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Lincolnshire Posy (ed Rogers)

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Percy Aldridge Grainger

Percy Aldridge Grainger (ed. Frederick Fennell; rev. R. Mark Rogers)


General Info

Year: 1937 / 1987 / 2010 / 2020
Duration: c. 16:45
Difficulty: VI (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: LudwigMasters Publications, through Alfred Music Publishing
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - $270.00   |   Score Only (print) - $55.00


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

Full Score
C Piccolo
Flute I-II
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
B-flat Soprano Saxophone
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Bass Saxophone
B-flat Trumpet I-II-III
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II
Bass Trombone
B-flat Baritone
Euphonium
Tuba
String Bass
Timpani
Percussion I-II-III, including:

  • Bass Drum
  • Crash Cymbals
  • Glockenspiel
  • Handbells
  • Snare Drum
  • Suspended Cymbal
  • Tubular Bells
  • Xylophone


Errata

None discovered thus far.


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


Edition note. 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 the 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.

- Edition Note by Jennifer Martin


This new 2020 revision by R. Mark Rogers addresses errors found in the previous edition and follows Grainger's scoring practices and concept of instrumental color more closely.

- Program Note from publisher


Media

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State Ratings

  • Florida:   ---  (The Florida Bandmasters Association denotes this as "significant literature.")
    • Grade IV: Movements 1 and 2.
    • Grade V: Movements 1, 2, and 6.
    • Grade VI: Any 4 movements.
  • Minnesota: Category I (any 4 movements)
  • New York:
    • Grade VI: Any 5 movements
  • North Carolina:
    • Grade VI: Play 4 or more movements
    • Masterworks: Play all
  • South Carolina: "Masterwork"
  • Virginia: VI
  • Texas:
    • Grade II: Any one movement
    • Grade III: Any two movements
    • Grade IV: Any four movements


Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

  • South Dakota State University (Brookings) Wind Symphony (Jacob Wallace, conductor) - 25 April 2021


Works for Winds by This Composer

Adaptable Music


All Wind Works


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