipped with his backpack and an Edison-Bell Phonograph, Grainger roamed the English countryside sampling folk songs directly from the people. Grainger found this to be the most favorable method of collecting. An article by Grainger in the Journal of the Folk-Song Society in 1908 outlines the benefits and process of collecting folk song samples with the phonograph. Grainger himself wrote: “I took records of over seventy songs and versions of songs in two days in Lincolnshire, and that without undue haste. But the quality of collecting opened up by the phonograph, is, perhaps, of even greater value than the quantity.” 5 The collection of folk songs is central to Grainger’s compositional method, and these songs are the melodic source of many of his greatest compositions. Until Lincolnshire Posy, Grainger’s folk song use was strictly for the melodic material. His Irish Tune from County Derry, which was set for military band in 1909, has internal lines that “reveal instinctively crafted counterpoint, colorful chromatic movement, and Grainger’s characteristic harmonic suspensions.”6 These qualities are also true of many other Grainger wind band works including Shepherd’s Hey