Percy Grainger
BRIDAL LULLABY RAMBLE for piano solo
Bardic Edition BDE892
transcribed by John Lavender from a piano roll edited by Penelope Thwaites.
With the possibility that Grainger whilst in the US Army might be sent on overseas service, he set to preserving some of his compositions by performing them onto piano rolls at the Duo-Art studio in New York (February 1918). These rolls eventually found their way to the Grainger Museum in Melbourne, Australia where they lay for many years unheard until they were eventually transferred onto tape by the late Denis Condon. Grainger had recorded two possible versions of what he called Warriors room-music (slow movement). It was exciting to discover that these were in fact extended versions of the piece A Bridal Lullaby which he had written for his former lover, Karen Holten. For this publication, John Lavender transcribed the more convincing of the two versions giving it the explanatory title Bridal Lullaby Ramble. Some of this material intersects with that of his two-piano work Warriors 2 which in turn is the projected second movement of his Thanksgiving Song, written to celebrate the women in his life.
The first performance was given by Penelope Thwaites on April 12, 2005 at St John’s Smith Square and recorded by her on CHAN 10205 (CHANDOS The Grainger Edition, Volume 19, Works for Solo Piano 3) or CD 19 of The Complete Grainger Edition CHAN 20196 (21).
With the possibility that Grainger whilst in the US Army might be sent on overseas service, he set to preserving some of his compositions by performing them onto piano rolls at the Duo-Art studio in New York (February 1918). These rolls eventually found their way to the Grainger Museum in Melbourne, Australia where they lay for many years unheard until they were eventually transferred onto tape by the late Denis Condon. Grainger had recorded two possible versions of what he called Warriors room-music (slow movement). It was exciting to discover that these were in fact extended versions of the piece A Bridal Lullaby which he had written for his former lover, Karen Holten. For this publication, John Lavender transcribed the more convincing of the two versions giving it the explanatory title Bridal Lullaby Ramble. Some of this material intersects with that of his two-piano work Warriors 2 which in turn is the projected second movement of his Thanksgiving Song, written to celebrate the women in his life.
The first performance was given by Penelope Thwaites on April 12, 2005 at St John’s Smith Square and recorded by her on CHAN 10205 (CHANDOS The Grainger Edition, Volume 19, Works for Solo Piano 3) or CD 19 of The Complete Grainger Edition CHAN 20196 (21).
