Molly
on the Shore
Percy Aldridge GRAINGER
(1882-1961)
In
the spring of 1920 Grainger completes his last piece for wind orchestra made in
his Army period, Molly on the Shore. It’s based on two reel tunes from Cork:
Temple Hill and Molly on the Shore, both from Charles Stanford Villiers’s The
Complete Petrie Collection of Ancient Irish Music. Grainger wrote his first
setting of the tune for string quartet (‘fiddle four-some’) as a birthday
gift for his mother Rose in 1907.
Like
Shepherd’s Hey!, Molly on the Shore is known for it’s rhythmic intensity
(especially some woodwind parts contain real ‘finger breakers’) and highly
subtle usage of the original notes. The many chromatic lines, one of
Grainger’s signatures, and the high level of variation in the instrumentation
give Molly on the Shore unprecedented energy.