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Orchestral

Chan 9493

CHANDOS

THE GRAINGER

EDITION

VOLUME ONE

Works

Orchestral

Works

Volume

RICHARD HICKOX

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Percy Grainger (1882–1961)

‘The Duke of Marlborough’ Fanfare

2:27

(BFMS No. 36)

Colonial Song (Sentimental No. 1)

5:23

English Dance

8:56

Shepherd’s Hey (BFMS No. 16)

1:59

There Were Three Friends

1:54

Fisher’s Boarding-House

6:36

We Were Dreamers

3:49

Harvest Hymn

3:16

Blithe Bells

4:08

Percy Grainger

Walking Tune (Symphonic wind band version)

3:55

(RMTB No. 3)

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Percy Grainger: Orchestral Works

Percy Grainger (1882–1961) is one of music’s

most original voices and the legacy of his

compositions, especially his arrangements of

folk-song contain some of the world’s best

known pieces. But despite this, a large body

of his original work remains relatively

unknown and many works have yet to receive

a premiere performance. This major series of

Grainger’s music sets out to rectify this.

Born in Brighton, a suburb of Melbourne,

Australia, Grainger studied piano from an

early age under the watchful eye of his

mother, Rose. To broaden his studies, mother

and son travelled to Europe and in 1895

Grainger entered Dr Hoch’s Conservatoire in

Frankfurt, a major centre for piano pedagogy.

During his student years, Grainger

discovered the novelist–poet Rudyard Kipling

who was to be a source of inspiration

throughout his life. From this period come

three orchestral works influenced by Kipling’s

verse: There Were Three Friends (1898/99),

Fisher’s Boarding-House (1899) and We

Were Dreamers (1899). Of these ‘Youthful

Toneworks’ written for a small classical

orchestra of woodwind, horns and strings,

Fisher’s Boarding-House is the most extended

and makes use of thematic material from

There Were Three Friends (the second subject)

and a phrase from his Kipling song ‘Merciful

Town’. It is also Grainger’s earliest use of F

sharp major, a key signature that would often

be employed in his works, especially those of

a dream-like and improvisatory nature.

An arranged holiday gave Grainger and his

mother the chance to travel around Europe

and many of the experiences and sounds of

this trip had a strong effect on the young

composer. High points of this holiday had

been a trip to Argyll, Scotland and a visit to

the Paris International Exposition of 1900. It

was here that Grainger heard many different

sounds that were to enthral him. Gamelan

orchestras with their multitude of different

percussion instruments producing bell-like

sounds impressed him greatly, and these

experiences led him to employ the use of

mallet percussion instruments in many of his

scores. The Scottish experience had a

profound effect on his development as a

composer and almost overnight a remarkable

change occurred in his writing. In the last

Suite: ‘In a Nutshell’

20:20

Arrival Platform Humlet

2:36

Gay but wistful

3:15

III

Pastoral

10:16

The ‘Gum-suckers’ March

3:56

Green Bushes (BFMS No. 12)

8:27

TT 72:28

BBC Philharmonic

Stephen Bryant leader

Richard Hickox

BFMS – British Folk Music Setting

RMTB – Room-music Tit-bits

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year of the nineteenth century, Grainger’s

compositional activity knew no bounds and

many ideas for works were conceived,

sketched and formulated. From these,

Grainger would continue to work sometimes

over long periods of time. English Dance

chiefly composed between 1899 – 1902,

reworked between 1906 – 09 and finally

rescored between 1924 –25 is one of

Grainger’s most energetic works and his

subtitle ‘A Tally of English Energy’ is an apt

description of this piece to which Gabriel

Fauré exclaimed: ‘It’s as if the total

population was a-dancing.’ In this work

Grainger aimed to achieve what he called ‘the

somewhat grey and certainly monotonous

scheme of Bach’s colouring’. He was

fascinated with Bach from an early age and

in Frankfurt, he heard performances of the

Bach Passions which were to have a direct

influence on his writing. Blithe Bells (free

ramble on Sheep May Safely Graze ) is an

impressionistic study on the Bach melody

which Grainger uses as a point of departure.

Written in 1930/31 this colourful score

makes use of ‘tuneful percussion’ and

Grainger points out that his ramble is

coloured by the thought that Bach, in

writing the melody in thirds that opens and

closes the number, may have aimed at giving

a hint of the sound of sheep bells.

Colonial Song is Grainger’s love song to

his native Australia. Based on an original

tune first thought of in 1905, Grainger

described this work as being his attempt at

writing a song in which he wished to express

feelings aroused by thoughts of the scenery

and people of his native country and to write

a melody as apposite to these as Stephen

Foster’s songs are to rural America. Grainger

endows his rich melody – the opening of

which he acknowledges as being influenced

by Brahms – with a folk-song-like flexibility

adding counter-melodies, inner harmonies

and a myriad of harmonic digressions which

carry the listener along on a tide of

emotional heights.

Green Bushes is a passacaglia on an

English folk-song collected in Somerset by

Cecil Sharp. Originally scored for small

orchestra in 1905 – 06, the version recorded

here is the rescoring of 1921. With the

exception of a momentary break, the ‘Green

Bushes’ tune is heard constantly throughout

the work pitted against a multitude of

original counter-melodies. This setting was

the first time a British folk-song had been

treated in the passacaglia form, an innovation

that Grainger avers led Delius to write his

Brigg Fair and Dance Rhapsodies in a similar

way.

