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Lads of Wamphray, The

From Wind Repertory Project
Percy Aldridge Grainger

Percy Aldridge Grainger (ed. Kreines)


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General Info

Year: 1905 / 1941 / 2003
Duration: c. 8:00
Difficulty: V (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Carl Fischer
Cost: Score and Parts - $185.00   |   Score Only - $45.00


Instrumentation

Full Score
C Piccolo
Flute I-II
Oboe I-II
Bassoon I-II
Eb Clarinet
Bb Clarinet I-II-III
Eb Alto Clarinet
Bb Bass Clarinet
Soprano Saxophone
Alto Saxophone
Tenor Saxophone
Baritone Saxophone
Bass Saxophone
Cornets I-II-III
Trumpet (in Bb) I-II
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II-III
Euphonium (Bass Clef & Treble Clef)
Tuba
String Bass
Timpani
Percussion

(percussion detail desired)


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

This essential edition of the Grainger march features a freshly engraved full score and parts meticulously edited by Joseph Kreines. All the charm and wit of Grainger's music is preserved in this tour de force.

- Program note from publisher


Grainger composed this march as a birthday gift for his mother in 1905, basing it on melodies and musical material from a Scottish "border ballad". The poem celebrates a bloody skirmish between two clans in 1593. In the march, Grainger sought to express the dare-deviltry of the cattle-raiding, swashbuckling English and Scottish "borderers" of the period as portrayed in collections of border ballads of the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries.

- James Huff, 23 November 2008 (UTC) (from the program notes of The Claremont Winds, submitted with permission)


Lord Maxwell and The Lads of Wamphray are consecutive selections from Sir Walter Scott’s 1802 Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, and the two pieces are presented in the same order in Professor Francis James Child’s English and Scottish Popular Ballads of 1860 (Part X). They support each other in presenting a full picture of the “noted feud” between the Johnstone and Maxwell families, and events that led up to the battle of Dryffe Sands, Scotland’s largest, bloodiest family battle. The Crichtons were members of the Maxwell family (the term “clan” is reserved for Highland groups; “family” is the name for groups in the lowlands of Scotland). In explanation of the tale, Sir Walter Scott provides us, in the 1802 edition, with this background for The Lads of Wamphray:

“The following song celebrates the skirmish, in 1593, betwixt the Johnstones and Crichtons, which led to the revival of the ancient quarrel betwixt Johnstone and Maxwell, and finally to the battle of Dryffe Sands, in the latter [Maxwell] lost his life. Wamphray is the name of a parish in Annandale. Lethenhall was the abode of Johnstone of Wamphray, and continued to be so till of late years [This was written in 1802, remember]. William Johnstone of Wamphray, called the Galliard, was a noted freebooter [thief]. A place, near the head of Tiviotdale, retains the name of the Galliard’s Faulds, (folds) being a valley where he used to secrete and divide his spoil, with his Liddesdale and Eskdale associates. His nom de guerre seems to have been derived from the dance called The Galliard. The word is still used in Scotland [as of 1802], to express an active, gay, dissipated character. Willie of the Kirkhill, nephew to the Galliard, and his avenger, was also a noted border robber. ...

‘Leverhay, Stefenbiggin, Girth-head, &c. are [1802] all situated in the parish of Wamphray. The Biddes, where the skirmish took place betwixt the Johnstones and their pursuers, is a rivulet which takes its course among the mountains on the confines of Nithesdale and Annandale. The Wellpath is a pass by which the Johnstones were retreating to their fastnesses in Annandale. Ricklaw-holm is a place upon the Evan water, which falls into the Annan, below Moffat. Wamphray-gate was in these days an ale-house. With these local explanations, it is hoped the following ballad will be easily understood.”

- Program Note by Chalon Ragsdale


Commercial Discography


Audio Links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B8aDU0lwgE

State Ratings

  • Indiana: ISSMA SENIOR BAND GROUP I


Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

  • University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa) Symphonic Band (Randall O. Coleman, conductor) – 25 November 2019
  • Kennesaw (Ga.) State University Wind Ensemble (David T. Kehler, conductor) – 25 September 2019
  • Eastern Wind Symphony (Woodcliff Lake, N.J.) (Todd Nichols, conductor)– 26 April 2019
  • California State University, Long Beach, Wind Symphony (John Carnahan, conductor) – 11 October 2018
  • Ohio University (Athens) Wind Symphony (Andrew Trachsel, conductor) – 27 September 2018
  • University of Vermont (Burlington) Wind Ensemble (Chris Rivers, conductor) - 15 April 2018
  • The University of South Carolina (Columbia) Symphonic Winds (Cormac Cannon, conductor) – 23 February 2018 (CBDNA 2018 Southern Conference, Tampa, Fla.)
  • Ball State University (Muncie, Ind.) Wind Ensemble (Thomas Caneva, conductor) - 1 December 2017
  • Pacific Lutheran University (Parkland, Wash.) Wind Ensemble (Edwin Powell, conductor) – 19 November 2017
  • Indiana University (Bloomington) Wind Ensemble (Stephen W. Pratt, conductors) – 7 November 2017
  • Michigan State University (East Lansing) Symphony Band (David Thornton, conductor) – 26 September 2017
  • San Jose State University (Calif.) Wind Ensemble (Edward C. Harris, conductor) – 5 May 2017
  • University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) Concert Band (Courtney Snyder, conductor) – 12 April 2017
  • University of Texas (Austin) Symphony Band (Ryan Kelly, conductor) – 22 February 2016
  • California State Long Beach Wind Symphony (John Carnahan, conductor) - 11 October 2012
  • University of Illinois Symphony Band (Harry Begian, conductor) - 2011
  • U.S. Continental Army Band (William H.L. Garlette, conductor) - 1991


Works for Winds by this Composer


Resources

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