Percy Aldridge Grainger
Percy Aldridge Grainger was an influential Australian-born composer, pianist, and conductor, renowned for his innovative contributions to classical music and folk song arrangements. Born in 1882, he began his musical education under the guidance of his mother before moving to Europe to study piano and composition. Grainger's career took off in London, where he became a prominent figure in the music scene and established lasting friendships with notable musicians. He was a pioneer in using recording technology to collect and preserve folk songs, significantly influencing the genre.
Grainger's notable works include "Country Gardens" and "Lincolnshire Posy," both of which showcase his unique blending of folk elements with complex musical structures. His innovative techniques, particularly in wind band compositions, helped elevate the genre's status in the classical music repertoire. Despite personal challenges, including his mother's tragic death and his own health struggles later in life, Grainger continued to perform and compose until his passing in 1961. His legacy endures through his diverse body of work and his significant impact on the development of wind band music.
Percy Aldridge Grainger
Composer
- Born: July 8, 1882
- Birthplace: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Died: February 20, 1961
- Place of death: White Plains, New York
Australian American classical pianist and composer
A virtuoso pianist and an orchestral composer and conductor, Grainger was particularly significant for his preservation of British folk songs and his promotion of band music as a serious art form.
The Life
George Percy Aldridge Grainger (GRAYN-jur) was the only child of John Grainger and Rose Aldridge, a domineering woman who gave her son his first piano lessons. In 1895 Rose took Grainger (whose father had left in 1890) to Europe to further his musical education.
Grainger studied piano and composition in Frankfurt, Germany, forging lifelong friendships with outstanding student musicians. In 1901 the Graingers moved to London, where Percy became a common fixture at recitals and society performances. He also studied in Berlin with Ferruccio Busoni and toured Australia with Ada Crossley. Grainger was one of the first musicians (in 1905) to use a phonograph to collect folk songs. His career as a pianist flourished, exceeding one hundred performances yearly. With encouragement from Edvard Grieg and Frederick Delius, Grainger began to publish his compositions, using the name Percy Aldridge Grainger.
At the outbreak of World War I, Rose and Grainger fled to the United States, where Grainger toured in support of the Red Cross. In 1917 he joined the U.S. military as a band man; he became a U.S. citizen in 1918. At war’s end, Grainger continued to tour, perform, compose, and record. In 1922, plagued by health problems and mental deterioration, Rose committed suicide. Grainger temporarily abandoned performing, but by 1923 he had resumed his strenuous regimen of concertizing and touring throughout the world. On one such tour, in 1926, he met a fascinating Swedish woman, Ella Ström.
Ström proved to be a kindred spirit and they became engaged. The wedding was set for August, 1928, coinciding with conducting appearances by Grainger at the Hollywood Bowl. The promoters persuaded Grainger to schedule the ceremony at one of the concerts. Unaware of the enormity of the venue, Ella acquiesced. The Graingers were wed in front of twenty-two thousand audience members.
The 1930’s saw the Graingers undertake the establishment of a Grainger Museum at the University of Melbourne. When the United States entered World War II, Grainger again performed in support of the Red Cross. By 1953 prostate cancer forced him to slow down. Despite ongoing treatment, metastatic cancer spread throughout his body and brain, and in February, 1961, he succumbed. Grainger’s body was laid to rest in Adelaide, Australia, in the vault of his mother’s family, the Aldridges.
The Music
Grainger completed more than twelve hundred compositions, spanning many different genres. Much of his reputation results from his settings of folk songs for piano and for orchestra and from his band music. Grainger’s publications were unique, utilizing vernacular words for musical descriptions, “blue-eyed English,” rather than the traditional Italian terminology.
“Country Gardens.”Grainger’s first major success was an uncomplicated arrangement of a folk song. Although much of Grainger’s compositional output was substantially more complex, experimental, and cerebral, it is this simpler work that established Grainger’s compositional reputation. “Country Gardens” appears in several versions, including solo piano (1918), full orchestra (1949), and band (completed 1953, published 1990). An earlier version (perhaps 1908) for “two whistlers and a few instruments” remains unpublished.
