Percy Grainger, Horkstow Grange from Lincolnshire Posy

Percy Grainger was an Australian-born ethnomusicologist and composer born in 1882.

He played an important role in the collection of, and revival of interest in, British folk tunes. He

was homeschooled by his mother, an autodidact, and took music lessons from various tutors.

This was until he was 13, when he studied at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, Germany. He

moved to the United States just before World War One and became a bandsman for the US

Army, claiming citizenship in 1918. He lived in the US for the rest of his life but traveled often

to Europe and the United Kingdom to collect folk tunes. He often wrote band tunes, piano

arrangements, and, in an attempt to start a trend of “free music,” wrote for banjo, marimba, “steel

marimba” (vibraphone), and theremin. He is one of the most influential folk song composers to

have ever lived, and unique in his want to have the folk songs performed as heard. This is

opposed to, e.g., Vaughan Williams, who arranged folk songs into the style of a military band.

One of Grainger’s most well-known and influential works for band, Lincolnshire Posy,

premiered in 1937, is a six-movement collection of folk songs collected on a 1905-06 trip to

Lincolnshire, England. Three movements were performed in the original premiere. Movement

two, Horkstow Grange, is the second movement in the work. Its second title, The Miser and His

Man–a local tragedy, may be a bit more descriptive of the feelings elicited by the movement. It

is written for a large concert (military) band, including some rather uncommon instruments like

soprano saxophone, alto clarinet, and handbells. The theme is originally presented by horns and

clarinets, and a cornet solo presents it again with some minor changes. It is extremely emotional

and cathartic, and a great showing of Grainger’s ability to stir emotion with folksong.