A.B.C. PUBLICATIONS. 1934
Among recent publications by the Australian Broadcasting Commission is a
booklet entitled "Music, a Common sense View of all Types," by Percy Granger.
The booklet is a synopsis of 12 lecture recitals given by the eminent pianist and composer
through the national stations during December. For those who heard these lectures, the synopsis will be of assistance to remembering the material given by Mr. Grainger.
In these ABC lectures Grainger used his collection of recordings to introduce listeners to his revolutionary concept of World Music. This was a world first for his audience or any one else.
The ethnomusicologist John Blacking wrote of Grainger:
Percy Grainger's contributions to the study of world music and to music education have not received the same attention as those of his contemporaries Bartok and Kodaly.
Taking Grainger's views as his starting point and heading each chapter with a quotation from Grainger's writings, John Blacking restates and reflects upon observations and attitudes which may be considered relevant to contemporary problems of ethnomusicology and music education.
Blacking discusses these issues in the light of his own research, musical experience and convictions. He endorses Grainger's view that 'folk' music is complex (not 'simple), and that individual expression is also important in unwritten music.
He considers three features that Grainger found particularly characteristic of unwritten music: 'irregular' rhythmic patterns, 'lovely' melodies and 'democratic' polyphony; in emphasising their cognitive, affective and social sources he explores further Grainger's notion that art can generate as well as reflect life.
The final chapters of the book are concerned with the application of the discoveries of ethnomusicology in music education.
A synopsis of twelve lectures given by Grainger in 1934 is reprinted as an appendix together with a list of the records that he used to illustrate them.
Percy Grainger and English Folk Song by Steve Roud
Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882-1961) was born, as George Percy Grainger, in Victoria, Australia, and first came to Europe to study music in Frankfurt in 1895. He settled in Britain in 1901, left for the USA in 1914, and lived there until his death, having taken American citizenship in 1918. In his time he was an extremely popular concert pianist, but is now chiefly remembered as the composer of over 400 classical pieces, many of which are still regularly played in the concert repertoire.
His 13-year period of residence in Britain coincided with the brief golden age of folk song collecting, which was the culmination of an interest in traditional music which had been building steadily during the late Victorian period. The novelist and poet Thomas Hardy, and the diarist Revd Francis Kilvert, for example, were both interested in seeking out songs in 1870, and by 1900, Sabine Baring-Gould, Lucy Broadwood, Frank Kidson, Marianne Mason, and W.A. Barrett had all published books of songs collected from ordinary people up and down the country. The Folk-Song Society (now subsumed in the English Folk Dance & Song Society) had been formed in 1899 to provide these enthusiasts with a network of contacts, and to further the cause of folk song collection, publication, and study.
It is not surprising that an up-and-coming young musician/composer like Grainger would catch the ‘folk song bug’, as the subject was very much in the air.
Among recent publications by the Australian Broadcasting Commission is a
booklet entitled "Music, a Common sense View of all Types," by Percy Granger.
The booklet is a synopsis of 12 lecture recitals given by the eminent pianist and composer
through the national stations during December. For those who heard these lectures, the synopsis will be of assistance to remembering the material given by Mr. Grainger.
In these ABC lectures Grainger used his collection of recordings to introduce listeners to his revolutionary concept of World Music. This was a world first for his audience or any one else.
The ethnomusicologist John Blacking wrote of Grainger:
Percy Grainger's contributions to the study of world music and to music education have not received the same attention as those of his contemporaries Bartok and Kodaly.
Taking Grainger's views as his starting point and heading each chapter with a quotation from Grainger's writings, John Blacking restates and reflects upon observations and attitudes which may be considered relevant to contemporary problems of ethnomusicology and music education.
Blacking discusses these issues in the light of his own research, musical experience and convictions. He endorses Grainger's view that 'folk' music is complex (not 'simple), and that individual expression is also important in unwritten music.
He considers three features that Grainger found particularly characteristic of unwritten music: 'irregular' rhythmic patterns, 'lovely' melodies and 'democratic' polyphony; in emphasising their cognitive, affective and social sources he explores further Grainger's notion that art can generate as well as reflect life.
The final chapters of the book are concerned with the application of the discoveries of ethnomusicology in music education.
A synopsis of twelve lectures given by Grainger in 1934 is reprinted as an appendix together with a list of the records that he used to illustrate them.
Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882-1961) was born, as George Percy Grainger, in Victoria, Australia, and first came to Europe to study music in Frankfurt in 1895. He settled in Britain in 1901, left for the USA in 1914, and lived there until his death, having taken American citizenship in 1918. In his time he was an extremely popular concert pianist, but is now chiefly remembered as the composer of over 400 classical pieces, many of which are still regularly played in the concert repertoire.
His 13-year period of residence in Britain coincided with the brief golden age of folk song collecting, which was the culmination of an interest in traditional music which had been building steadily during the late Victorian period. The novelist and poet Thomas Hardy, and the diarist Revd Francis Kilvert, for example, were both interested in seeking out songs in 1870, and by 1900, Sabine Baring-Gould, Lucy Broadwood, Frank Kidson, Marianne Mason, and W.A. Barrett had all published books of songs collected from ordinary people up and down the country. The Folk-Song Society (now subsumed in the English Folk Dance & Song Society) had been formed in 1899 to provide these enthusiasts with a network of contacts, and to further the cause of folk song collection, publication, and study.
It is not surprising that an up-and-coming young musician/composer like Grainger would catch the ‘folk song bug’, as the subject was very much in the air.
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