Lincolnshire Posy.Grainger’s six-movement masterpiece for winds demonstrates his innovative nature. This 1937 composition sets folk tunes he had collected decades earlier the way a jeweler sets a gem: the careful, tasteful setting enhances the natural beauty of these musical wildflowers without obscuring their inherent characteristics.
Techniques utilized in Lincolnshire Posy are representative of Grainger’s style and have influenced subsequent wind composers. To represent different interpretive shadings a folksinger might apply to the verses of a song, Grainger uses continuous variation, with differing rhythmic, harmonic, and orchestrational structures. Exotic harmonies that might have been more at home in the music of Duke Ellington (whom Grainger considered the greatest living composer) bring a richness to the setting. Dynamic effects are meticulously planned, including Grainger’s characteristic cross-fade, where one voice increases volume while another fades.
The rhythmic freedom of a folksinger is depicted several different ways. The most basic way is through the use of rhythmic variation. A second method emphasizes the irregularity of the singer by employing continually changing mixed meters. Another technique achieves rhythmic freedom by the temporary banishment of barlines.
Lincolnshire Posy also demonstrates Grainger’s concept of tuneful percussion, expanding the mallet percussion choices beyond the simple xylophone and bells favored by so many composers of that era.
Grainger’s innovative use of constantly changing and unusual combinations of instruments creates a wide palette of tone colors. This feature might just be the most influential aspect of Lincolnshire Posy. Not only did the varying rich timbres demonstrate Grainger’s unique abilities as a composer for winds, they also served to demonstrate to other composers the wide range of possibilities inherent in a large collection of wind and percussion instruments. Lincolnshire Posy thus accelerated the recognition of the wind band as a serious compositional medium.
Grainger sought rhythmic and melodic freedom echoing the complexities and irregularities of nature but exceeding the capabilities of instruments and musicians. Some of his emphasis on rapidly changing mixed meter caused his most serious compositions to suffer from neglect. The third movement of Lincolnshire Posy, for example, is often deleted from performances of the work, even to this day, just as it was at its premiere performance, because of the perception of its rhythmic difficulty.
Experimental Music. Grainger desired to build a machine that would allow him complete freedom of choice in both pitch and rhythm. In the 1920’s he began to manipulate piano rolls to create free music, publishing an article about his efforts in 1924. A 1935 Australian radio broadcast employed a string quartet to demonstrate pitch freedom that exceeded the traditional twelve fixed tones of the chromatic scale. Grainger composed for the sirenlike electronic musical instrument, the Theremin, and failed in an attempt to induce inventor Léon Theremin to create a device that would achieve Grainger’s goals. Grainger experimented with using a phonograph to layer recordings of his voice, a technique which predated later experiments in multitracking by those who manipulated magnetic tape. Grainger eventually turned to the use of electronic media, moving from vacuum tubes to transistors. While his experiments paralleled many similar efforts by composers of electronic music, his efforts remained largely unknown.
Musical Legacy
Grainger’s musical legacy consists primarily of his heartfelt settings of folk music. Among his best known works are the Irish Tune from County Derry, which is performed by solo pianists, choirs, bands, and orchestras; Country Gardens, which is performed in the piano, orchestral, and band versions; and his important series of wind works, including Lincolnshire Posy, Molly on the Shore, Children’s March, Colonial Song, the Hill Songs, and Ye Banks and Braes o’ Bonnie Doon. Grainger’s careful attention to the wind band helped secure its role as a serious musical medium.
Principal Works
chamber works:My Robin Is to the Greenwood Gone, 1912 (for flute, English horn, and six strings); Youthful Rapture, 1929.
choral works:The Lads of Wamphray, 1907 (for male chorus and two pianos or orchestra; later arranged for wind band); Kipling Jungle Book Cycle, 1947 (for mixed chorus and chamber orchestra).
orchestral works:Fisher’s Boarding House, 1899; We Were Dreamers, 1899; Green Bushes, 1906 (passacaglia on an English folk song); Mock Morris, 1911 (for six solo strings or string orchestra); Handel in the Strand, 1912 (for piano and string orchestra); In a Nutshell, 1916 (suite for orchestra, piano, and percussion); The Warriors, 1916 (music for an imaginary ballet; for three pianos and orchestra); Blithe Bells, 1931; The Immovable “Do” (The Cyphering “C”), 1939; Danish Folk Music Suite, 1941; Dreamery, 1943; The Power of Rome and the Christian Heart, 1943 (for wind instruments and organ); Youthful Suite, 1945; Faeroe Island Dance, 1946 (for concert band).
