Despite the clinical title, this is one of the most sentimental of all Irish folk melodies, given a particularly rich arrangement. Grainger made several arrangements, in fact, and in terms of musical substance those for instrumental ensembles are all quite similar (string orchestra with one or two horns in 1913, winds in 1918, full orchestra in 1949, and chamber orchestra in 1952). Grainger found the melody in a collection of Irish folk tunes and professed to know no exact title for it; actually, it's well known as both "Londonderry Air" and "Danny Boy."

The timbral details vary from one arrangement to the next, but in general Grainger introduces the theme low in the ensemble, the first few phrases played simply but then with the counterpoint above becoming increasingly complex and chromatic. The melody receives a second treatment in a higher register, and then recedes into the middle of the instrumental texture for a third, grander statement. All the while the counterpoint becomes freer and more harmonically independent, particularly in the final version, with its almost Ivesian waywardness.

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Irish Tune from County Derry (Londonderry Air), folk song for military band and organ (BFMS 20; arr.string orchestra with 2 horns ad lib.)

Percy Grainger, like Bartók and Vaughan Williams, collected folk songs and often made more than one instrumental or vocal version of them. Irish Tune from County Derry is one case in point: the composer fashioned a number of arrangements of this folk tune; this one, with the identifying work number BFMS 15, was the second and is probably the most commonly heard of the lot. The original arrangement, from 1902, was for chorus, and this string orchestra setting dates to 1913. Its tune is familiar to listeners throughout the world as the melody in the song "Danny Boy."

Grainger's string orchestra version lasts about four minutes and is given an appropriately sentimental treatment. The theme is first presented with a cello-dominated mellowness in rather simple, mellifluous harmonies. The melody turns sadder when the string sonorities rise to higher ranges in the second half of the work. The optional horns provide harmonic support and though they are dispensable, their bolstering tones at the close impart a lovely poignancy to the piece. While there is little of Grainger's own style evident in this arrangement, the music is beautiful and should appeal to his admirers as well as folk music enthusiasts.

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