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Lincolnshire Posy (1937)

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Percy Aldridge Grainger

Percy Aldridge Grainger


This work bears the designation No. 34.


General Info

Year: 1937 / 1940
Duration: c. 16:45
Difficulty: VI (see Ratings for explanation)
Original Medium: Folk songs
Publisher: Schott Music Distribution, through G. Schirmer
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - $118.75   |   Score Only (print) - $12.99

For availability information, see Discussion tab, above.


Movements (may be played without pause)

1. Dublin Bay (Lisbon) – 1:20
2. Horkstow Grange – 2:50
3. Rufford Park Poachers – 4:00
4. The Brisk Young Sailor – 1:40
5. Lord Melbourne – 3:25
6. The Lost Lady Found – 2:20


Instrumentation

Condensed Score
C Piccolo
Flute I-II
Oboe I-II
English Horn (optional)
Bassoon I-II
Contrabassoon (optional)
E-flat Soprano Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
B-flat Bass Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Saxophone
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Bass Saxophone (optional)
B-flat Cornet/Trumpet I-II-III
Horn in E-flat I-II-III-IV
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II
Bass Trombone
Euphonium
Tuba
String Bass
Piano
Timpani
"Tuneful" Percussion, including:

  • Bass Drum
  • Crash Cymbals
  • Side Drum
  • Swiss Hand Bells
  • Tubular Bells (optional)
  • Xylophone

Errata

This history of errors in this work is legend. When Percy Grainger wrote it, he wrote out all of the parts FIRST, then made a “compressed full score," meaning a two-line score like a condensed score, but with much more complete information than your usual condensed score.

Using that process, and under time pressure for the premiere, many errors found their way into parts and score. In this original Schott/Shirmer publication, there are over **500** errors. Frederick Fennell found most of them; others were discovered by other conductors (H. Robert Reynolds, Jennifer Martin, several others), and by players young and old, and were sent to Fennell over the years. Fennell made his first edition principally to fix those errors and to clarify information discovered in Grainger’s manuscript score and parts, while working from an unpublished full score by Ward Hammond. The 1987 Fennell edition may be found here.

- Edition Note by Jennifer Martin


Program Notes

Lincolnshire Posy was commissioned by the American Bandmasters Association and premiered at their convention with the composer conducting. It is in six movements, all based on folk songs from Lincolnshire, England. Grainger's settings are not only true to the verse structure of the folk songs, but attempt to depict the singers from whom Grainger collected the songs. Since its premiere, it has been recognized as a cornerstone of the wind band repertoire.

Lincolnshire Posy, as a whole work, was conceived and scored by me direct for wind band early in 1937. Five, out of the six, movements of which it is made up existed in no other finished form, though most of these movements (as is the case with almost all my compositions and settings, for whatever medium) were indebted, more or less, to unfinished sketches for a variety of mediums covering many years (in this case, the sketches date from 1905 to 1937). These indebtednesses are stated in the score.

This bunch of "musical wildflowers" (hence the title) is based on folksongs collected in Lincolnshire, England (one notated by Miss Lucy E. Broadwood; the other five noted by me, mainly in the years 1905-1906, and with the help of the phonograph), and the work is dedicated to the old folksingers who sang so sweetly to me. Indeed, each number is intended to be a kind of musical portrait of the singer who sang its underlying melody -- a musical portrait of the singer's personality no less than of his habits of song -- his regular or irregular wonts of rhythm, his preference for gaunt or ornately arabesqued delivery, his contrasts of legato and staccato, his tendency towards breadth or delicacy of tone.

- Program Note by Percy Aldridge Grainger


Commercial Discography


Media


State Ratings

  • Alabama: Class AA
  • Arkansas: II
  • California: SCSBOA Band Music List Grade V
  • Florida: IV, V, VI
  • Georgia: VI
  • Iowa: VI
  • Kansas: VI
  • Louisiana: II, III, IV, V
  • Maryland: V, VI
  • Minnesota: I
  • Mississippi: V-A, VI-A
  • North Carolina: VI
  • Oklahoma: III-A, IV-A, V-A
  • South Carolina: VI
  • Tennessee: VI
  • Texas: II, III, IV, V. Complete
  • Virginia: VI
  • West Virginia: VI
  • Wisconsin: Event 3000 Concert Band Class A Standard Repertoire


Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

  • Eastman Wind Ensemble (Rochester, N.Y.) (Frederick Fennell, conductor) – 17 November 1961 *Premiere Eastman Wind Ensemble Concert*
  • Ernest Williams School Band (Brooklyn, N.Y.) (Percy Aldridge Grainger, conductor) - 29 May 1937 *Premiere Performance*


Works for Winds by This Composer

Adaptable Music


All Wind Works


Resources

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