Lincolnshire Posy

• Lincolnshire Posy, a piece for wind band, consists of six movements based on English folksongs from Lincolnshire that the composer had gathered and transcribed:
  1. Dublin Bay (Sailor’s Song)
  2. Harkstow Grange (The Miser and his Man: A Local Tragedy)
  3. Rufford Park Poachers (Poaching Song)
  4. The brisk young Sailor (returned to wed his True Love)
  5. Lord Melbourne (War Song)
  6. The Lost Lady found (Dance Song)
• Percy Grainger was commissioned to contribute a piece for the 1937 American Bandmaster’s Convention and produced Lincolnshire Posy for the event.¹
• In his program notes for the premiere, Grainger wrote:

“This bunch of ‘musical wildflowers’… is dedicated to the old folksingers who sang so sweetly to me. Indeed, each number is intended to be a kind of musical portrait of the singer who sang its underlying melody–a musical portrait of the singer’s personality no less than of his habits of song.”

Percy Grainger²

Grainger’s full program notes for Lincolnshire Posy

1. Percy Grainger, Lincolnshire Posy (London: Schott & Co., 1940), 1.
2. Ibid.