Handel in the Strand

Grainger’s Handel in the Strand is not a piece of chamber music but, in his own no-nonsense terminology, a room-music tit-bit. Written between 1911 and 1912, it is actually “Room-Music Tit-Bit No.2,” subtitled Clog Dance with the instruction that it is “to be played to, or without, clog dancing.” A similarly liberal note suggests that although it is scored for piano and two or three strings - “fiddle, middle-fiddle (which can be left out at will) and bass-fiddle” - it can be played by a full string orchestra with “at least” 4 pianos in unison. “As many as 20 pianos,” he adds, “may be used with good effect.”

The Handel in the Strand title was suggested to Grainger by his “dear friend” William Gair Rathbone, the dedicatee of the work. “The music seemed to reflect both Handel and English musical comedy,” the composer explained, “as if jovial old Handel were careering down the Strand to the strains of modern English popular music.” The melody introduced by cello (sorry, Percy, bass-fiddle) over the piano ostinato in the opening bars is from Grainger’s unfinished variations on Handel’s “Harmonious Blacksmith.” The clog dance tune enters with the full stamp of authority on the piano and is taken up not only by fiddle and bass fiddle but, eventually, middle fiddle too.