Shepherd's Hey

This arrangement of Shepherd’s Hey was written in 1994 by R. Mark Rogers (see below) of the English folk song first set for a chamber music ensemble by Percy Grainger (see also below) in 1909. See below for the full (and pretty extensive) story. Subsequent arrangements for orchestra and “military band” had this dedication: “Lovingly and reverently dedicated to the memory of Edvard Grieg.” It is subtitled English Morris Dance”.

From Percy Grainger in 1918:

“In agricultural districts in various parts of England, teams of “Morris Men”, decked in jingling bells and other finery, can be seen dancing to ‘Shepherd’s Hey’ and other traditional dancing tunes played on the fiddle or on the pipe and tabor (a sort of drum and fife).”

From the arranger, R. Mark Rogers:

“The present setting of Shepherd’s Hey for concert band is part of Percy Grainger's largest body of work, collectively known as British Folk-Music Setting (BFMS). Although Grainger was a great collector of folk music (an ethnomusicologist in today's usage), the melodies used in this setting were collected by the great authority on British folk music, Cecil J. Sharp.

Grainger's first completed setting of Shepherd’s Hey was for a chamber music ensemble ("room-music 12-some") consisting of flute, clarinet, horn, baritone concertina (a type of accordion), 3 violins, 2 violas, 2 violoncelli, and double-bass.

That setting was begun in 1908 and concluded on November 17, 1909, and is cataloged as number 3 of BFMS. A setting of Shepherd’s Hey for piano solo is No. 4 of BFMS; it also was begun in 1908, but not completed until December of 1913. In 1937, Grainger completed a simplified version of the piano setting. All of these are set in G major.

In March of 1913 Grainger completed a setting of Shepherd’s Hey for full orchestra (No. 16 of BFMS), which was premiered at Bournemouth on May 3, 1913 with the composer conducting. The instrumentation includes small flute (Grainger’s preferred term used in place of the more commonly used ‘Piccolo’), 2 each of flutes, oboes, clarinets, and bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, 1 or 2 harps, piano, the usual strings, and a percussion section consisting of 3 kettle-drums, side drum, big (bass) drum, suspended and crash cymbals, triangle, chime (‘glockenspiel’) and hammerwood (‘xylophone’).

In the orchestral setting, Grainger transposed the material down a minor third to E major and established what has become known as the definitive form of the piece. Grainger transcribed this setting for 2 pianos/4 hands in 1947.

Grainger was particularly pleased with the orchestral setting. On the day following the following the first performance, he wrote to Karen Holton (his confidant of those years):

‘I am very satisfied with it myself and think it is by far the most sparkling and brilliant of my things for full orchestra. Much percussion is used, glockenspiel, piano, xylophone, triangle, harp etc and the whole thing sounds very clattering and sparkling...Percussion has an enormous future, I am certain.’

The setting of Shepherd’s Hey for concert band was based on this orchestral setting and is one of Grainger's first contributions to the repertoire for wind band. In this setting, Shepherd’s Hey was transposed to E-flat and designated BFMS No. 21.

It was published in 1918 in an edition that included Grainger's wind band setting of Irish Tune from County Derry. In accordance with contemporary usage, Grainger used the term ‘Military Band’ to refer to a mixed ensemble of woodwinds, brass, and percussion, as opposed to the all-brass bands popular in that day [and still surviving in Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand]. Interestingly, the only substantial difference between the band and the orchestral setting is that the orchestral version begins with an eighth-note anacrusis which Grainger dropped when “dishing-up” the band setting. Although he eliminated the measure containing the anacrusis, Grainger accounted for this measure in the numbering of the measures in the band setting, perhaps so that measure numbers would be the same when comparing the band and orchestral scores. The present edition restores the missing measure, thus preserving the consistent measure numbering.

In 1949, at the request of Leopold Stokowski, Grainger prepared a final orchestral version of Shepherd’s Hey, which was largely based on BFMS No. 16. For this project Grainger prepared a new full score, altered many of the printed parts from the earlier publication, and added new manuscript parts for English horn, bass clarinet, and double bassoon.”

Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882 – 1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist who moved to the United States in 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. In the course of a long and innovative career he played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the early years of the 20th century. Although much of his work was experimental and unusual, the piece with which he is most generally associated is his piano arrangement of the folk-dance tune “Country Gardens”.

Grainger left Australia at the age of 13 to attend the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. Between 1901 and 1914 he was based in London, where he established himself first as a society pianist and later as a concert performer, composer, and collector of original folk melodies. As his reputation grew he met many of the significant figures in European music, forming important friendships with Frederick Delius and Edvard Grieg. He became a champion of Nordic music and culture, his enthusiasm for which he often expressed in private letters, sometimes in crudely racist or anti-Semitic terms.

In 1914, Grainger moved to the United States, where he lived for the rest of his life, though he traveled widely in Europe and Australia. He served briefly as a bandsman in the United States Army during the First World War through 1917–18, and took American citizenship in 1918. After his mother's suicide in 1922, he became increasingly involved in educational work. He also experimented with music machines, which he hoped would supersede human interpretation. In the 1930s he set up the Grainger Museum in Melbourne, his birthplace, as a monument to his life and works, and as a future research archive.

As he grew older, he continued to give concerts and to revise and rearrange his own compositions, while writing little new music. After the Second World War, ill health reduced his levels of activity. He considered his career a failure. He gave his last concert in 1960, less than a year before his death.

R. Mark Rogers (b. 1955) is an American composer, arranger and conductor.

Dr. Rogers has degrees from Texas Tech University and the University of Texas.

As managing editor for Southern Music Company, he is the author of editions of the music of Percy Aldridge Grainger and John Philip Sousa that have entered band repertory worldwide. He is also widely published as an arranger and transcriber, with performances by all five of the Washington, D.C. service bands.

Dr. Rogers is on the adjunct faculty of San Antonio College, Texas Lutheran University, and Trinity University. Prior to coming to San Antonio, Dr. Rogers was on the faculty of the University of South Alabama and a staff member of the University of Texas Longhorn Band. He has guest conducted numerous community and professional bands, regional honor bands and orchestras, and is an active clinician for area high school and middle school bands and orchestras. A bassoonist, he performs with the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra, the Victoria Symphony Orchestra, the Laredo Philharmonic, the Mid-Texas Symphony, the Austin Symphony Orchestra and the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra.

Rogers is the conductor of the Heart of Texas Concert Band in San Antonio. He was elected to the American Bandmasters Association in 2022.

The music for Shepherd’s Hey was provided for the band by Grant and Eileen Erickson.