Amongst Grainger’s many other

innovations, his principle of ‘elastic scoring’ –

used in many of his works – is evidence of

his democratic approach to music. It allows

players from as few as three or four upwards

to take part in works otherwise inaccessible

to them. It also makes many interesting

combinations possible. Not all his works are

cast in this way, but early examples of it can

be found in Molly on the Shore and Mock

Morris to which any wind, brass and

percussion parts can be added to the original

string parts. It was important for Grainger to

make his work accessible to as many

musicians as possible which explains why it is

not unusual to find a work existing in as

many as ten or twelve different versions and,

a few cases where he would make a

completely different setting! Here lies the key

to Grainger’s concept of musical education

and during this series listeners will be given

the opportunity of hearing some of the many

varied scorings at work. Harvest Hymn for

instance, an ‘elastic’ work, also has other

scorings and a note on the score states that

these are interchangeable and can be used

together freely with or without voices! This

totally original composition is an elaboration

on an early melody called ‘Hymny Tune’

which strives to represent the apotheosis of

hymn-like melodies. This is Grainger’s only

use of the word ‘hymn’ as part of a title; the

result is a sumptuous piece that tugs at the

heart-strings.

‘The Duke of Marlborough’ Fanfare takes

its inspiration from an eighteenth-century

broadside ballad and is based on the folk-

song collected by Miss Lucy E. Broadwood

in 1895 from the singing of Henry Burstow

of Horsham, Sussex. Grainger’s setting

written in March, 1939 bares the subtitle

‘The British war mood grows’ and in it the

tune is heard twice: the first time far away,

typifying memories of long past wars; the

second time close at hand, typifying war in

the present.

The symphonic wind version of Walking

Tune dates from 1940 when Grainger was

asked by Eugene Goossens to write a piece

for the wind and brass forces of the

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. The tune

on which it is based is an original melody

which Grainger hummed to himself as an

accompaniment to his tramping feet. It was

originally composed for wind five-some in

1905. Shepherd’s Hey is a setting of an

English Morris Tune collected by Cecil Sharp

and given to Grainger around 1908. The

tune of Shepherd’s Hey (which is akin to the

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North English air The Keel Row ) is widely

found throughout England. The large

orchestral setting recorded here was written

in 1913 and uses four variants of the tune to

which Grainger adds stylistically authentic

contrapuntal lines derived from the melody.

The ‘Hey’ of the title refers to a step peculiar

to Morris dancing.

The Suite: In a Nutshell consists of four

separate original pieces that were composed

between 1905–1916. The first movement

‘Arrival Platform Humlet’ ‘the sort of thing

one hums to oneself as an accompaniment to

one’s tramping feet as one happily, excitedly

paces up and down the arrival platform’ is

Grainger’s only instance of monophony.

Written entirely in single line

(unaccompanied unison or octave) it is an

unbroken stretch of constantly varied melody

with very few repetitions of any of its

phrases. The second movement ‘Gay but

wistful’ is Grainger’s homage to London

Music Hall and in particular the style and

flavour of the songs and the blend of gaiety

and wistfulness associated with it. The tune

consists of two strains which are likened to

the ‘solo’ and ‘chorus’ of the music-hall

ditties. The third movement ‘Pastoral’ is one

of Grainger’s most powerful musical

statements and contains some of his finest

writing and could easily stand as a separate

work. Lasting almost as long as the other

three movements of the Suite put together,

the overall effect is a disturbing vision of

nature quite alien to the accepted views of

pastoralism. The Suite rounds off with ‘The

“Gum-suckers” March’ a jaunty march tune

which is refreshing and quickly acts as an

antidote to the preceding movement.

Thematic material relating to it can be found

in at least three other works Grainger was

working at about the same time namely:

Australian Up-Country Song , Pritteling,

Pratteling, Pretty Poll Parrot and The Widow’s

Party . ‘Gum-suckers’ is the nick-name given

to Australians hailing from the State of

Victoria where the leaves of the gum

(Eucalyptus) are very refreshing to suck in

parching weather.

Conductor.

The Orchestra records over one hundred

programmes annually for BBC Radio 3 and

BBC Television both in the studio and in

public concerts all over Britain. Under its

exclusive Chandos contract the BBC

Philharmonic displays an extensive repertoire

featuring artists such as Rozhdestvensky,

Bamert and Hickox as well as its own

conductors.

Standage. He was Artistic Director of the

Northern Sinfonia from 1982–90 and

Principal Guest Conductor of the

Bournemouth Symphony from 1992–95.

His foreign engagements have included

National Symphony (Washington), San

Francisco Symphony, Dallas Symphony, New

Japan Philharmonic, Orchestre

philharmonique de Radio France, Rotterdam

Philharmonic, Swedish Radio, Berlin

Symphony, Hamburg and Cologne Radio

Orchestras. Opera engagements include the

Royal Opera House, English National Opera,

Los Angeles Opera, Australian Opera and

Rome Opera.

He has made over 130 recordings and has

won three Gramophone Awards.

One of Britain’s leading conductors, Richard

Hickox is founder and Music Director of the

City of London Sinfonia, Associate

Conductor of the London Symphony

Orchestra, Principal Conductor of the

London Symphony Chorus, and co-founder

of Collegium Musicum 90 with Simon

Based in Manchester, the BBC Philharmonic

has established an international reputation,

having travelled extensively to the USA, Far

East, South America and all over Europe. Its

Principal Conductor is Yan Pascal Tortelier,

Sir Edward Downes is Conductor Emeritus

and Vassily Sinaisky (Music Director of the

Moscow Philharmonic) is Principal Guest

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