Lincolnshire Posy
Lincolnshire Posy is a musical composition by Percy Grainger for concert band commissioned in 1937 by the American Bandmasters Association.[1] Considered by John Bird, the author of Grainger's biography, to be his masterpiece, the 16-minute-long work has six movements, each adapted from folk songs that Grainger had collected on a 1905–1906 trip to Lincolnshire, England.[2][3] In a similar fashion to these folk songs, many of the movements are in strophic form. The work debuted with three movements on March 7, 1937 performed by the Milwaukee Symphonic Band, a group composed of members from bands including the Blatz Brewery and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer factory worker bands in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.[4]
Not to be confused with The Lincolnshire Poacher.
Unlike other composers who attempted to alter and modernize folk music, such as Ralph Vaughan Williams, Grainger wished to maintain the exact stylizing that he experienced from the originals. In the piece's program notes, Grainger wrote: "...Each number is intended to be a kind of musical portrait of the singer who sang its underlying melody—a musical portrait of the singer’s personality no less than of his habits of song—his regular or irregular interpretation of the rhythm, his preference for gaunt or ornately arabesqued delivery, his contrasts of legato and staccato, his tendency towards breadth or delicacy of tone."[5]
Grainger dedicated his "bunch of Wildflowers" to "the old folksingers who sang so sweetly to me".[5]
Movements[edit]
I. "Lisbon"[edit]
Originally entitled "Dublin Bay",[5] the first movement is the shortest—a simple, lilting melody in 6
8 time. The melody follows a young sailor preparing to leave his love to head towards Lisbon.[7] In the opening of the movement, the main theme is stated by the 1st and 2nd trumpets (with mutes), 1st horns, and bassoon. As is typical with any piece of music in strophic form such as this, the theme is repeated throughout by the other sections of the ensemble. Later in the movement, the 1st horns and trumpets quote another Grainger work, entitled "The Duke of Marlborough Fanfare" as the rest of the ensemble continues with a repetition of the theme. The final repetition augments the theme and ends with a 2-3 retardation.