Country Gardens
 Percy Aldridge GRAINGER (1882-1961)

The ‘Country Gardens’ is one of the English Folk tunes that was collected and notated by British Folk tune revivalist, Cecil Sharp. It was collected from some rural part of England. The rough sketch by Grainger was scored for ‘2 whistlers and a few instruments about 1908. Worked out for piano, spring, 1918. This was a Birthday gift for his mother, Rose in July 3, 1918’.

The name of Percy Grainger and Country Gardens, based on the folk song The Vicar Of Bray, seem to be inseparable. At the ending of a concert in 1918 he played his arrangement on this tune, given by Cecil Sharp. The audience was very pleased with it, and Grainger decided to have it published. Country Gardens broke all selling records; in the U.S. only more than 40.000 copies a year were sold. Until his death in 1961, Country Gardens generated a great deal of Grainger’s income. In his letter to Sharp he wrote:

"At the risk of seeming impertinent, I take the liberty of again making a suggertion with regard to the royalty of Country Gardens. It has proven even more of a success than I had expected, and you will see from the enclosed photocopy that it has broken Schirmer’s sales records… I hope you will forgive me if I ask you once again if you will not consider sharing the royalty with me. I feel it is quite undeserved that I should enjoy the whole of it myself."

Percy Aldridge Grainger

‘Country Gardens’ inevitably overshadowed his other works, which caused the composer much astonishment and disquiet. Grainger remarked: “The typical English country garden is not often used to grow flowers in, it is more likely to be a vegetable plot. So you can think of turnips as I play it.” Grainger eventually hated the piece, because he was always associated with it. He rather received the same level of enthusiasm for his Hill Songs, Lincolnshire Posy of The Warriors. But whatever it is, it is difficult to deny that this work had hidden the merits and the wider acceptance of other works of his.

back to Composers' Corner