Today’s post is my first from the Australian/American pianist, composer, inventor, and eccentric Percy Grainger. Grainger was a simply marvelous and strikingly imaginative musician, and his real contributions to the preservation of folk music and to the development of various experimental musical trends are unfortunately undervalued.
Today I post his beautiful arrangement of an “Irish Tune from County Derry.” You might recognize the tune from the ballad “Danny Boy,” but those words were only written in 1913, wheras Grainger made his arrangement in 1902. The tune itself dates back at least to the late 18th century.
We will have many more of Grainger’s strikingly original compositions and arrangements in future posts!