Percy Grainger’s aleatoric adventures: The Rarotongan part-songs
Paul Jackson
This article draws together a range of source material relating to the recording and notation of the Rarotongan part-songs encountered by Percy Grainger during his 1909 concert tour of Australasia, and presents his transcriptions and notes for the first time within a critical framework. The various extant recordings, initially made in 1907 during the New Zealand International Exhibition by Alfred J. Knocks and later copied by Grainger, together with Grainger’s attempts at transcription, are evaluated in both the context of his activities as a collector of folk music and within the framework of his developing ideas of the notion of democracy in music. Grainger cited the music of Rarotonga as ‘a treat no less than the best Wagner’1 and he maintained its importance throughout his life. Whilst his transcriptions of the songs, and his planned settings of the music, were never completed, echoes of the Rarotongan music can be found in much of Grainger’s experimental output. In particular, he was to mine this material for the production of Random round, the genesis and development of which will be examined in part two of this article (to be published in number 3 of Grainger Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal).
The Rarotongan songs
Percy Grainger first encountered the native music of Rarotonga, the largest of the modern-day Cook Islands, during a concert tour of Australasia he had undertaken with the singer Ada Crossley in the early months of 1909.3 Here, Grainger made the acquaintance of Alfred J. Knocks (1851–1925), a licensed interpreter and native agent of Otaki, New Zealand,4 who ‘came into contact with the native race, their customs and usages, and always made it a point to learn anything that was of interest from them’.5 On 20 January 1909, in the Jubilee Hotel, Otaki, Knocks played Grainger examples of Rarotongan part- singing that he had recorded during the time of the New Zealand International Exhibition held in Christchurch between 1 November 1906.
Paul Jackson
This article draws together a range of source material relating to the recording and notation of the Rarotongan part-songs encountered by Percy Grainger during his 1909 concert tour of Australasia, and presents his transcriptions and notes for the first time within a critical framework. The various extant recordings, initially made in 1907 during the New Zealand International Exhibition by Alfred J. Knocks and later copied by Grainger, together with Grainger’s attempts at transcription, are evaluated in both the context of his activities as a collector of folk music and within the framework of his developing ideas of the notion of democracy in music. Grainger cited the music of Rarotonga as ‘a treat no less than the best Wagner’1 and he maintained its importance throughout his life. Whilst his transcriptions of the songs, and his planned settings of the music, were never completed, echoes of the Rarotongan music can be found in much of Grainger’s experimental output. In particular, he was to mine this material for the production of Random round, the genesis and development of which will be examined in part two of this article (to be published in number 3 of Grainger Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal).
The Rarotongan songs
Percy Grainger first encountered the native music of Rarotonga, the largest of the modern-day Cook Islands, during a concert tour of Australasia he had undertaken with the singer Ada Crossley in the early months of 1909.3 Here, Grainger made the acquaintance of Alfred J. Knocks (1851–1925), a licensed interpreter and native agent of Otaki, New Zealand,4 who ‘came into contact with the native race, their customs and usages, and always made it a point to learn anything that was of interest from them’.5 On 20 January 1909, in the Jubilee Hotel, Otaki, Knocks played Grainger examples of Rarotongan part- singing that he had recorded during the time of the New Zealand International Exhibition held in Christchurch between 1 November 1906.
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