Percy Grainger, Australian Pianist and Composer (1882 - 1961)

Another great--and less well-known than he should be--composer was the Australian pianist, composer, and eccentric, Percy Grainger.

Grainger was a wonderful composer and skillful arranger and transcriber, and was one of the outstanding pianists of history. Grainger is in my top handful of favorite pianists of all time.

He was gifted with extraordinary vigor, and the speed and energy of his playing is breathtaking. He was also capable of exquisite lyricism and tone and a very rare musicality. But, he was a true eccentric, and that too shines through in some of his performances....

Grainger is a pianist of the old school, when interpretation was, at its best, deep and vast. Listen to the shadings and colors of his performances of orchestral music--observe his musical vision, and how much more dynamic it is than the conceptions of today's conductors, let alone the pianists currently celebrated....

Grainger as pianist:
Playing Edvard Grieg, from Peer Gynt: Morning Mood. Grainger was Grieg's favorite pianist, and he felt that Grainger's performance of his piano concerto was the definitive interpretation of it.

Grainger playing the "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from Tchaikowsky's Nutcracker Suite. Listen to his tone, dynamic shading, phrasing, tempi, the way he makes the piano sound orchestral....

Grainger playing Bach Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, Grainger's transcription.
Grainger playing Bach/Liszt Fantasy and Fugue in G Minor.
Grainger playing Bach/Liszt Prelude & Fugue in A Minor.

Grainger playing Chopin: Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Opus 58, Movements 1 and 2; and Movements 3 and 4.

Grainger playing Schumann: Sonata No.2, Opus 22; Movements 1 through 3; and Movement 4. Schumann's Etudes Symphoniques; Theme and Etudes 1 - 10 and Etudes 11 and 12.

And now, the one you've been waiting for--Grainger playing Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. Heh-heh. It is a bit truncated; the limitations of the old 78-rpm records...alas....


Grainger as composer:
Country Gardens, a piano roll recorded by Grainger on the old Duo-Art!
Grainger arranged Country Gardens for orchestra at Leopold Stokowski's request.

This piece is called Shepherd's Hey. Here is a version conducted by the inimitable Sir Henry Wood....Another version, recorded by the Cleveland Symphonic Winds. Here is a solo piano version of Shepherd's Hey played by Grainger.

Grainger's orchestral arrangement of his Handel on the Strand. Again.

Solo piano version of The Gum Suckers March played by Grainger. And a version for brass band.

Grainger's Mock Morris. Another.

If you have a chance to find a recording of it, listen to Grainger's extraordinary orchestral tour de force, The Warriors. I didn't see it on Youtube. [As a driving display of sonic pyrotechnics and jaw-dropping orchestration, it is one of the best hi-fi demonstration pieces of all....]

Charles Ives, U.S. Composer (1874 - 1954)

My "students" (I hope that no-one who attends my classes will mind my referring to them as such) were largely unaware of the music of Charles Ives when I mentioned Ives' Concord Sonata last week. So, here are some links referent to Charles Ives to introduce one of the greatest and most original 20th-Century composers....

"Wiki is your friend": Charles Ives in Wikipedia.

This is a Youtube link to Ives' The Unanswered Question. Ideally, this piece is played in an auditorium. Instruments are distributed around the auditorium. The trumpet is far in the back and up on a balcony. The effect is haunting, 3-D, beautiful.

The Concord Sonata:

First Movement: Emerson [you can listen on Youtube, Part 1, Part 2]
Second Movement: Hawthorne [Youtube, complete movement]
Third Movement: The Alcotts [Youtube, complete movement]
Fourth Movement: Thoreau [Youtube, complete movement]

These Youtube recordings are by John Kirkpatrick, who knew Ives, and gave the first performances of the Concord Sonata.

Ives' songs: The River; In Flanders Fields; The Circus Band.

For tuned pianos: 3 Quarter-Tone Pieces: 1, Largo; 2, Allegro
; 3, Chorale. The sonic textures are delicious; though I always like dissonance, and I have always loved what Ives did with it....

This is from Ives' Second Symphony; Movement 3, Adagio Cantabile. From Ives' Fourth Symphony, IV. Finale, Very slowly, largo maestoso.

Ives' songs are among my favorite "art songs", and his symphonic works are remarkable. His musical experiments still upset people, even after, in some cases, more than a century has passed since their composition.

First Post!

This is an experiment. I am not certain that this is the medium that will work for me, but we'll give it a try....

I expect that I will be posting occasionally on High Modernist writers (i.e., James Joyce, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, et al.), ESL, poetry, writing, books I've read or am reading, issues in science that I find of interest, education, and whatever else might arise along the way.

So, that being said, here is the first post; a first post is a first step--perhaps what will follow will be a journey.

[Re the template they provided for the blog layout: It is supposed to look like a private library; my comments lined on either side of the text box with a poorly rendered graphic of bookshelves; I will experiment with the "look" of this as time goes on. It rather makes me think of Borges' other-worldly library. Librarial labyrinths....Is it all a ficcion?...]