ABSTRACT
A British record, issued as a subsidiary of Scala from ca. September 1923 to ca. December 1927. About 300 discs appeared, mostly of dance and popular music. Matrices used were Vocalion, Emerson, Federal, and Pathé. [Rust 1978.]
FRANK ANDREWS
Australian pianist, composer, and folk music specialist, born in Melbourne. He was concertizing by age 10, and in 1894 was sent to Germany for study. In 1901 he toured Britain, South Africa, and Australia. Early on, Grainger developed an interest in traditional English ballad singing, and in 1906 began recording traditional singers on cylinder in the field. In 1908, he brought some of these singers, most notably a wonderful 75-year-old balladeer named Joseph Taylor, to the studios of Gramophone Records, where several cylinders were made, among the earliest commercial recordings of traditional balladry. (Grainger’s cylinders were reissued on LP in 1972 by Leader Records, and a selection again reissued by Folktrax Records, both British folk labels.) Grainger settled in the U.S. in 1914, teaching in New York and Chicago, and performing in many cities. Granger met Edvard Grieg, and became known for his definitive interpretation of that composer’s concerto. He recorded a part of the first movement as early as 1908 for G&T; then made a Duo-Art piano roll; and rendered it best in a 1945 performance with the Hollywood Bowl Symphony under Stokowski (released by the International Piano Archives, an LP that included the 1908 fragment). But his primary fame rests with his own clever compositions as played on disc by himself or in orchestral arrangements: “Molly on the Shore,” “Country Gardens,” and “One More Day, My John,” all on Decca A586; “Handel in the Strand,” and “Shepherd’s Hey.” An LP (Gem 143) reissue presented Grainger playing most of his solo works. British Decca’s first classical release in 1929 included one of his compositions, “Jutish Medley.”
