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Scan 445
Biographical dictionary of musicians, 1940
8 lines. Read by computer on 8 September 2026. Printed page 425. See the scan on archive.org.
1(peasants, sailors, etc.) as the most fruitful influence in my creative career.' Examination of his publ. works proves that this self-estimate is correct; it is the quality peculiar to folk-music that assured the instant and astonishing success of G.'s compositions. His first appearance as a composer was at one of Balfour Gardiner's concerts in London, in 1912, when he conducted his Mock Morris for string-orch. G. is not only an earnest student of folk-music, but also an ardent collector, having taken more than 500 phonographic records (European, African, Australian and American). In 1899 he began to experiment with rhythmically free music, which he defines as 'music in which the composer freely uses all intervals (mostly gliding) without being controlled by existing limitations of scale and tonality, and in which all rhythms are free, without beat-cohesion between the various polyphonic parts.' This is not a new style of composition, but rather a modern adaptation of old polyphonic technique. In the summers of 1919–31 he taught master-classes at the Chicago Mus. Coll.; has been prof. and head of the music dept. at N. Y. Univ.; 1934–35, toured Australia and New Zealand as conductor, pianist and lecturer (147 appearances with Australian Broadcasting Co.); guest-cond. of British Broadcasting Co. Symph. Orch., London, in 1936; now (1940) living in White Plains, N. Y., making a coast-to-coast tour of the U. S. every year. G. introduced the major works of Delius in the U. S. (1924–26). He is one of the foremost living authorities on British folk-music.—Publ. works: For orch.: Mock Morris (1911); Irish Tunes from County Derry (1911); Molly on the Shore; Shepherd's Hey; Colonial Song (1914); In a Nutshell (music to an imaginary ballet), for orch. and 3 pfs. (1916; Norfolk Fest., 1917); English Dance, for orch. and org. (1925); To a Nordic Princess, for do. (1928); Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon (1932); Harvest Hymn (1933); Danish Folk-song Suite (1937). For chamber-orch.: The Nightingale and the [address hidden] (1931). For chor. and orch.: Marching Song of Democracy (Worcester Fest., 1916; publ. 1917); The Merry Wedding (1916); Father and Daughter; Sir Eglamore; The Camp; The March of the Men of Harlech; The Hunter in His Career; The Bride's Tragedy (1914; Evanston Fest., Ill., 1932); Love Verses from 'The Song of Solomon' (1931); Tribute to Foster (1931). For chor. and brass band: I'm Seventeen come Sunday; We Have Fed our Seas for a Thousand Years; (1912); Marching Tune. For a cappella chor.: Brigg Fair; The Innuit; Morning Song in the Jungle; A Song of Vermland; At Twilight; Tiger-Tiger!; etc. All these are also issued in various arrangements. Chamber-music: Handel in the Strand (1913); octet, My Robin Is to the Greenwood Gone; Walking Tune, for woodwind-quintet; Green Bushes, Passacaglia (1921); Hill-Song No. 1 (1923); Shallow Brown (1924); Hill-Song No. 2 (1929); Spoon River (1930); Free Music for strings (perf. Australia and New Zealand, 1935). For military band: Children's March (1918); march, The Lads of Wamphrey; Lincolnshire Posy, 6 folk-songs from Lincolnshire, England (MS., 1937). He has also written pieces for 'cello and pf.; settings, in various combinations, of 20 of Kipling's poems (1911–38); 32 settings of British folk-music (1911–38); songs; pf.-pcs., etc. Author of Arnold Dolmetsch, Musical Confucius, in the 'Mus. Quart.' (1933).—Cf. C. Scott, P. G., the Music and the Man, in the 'Mus. Quart.' (1916); D. C. Parker, P. A. G., a Study (1918); Ch. W. Hughes, P. G., a Cosmopolitan Composer, in the 'Mus. Quart.' (1937).
3Gram, Hans, organist; b. Denmark, 18th century. St. in Stockholm, and, some time prior to 1790, settled in Boston, where he was organist of the [address hidden]. Ch.; 1795, co-ed., with Oliver Holden and Samuel Holyoke, of The Massachusetts Compiler, a progressive work on Psalmody, containing a mus. dictionary. Comp. The Death Song of an Indian Chief, for voice, 2 clars., [address hidden] horns and strs. (publ. in the 'Mass. Magazine', Mar., 1791; apparently the first orchl. score publ. in the U. S.); Sacred Lines for Thanksgiving Day (1793); and other vocal works (publ. in 'Mass. Magazine').—Cf. F. J. Metcalf, Amer. Writers and Compilers of Sacred Music (1925); J. T. Howard, Our Amer. Mus. (rev. ed. 1939).
5Gram, Peder, composer and conductor; b. Copenhagen, Nov. 25, 1881; studied at the Leipzig Cons. with Krehl, Nikisch and Sitt; won the Nikisch Prize in 1907; returned to Copenhagen, where he is now (1940) living; 1908–13, cond. concerts with his own orch. there (1914, also in Berlin); since 1918 dir. of the Danish Concert Soc.; 1919–24, Pres. of the Soc. of Professional Musicians. Has written 3 symphs., an overture, festival music, a symph. fantasy, Poème lyrique, etc., for orch.; a vln.-concerto; chamber-music (vcl.-sonata, trio, str.-quartet); and valuable pf.-works.
7Gram'mann, Karl, dramatic comp.; b. Lübeck, June 3, 1844; d. Dresden, Jan. 30, 1897. From 1867–71 pupil of Leipzig Cons.; lived in Vienna as a comp. until 1885, and after that at Dresden. 2 operas, Die Schatzgräber and Die Eisjungfrau, were written while he was a youth studying in the gymnasium; his other works are the operas Melusine, op. 24 (Wiesbaden, 1875), Thusnelda und der Triumphzug des Germanicus, op. 29 (Dresden, 1881), Das Andreasfest, op. 35
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