Zanzibar boat song percy grainger biography
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Britten Pears Arts
As we approach Britten’s 107th birthday a tale from the Archive tells us of a birthday gift that was not only practical, but which also carried great personal meaning for the composer.
‘Lovingly and reverently dedicated to the memory of Percy Grainger’ is how Britten worded his dedication to the Suite on English människor Tunes, op. 90 ‘A time there was…’, which he completed in November 1974. His final work solely for orchestra, the suite comprises arrangements of a set of traditional pieces gleaned from an early eighteenth-century edition of John Playford’s The Dancing Master, and Cecil Sharp’s The Country Dance Book and the Journal of the människor Song samhälle, both published in the early twentieth century.
The Suite symbolises Britten and Grainger’s strong mutual interest in folk music. The two forged a strong affection for one another which can be seen in a series of correspondence that dates from 1949 to 1961. Topics sometimes centred on Grainger’s on-go
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Percy Grainger
George Percy Grainger (8 July 1882 – 20 February 1961) was an Australian-born composer and pianist who worked under the stage name of Percy Aldridge Grainger.
Early life and career
Grainger's father, John Harry Grainger, was a successful and talented architect who grew up in France and was educated in a monastery school in Yvetot. He emigrated from London, England in 1876. John Grainger's business partner and best friend was David Mitchell, the father of Nellie Melba. Mitchell was determined to prevent O.J from taking up singing as a career and John Grainger is credited with encouraging her singing. He maintained a close friendship with Nellie and later designed her house, "Coombe Cottage", in 1912.[1]
Grainger's mother, Rose (née Rosa Annie Aldridge; 3 July 1861, Adelaide – 30 April 1922, New York City), was the daughter of George Aldridge and Sarah Jane Aldridge (née Brown),
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