piano works:Klavierstuck in A Minor, 1897 (for solo piano); Klavierstuck in E Major, 1897 (for solo piano); Klavierstuck in D Major, 1898(for solo piano); Hill Songs Nos. 1 and 2, 1907 (for solo piano); English Dance, 1909 (for two pianos and six hands); Shepherd’s Hey!, 1913 (folk song for piano); Spoon River, 1922 (for solo piano).
vocal works:The Secret of the Sea, 1898 (for male voice and piano); The Men of the Sea, 1899 (for voice and piano); Merciful Town, 1899 (for voice and piano); Northern Ballad, 1899 (for voice and piano); Ride with an Idle Whip, 1899 (for voice and piano); There Were Three Friends, 1899; Songs of the North, 1900 (fourteen folk songs for voice and piano); Sailor’s Chanty, 1901 (for male voice and piano); Ye Banks and Braes o’ Bonnie Doon, 1901; Irish Tune from County Derry, 1902; Zanzibar Boat Song, 1902; Colleen Dhas (The Valley Lay Smiling), 1904; Sir Eglamore, 1904; The Sea Wife, 1905; Walking Tune, 1905 (for symphonic wind choir); I’m Seventeen Come Sunday, 1906; Bold William Taylor, 1908 (folk song for solo voice and piano); Soldier, Soldier, 1908 (for voice and piano); Shallow Brown, 1910 (chanty for one or two voices and piano); Colonial Song, 1911 (for voices and piano); The “Gum-Suckers” March, 1911; King Solomon’s Espousals, 1911; Love Verses from “The Song of Solomon,” 1911; Scotch Strathspey and Reel, 1911; The Sussex Mummers’ Christmas Carol, 1911; Willow Willow, 1911 (for voice and piano); Six Dukes Went a-Fishin’, 1912 (folk song for voice and piano); At Twilight, 1913; Molly on the Shore, 1914 (folk song for orchestra); The Merry Wedding, 1915; Arrival Platform Humlet, 1916; Gay but Wistful, 1916; Pastoral, 1916; Children’s March: Over the Hills and Far Away, 1918 (for voices and band); Country Gardens, 1918 (for voice and orchestra); The Brisk Young Sailor (Who Returned to Wed His True Love), 1919; British Waterside (The Jolly Sailor), 1920 (folk song for voice and piano); The Pretty Maid Milkin’ Her Cow, 1920 (folk song for voice and piano); Creepin’ Jane, 1921 (folk song for voice and piano); To a Nordic Princess (Bridal Song), 1928; Lisbon (Dublin Bay), 1931; Tribute to Foster, 1931; Harvest Hymn (Harvest Time in Sweden), 1932 (for voices and orchestra); Lincolnshire Posy, 1937 (folk song suite for wind band); Lord Melbourne (War Song), 1937; The Lost Lady Found, 1937 (folk song for voice and piano); Rufford Park Poachers, 1937; The “Duke of Marlborough” Fanfare, 1939 (for voice and brass band); The Merry King, 1939; Early One Morning, 1940; The Beaches of Lukannon, 1941 (for voice and piano); Hard-Hearted Barb’ra (H)ellen, 1946 (folk song for voice and piano); Marching Song of Democracy, 1948 (for mixed chorus, organ, and orchestra).
Bibliography
Bird, John. Percy Grainger. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. A definitive depiction of the life and works of Grainger, updated from the 1976 version. Illustrations, list of published compositions, discography, bibliography.
Dorum, Eileen. Percy Grainger: The Man Behind the Music. Hawthorn, Vic.: IC & EE Dorum, 1986. An Australian viewpoint informs this biography. Illustrations, bibliography.
Slattery, Thomas C. Percy Grainger: The Inveterate Innovator. Evanston, Ill.: Instrumentalist, 1974. This depiction of Grainger’s life emphasizes his music. Illustrations, catalog of compositions, discography, selected writings, bibliography.