Grainger and "Country Gardens"

Synopsis

"Country Gardens" is the best-known work of the Australian-born American composer, arranger, and pianist Percy Grainger. Its score bears this note: "Birthday-gift, Mother, July 3, 1918." Grainger's mother Rose was responsible for his excellent musical training that made him a successful concert pianist in Britain, Europe, and America.

In 1918, Grainger arranged a folk tune given to him in 1908 by Cecil Sharp, a major figure in the folklore revival in England. Grainger titled his arrangement "Country Gardens," and it went over so well at his recitals that Grainger decided to have it published.

It was a big hit and broke sales records. In fact, until his death in 1961, its sales generated a significant portion of Grainger's annual income. Like other composers with a mega-hit, Grainger came to resent being known for just one tune, and would say to audiences: "The typical English country garden is not often used to grow flowers. It's more likely to be a vegetable plot. So you can think of turnips as I play it".

In 1931, "Country Gardens" was arranged for wind band by someone other than Grainger, but around 1950, at the special request of a Detroit band director named Graham Overgard, Grainger prepared his own arrangement, and wrote to Overgard: "I now have my own version, quite delicate and unlike the coarse-sounding score you rightly object to. The new setting is not based on the piano version, but on a chamber music sketch of 1908 and is a new piece in every way."

Music Played in Today's Program

Percy Grainger Country Gardens Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra;Timothy Reynish Chandos 9549

On This Day

Births

• 1854 - Czech composer Leo Janácek, in Hukvaldy, Moravia

• 1878 - American song composer George M. Cohan, in Providence, R.I.; He mistakenly believed he was "born on the Fourth of July" as his popular song "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy" states; In 1978 the centennial of his birth was honored with a U.S. postage stamp issued on this date

• 1879 - French composer and conductor Philippe Gaubert, in Cahors

• 1901 - American composer and American folksong compiler, Ruth Crawford (Seeger), in East Liverpool, Ohio; She was the second wife of the eminent American composer and ethnomusicologist, Charles Seeger (1886-1979); Charles Seeger's son by his first marriage became the famous American folksinger, Pete Seeger

• 1926 - American composer Meyer Kupferman, in New York City

Deaths

• 1966 - American composer, writer, and broadcaster, Deems Taylor, age 80, in New York City; For many years he was a broadcast commentator for the national broadcasts of both the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera (Two of his operas were staged at the Met); In 1967, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) established the Deems Taylor Awards for excellence in the fields of music criticism, journalism, and broadcasting; Composers Datebook won a Deems Taylor Award in 2000

• 1998 - English romantic composer George Lloyd, age 85

Premieres

• 1944 - Robert Wright & George Forest: musical "The Song of Norway" (based on the music of Norwegian composer Edward Grieg), during trial run in San Francisco; The musical opened in New York on August 21, 1944

• 1964 - Robert Ward: opera, "The Lady From Colorado," in Central City, Colorado;

• 1967 - Havergal Brian: Symphony No. 4 ("Das Siegeslied") in London; This symphony was composed in 1929

• 1976 - Hovhaness: Violin Concerto ("Ode to Freedom") at Wolf Trap, with André Kostelanetz conducting and Yehudi Menuhin the soloist.

Others

• 1848 - American music publisher Theodore Presser is born in Pittsburgh; In 1883 he founded in Philadelphia the famous music monthly, "The Etude" (which discontinued publication in 1957), and shortly thereafter the Philadelphia-based Presser music publishing firm; He was also a co-founder of the Music Teachers National Association