Irish Tune from County Derry
Percy Grainger
(1882-1961)
Percy Grainger was a pianist, composer and arranger of folk tunes. Born in Australia in 1882, Grainger was heavily influenced in his musical beginnings by his mother who recognized his talents at an early age. Grainger’s performances as a young child earned him recognition from well-known composers such as Fredereick Delius and Edvard Grieg.
Grainger spent years collecting and recording folk songs throughout the English countryside. The numerous compositions by Grainger are all influenced by folk songs he recorded, transcribed and arranged for many different choral and instrumental ensembles.
“Oh Danny Boy” is a cornerstone of Irish tradition as a folk tune that originated from a song known as “London Derry Air”. There are many different opinions of the exact origin of the folk tune; however the most concrete evidence tells us that Irish Tune from County Derry was taken from the Complete Petrie Collection of the Music of Ireland edited by Sir Charles Villiers Stanford.
Irish Tune is technically simple; there are no difficult rhythms to hinder the success of the performance of the tune. The difficulty of Irish Tune lies within the harmonic tuning, extreme ranges, balance of melody and harmony lines and precision. The song is in strophic form, only having two verses and follows the origin of the lyrics O Danny Boy.
The need for accurate harmonic tuning of Irish Tune led me to assign tuning tests to each of my students. In order for us to achieve success of such a difficult piece, I felt that each student must demonstrate accurate tuning of each pitch in Irish Tune. Each section was given written pitches to practice with a tuner and tuning tendency guides for ref...
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...red. To allow our ensemble to become comfortable with this style of music, we practiced the piece in the beginning at a comfortable mezzo forte volume and I insisted that the students watch the baton very closely. In the beginning I made a special effort to not direct the piece the same way two times in a row. The end result of our rehearsal techniques on the piece enabled us to confidently play while hopefully achieving the musical and emotional mood that Grainger intended.
The melody of Irish Tune itself is notably recognized by many. Percy Grainger used a simple folk song and created one of the most musically challenging works for band. A rubato style with no rhythmic difficulties or key changes, the piece can be deceptive to those that have never played or conducted it. Irish Tune from County Derry will always be one of the most loved works for wind band.
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