Down Longford Way – Shenandoah

Description

The two Grainger works transcribed here fall into the area of obscurity (Down Longford Way) and neglect (Shenandoah). Down Longford Way was collected by Katherine Parker. In 1912 Grainger met the Parknook, Tasmania-born pianist in London. She was a scholarship winner from the Melbourne Conservatorium and one of only a few of Grainger’s students he held any hope for as a performer. She set a collection of native Tasmanian songs from her homeland and the Down Longford Way is presumably one of them. Percy orchestrated and reworked the harmonies in 1936. There is evidence that he conducted the setting on some of his concerts. The choral setting of Shenandoah, on the other hand, was at one time performed in both England and abroad, although never published in his lifetime. It is listed in Teresa Balough’s CATALOGUE OF THE WORKS OF PERCY GRAINGER (Music Monograph 2, University of Western Australia) as an unnumbered sea Chanty collected in 1906 from the singing of Charles Rosher and scored in 1907 for solo male voice, unison male chorus, and six accompanying male singers.