The Widow’s Party

Description

The Widow’s Party is a poem from Rudyard Kipling’s series titled Barrack-Room Ballads and is Grainger’s Kipling Setting Nr. 7. Grainger set this poem twice [the first setting was in 1901 and, as noted by Grainger scholar Barry Peter Ould, remains unperformed]. The second setting was originally conceived for men’s chorus accompanied by piano duet, orchestra or military band, and Grainger’s manuscript puts the date of composition as June 3 – July 2, 1906. This work, like many of Grainger’s, was presented to his mother on July 3, 1906 as a Birthday gift. Grainger re-scored the work between December 9 – 17, 1924 and presented it as a Yule gift to the memory of his mother. As with many Grainger works he re-scored it again between August 11 – 13, 1926 and again presented it as a Yule gift to the memory of his mother, Rose. In the 1926 setting Grainger list “3 choices of instrumental accompaniment, as follows”:

Full orchestra
Small (room music) orchestra (17 to 20 players)
Piano 2-some (4 hands, at 1 piano)

All settings have a heading at the top of the score that read ‘Lovingly dedicated to my mother’. In the 1924 setting that Grainger did for military band [Highly questionable that Grainger himself did it. The manuscript was not in his hand and Italian terms were used rather than his “blue-eyed-English’.] the key was changed from the original up one-half step to A flat. In doing this transcription I used my setting of the original for male chorus and chamber orchestra Although it is for woodwind choir the piano part and percussion could be added from the RBC Publication of the full band setting to add a greater feeling of ‘Grainger the concert pianist’ to the performance.

It is important to note that the ‘Widow’ in the title refers to Queen Victoria (The Widow of Windsor) and the ‘Party’ is one of the many frontier wars in India.

This transcription for the standard American woodwind choir was made possible by kind permission of Stewart Manville (White Plains, New York).

This setting, scored from July 2 to 22, 2014 dates just over 100 years from Grainger’s original, was for performance at the December 2014 Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic (Chicago, III.) by the College Park Woodwind Choir (The Woodlands, Texas) under the direction of Charlotte N. Royall. This setting is dedicated to the College Park Woodwind Choir and their director Charlotte Rovall.

Instrumentation: Piccolo, 2 Flutes, Oboe, English Horn, 3 Bb Clarinets, Bass Clarinet, Contralto Clarinet, 2 Bassoons, 2 Alto Saxophones, 2 Tenor Saxophones & Baritone Saxophone

Published by: RBC Publications