Monday, January 22, 2018

English suites no. 20

Here's something a bit different. Percy Grainger was an Australian pianist who came to England and went folk-song collecting (as did Holst and Vaughan Williams). He arranged some of his findings into A Lincolnshire Posy suite for concert band.

But this is not the original suite. This is a full-scale arrangement of that played by the English electric folk group Home Service. An unusual thing to find on a popular music album, but there it is. Appropriately, Home Service included brass players among its members, so there is some overlap in sound. Home Service also had vocalists, so you'll hear two of the selections, nos. 2-3, "Horkstow Grange" (the song the name Steeleye Span comes from) and "Rufford Park Poachers," sung as well as played.



The songs are: Lisbon (Dublin Bay) (0:00), Horkstow Grange (1:21), Rufford Park Poachers (3:58), The Brisk Young Sailor (6:22), Lord Melbourne (The Duke of Marlboro) (7:54), and The Lost Lady Found (10:49).

This is the last of my strictly English suites that I've been offering occasionally, but wait, there's more ...

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