Music: Batons Up!

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Percy Grainger has always deplored convention, for himself and for his music. Whenever he appears on the street he invariably attracts attention because he will wear no hat. One day he may tramp with a knapsack on his back into Manhattan to call on his publishers, the next day trundle a wheelbarrow to the railroad station in White Plains, N. Y., carry home his own luggage just for the exercise. He loves primitive people and customs. Rollicking "Country Gardens," like much of his music, is based on a folk tune, an English morris dance. He wrote it when he was a private in the U. S. Army, rated as a second-class musician who played the oboe and the saxophone. He has since seen it overshadow all his other output in popularity, has seen it become the biggest-selling concert piece in the U. S. (nearly 25,.000 copies). His wedding, like his soldiering, illustrates his passion for being one with the People. He married Danish Ella Viola Strom in Hollywood Bowl, the orchestra for altar, the great Bowlful of everyday spectators for guests. His gift to the bride was a gift for everyone : A symphonic work, "To a Nordic Princess."

In his music Percy Grainger often fore-swears the ordinary Italian markings such as allegro, legato, pianissimo. He writes for the People, marks his music accordingly: "fairly slowly flowingly," "slacken lots," "louden lots." Nor does Grainger confine himself to conventional instrumentation. His contribution to last week's Worcester Festival was "Tribute to Foster''* which called for the use of musical glasses and bowls. Only vaudevillians have heretofore played glasses in public. They take glasses of different pitch, tune them further by putting varying amounts of water in them, play them by rubbing a moistened finger around the rims. Earnest Worcester choristers, each with a glass, put on the act last week, rubbed a mellifluous accompaniment to their own singing of a clever elaboration on Stephen Foster's "Doodah."