Grainger and "Country Gardens"
"Country Gardens" is the best-known work of the Australian-born American composer, arranger, and pianist Percy Grainger. Its score bears this note: "Birthday-gift, Mother, July 3, 1918." Grainger's mother Rose was responsible for his excellent musical training that made him a successful concert pianist in Britain, Europe, and America. In 1918, Grainger arranged a folk tune given to him in 1908 by Cecil Sharp, a major figure in the folklore revival in England. Grainger titled his arrangement "Country Gardens," and it went over so well at his recitals that Grainger decided to have it published. It was a big hit and broke sales records. In fact, until his death in 1961, its sales generated a significant portion of Grainger's annual income. Like other composers with a mega-hit, Grainger came to resent being known for just one tune, and would say to audiences: "The typical English country garden is not often used to grow flowers. It's more likely to be a vegetable plot. So you can think of turnips as I play it". In 1931, "Country Gardens" was arranged for wind band by someone other than Grainger, but around 1950, at the special request of a Detroit band director named Graham Overgard, Grainger prepared his own arrangement, and wrote to Overgard: "I now have my own version, quite delicate and unlike the coarse-sounding score you rightly object to. The new setting is not based on the piano version, but on a chamber music sketch of 1908 and is a new piece in every way."