Percy Aldridge Grainger

Arrival Platform Humlet

Awaiting arrival of belated train bringing one's sweetheart from foreign parts; great fun! The sort of thing one hums to oneself as an accompaniment to one's tramping feet as one happily, excitedly, paces up and down the arrival platform. Originally conceived for middle-fidle single, massed middle-fiddles, or double-reed single, or massed double reeds, or as a humlet for a single voice or chorus of voices, the 'Arrival Platform Humlet' was begun in Liverpool Street and Victoria railway stations, London (England), on Febuary 2, 1908, and was continued and finished in 1908, 1910 and 1912 (England, Norway, etc.) In 1916 I scored it for orchestra, piano and Deagan percussion instruments as the first movement of my Suite 'In a Nutshell'. ~ Percy Grainger. This melody has been dished-up for saxophone single by Roger Greenberg.