Writing these words, Percy Grainger was referring not to some eminent opera singer but to Joseph Taylor, an agricultural labourer and bailiff who lived in the tiny village of Saxby, Lincolnshire. Taylor it was who introduced Grainger to the song 'Brigg Fair', which both he and his friend Frederick Delius later used to write new compositions.
Grainger first heard Taylor sing on 11 April 1905, at a music competition in Brigg, North Lincolnshire. Taylor was 71 at the time, but to the 22-year-old Australian composer he sounded significantly younger. 'Nothing could be more refreshing than his hale countrified looks and the happy lilt of his cheery voice,' Grainger later recounted.
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