Walking Tune - Grainger / arr. Brian Monroe [DIGITAL]

A vintage work by Percy Grainger comes alive as a 9-piece percussion ensemble for keyboard percussion and timpani. Drawing upon Grainger’s use of “tuneful percussion,” Walking Tune intermixes metal and wooden sounds to capture the colors found in Grainger’s music.

Genre: Percussion Ensemble | # of Players: 9
Level: Medium | Duration: 3:00

Instrumentation
Crotales [2 octaves]: aluminum mallets
Glockenspiel: plastic mallets
Xylophone: poly mallets
Vibraphone: medium cord mallets
*Marimba 1 [4-octave]: medium yarn mallets
Marimba 2 [4-octave]: medium yarn mallets
*Marimba 3 [5-octave]: medium yarn mallets
Chimes: 2-sided plastic/felt hammers
Timpani [4 drums]: medium felt mallets

*Marimba 1 and 3 may share one 5-octave instrument

Program Notes
Walking Tune is based on a short melody which Australian-born and American composer Percy Grainger (1882-1961) hummed to himself on a three-day journey tramping through the Scottish Highlands in 1900. Walking Tune was scored for various groups of instruments over the years including solo piano. This orchestration is based on two of his arrangements: one for “wind five-some” (woodwind quintet) which he scored for flute, oboe, clarinet, french horn and bassoon, and the second for solo piano. Both were scored and published in 1905. Even in the early 1900’s, Grainger was a strong proponent of “tuneful percussion” and used many Deagan instruments (no longer produced) such staff bells, song bells, steel marimba, crystal glasses, and the Nabimba in his compositions. This version has been orchestrated for the modern percussion ensemble keeping in mind how Grainger scored his “tuneful percussion.”