Music: Nonsense Syllables

The Bridgeport Oratorio Society and the New York Philharmonic Society combined forces at Carnegie Hall, Manhattan. The most amusing thing they did—and the most important—was an actual rendition of Percy Grainger's Marching Song of Democracy, under the composer's baton. The work was inspired by the uncouth verses of America's hoary revolutionary poet, "chanting the great pride of man in himself." It was composed in Germany, Australia, New York, between 1901 and 1918. The original plan was to write it for voices and whistlers only (no instruments), and to have it performed by...