Grainger first met Frederick Delius (1862–1934) in 1907, and this was to be a turning point in both men’s lives. They took to each other immediately and their paths were to cross many times. Delius had a great admiration for the young Australian, considering him to be ‘a genius—one of the greatest composers’, endowed with the gift of true originality. It was Delius who also encouraged Grainger to desist from withholding his works from public performance. The piano solo transcription of Delius’s
Air and Dance dates from 1927 to 1930. The original manuscript of Grainger’s arrangement came into the possession of Bernard van Dieren, and was only discovered when a number of Delius manuscripts were put up for sale at Sotheby’s by van Dieren’s son in 1964. The original work, written in 1915 for string orchestra, is a comparatively simple-textured piece in one movement. Grainger’s piano arrangement makes full use of the harmonic language inherent in the original, and employs the sustaining pedal to clarify harmonic changes over static pedal notes. The piece is in one continuous movement with the
Dance growing naturally out of the
Air.
from notes by Barry Peter Ould © 2002
