Percy Aldridge GRAINGER (1882-1961)
The Australian
Percy Aldridge Grainger was a musician of unusual breadth of vision, a composer
of a broad spectrum of works from the highly experimental to the overtly
popular, a musical innovator, a virtuoso pianist, a perceptive collector of
folksongs (the first major collector in Britain to use recording techniques), an
arranger of other people's music from Mediaeval times to the twentieth century
and a pioneer in what he termed "free music".
With every
activity he touched he wished to involve himself to his fullest capacity, be it
in studying the technical side of making piano rolls so that he could edit his
own recordings, or dressing up as a South Sea islander to learn more of their
culture, or constructing his own machines on which he could realize the flights
of his musical fancy direct, free from conventional restrictions on rhythm and
pitch. Such are the many talents of this fascinating man that it has taken the
energies of many writers to begin to build up a total picture of his musical
achievements.
Conscious of the
way his name seemed always to be linked with folksong, Grainger was often at
pains to emphasize what he regarded as his more important work: his original
compositions using entirely his own ideas. For us who wish to perform and hear
his music, this is too narrow a limitation, for Grainger is not just a composer,
he is the door to a vast musical world suffused with his own vital influence.
His scholarly attitude, his love of all kinds of music and his refreshing desire
to become involved in all things has left us a legacy of music which includes
experimental pieces, original works, folk settings and a considerable number of
transcriptions and free arrangements of other composers that he imbued with his
own special brand of musical magic.