Walking Tune (arr. Daehn)

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Percy Aldridge Grainger

Percy Aldridge Grainger (arr. Larry Daehn)


General Info

Year: 1900 / 1940 / 1988
Duration: c. 4:00
Difficulty: IV (see Ratings for explanation)
Original Medium: Chamber Winds
Publisher: Daehn Publications
Cost: Score and Parts - $50.00   |   Score Only - $5.00


Instrumentation

Full Score
C Piccolo
Flute
Oboe I-II
English Horn
Bassoon I-II
Contrabassoon
E-flat Soprano Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
E-flat Alto Clarinet
B-flat Bass Clarinet
E-flat Contrabass Clarinet
B-flat Contrabass Clarinet
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Trumpet I-II-III
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II-III
Euphonium
Tuba
String Bass
Percussion (1 player), including:

  • Suspended Cymbal


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

Grainger composed the little tune on which this piece is based as a whistling accompaniment to his tramping feet while on a three days’ walk in Western Argyleshire (Scottish Highlands) in the summer of 1900. At that time -- Grainger had just turned 18 -- he was deeply in love with thoughts of the Celtic world, having already made settings of several Scottish, Irish, and Welsh folksongs. He was delighted to find that most of the older folk in the glens of Western Argyle spoke only or mainly Gaelic -- though most of the children spoke both Gaelic and English. It was in this pro-Celtic mood that he worked up his walking tune into the Walking Tune for wind five-some in 1904.

Various existing Walking Tune manuscript fragments (Grainger’s "sound trials") for families of clarinets and saxophone, flutes, oboes, bass oboe, and horns, dating from as early as 1918, suggest that Grainger planned to score it for a larger wind group (than the ‘wind five-some’ specified above). So, in 1940, when Eugene Goossens suggested that Grainger might score Walking Tune for the winds of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, he probably eagerly accepted the commission. Grainger completed the symphonic wind arrangement during a round-trip train ride between New York City and Birmingham, Alabama, October 7-13, 1940.

Premiered later that year, Walking Tune was very well received by the audience and press, though it was never published. Like many other lovely Grainger manuscripts, this setting of Walking Tune became neglected and "lost."

In making this arrangement, editor Larry Daehn did not change any of Grainger's original instrumentation; he merely augmented Grainger’s scoring for concert band or wind ensemble.

- Program Note from Ohlone Wind Orchestra concert program, 10 November 2013


Media


State Ratings

None discovered thus far.


Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project


Works for Winds by This Composer

Adaptable Music


All Wind Works


Resources

  • Grainger, P; Daehn, L. (1988). Walking Tune [score]. New Glarus, Wisc: Daehn Publications.
  • Perusal Score
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