Percy Grainger (1882-1961) was an Australian-born composer, conductor and concert pianist, who spent his life trying to re-invent the way music was written, viewed and performed. Browse our sheet music and scores, and explore for yourself all his wonderful works today!
Grainger was born in Brighton, near Melbourne, and was home-schooled by his mother for most of his childhood. He began studying the piano at the age of 10, and immediately showed remarkable talent. At the age of 13, he and his mother moved to Frankfurt, so he could study at the Hoch Conservatoire.
After maturing as a musician and a performer, Grainger moved to London, and became more and more sought after as a pianist. He had a fascination for Scandinavian music, and was greatly influenced by Edvard Grieg, who was a lifelong friend and mentor. Grainger dedicated himself to collecting folk music, firstly in the UK, and then Norway and eventually from all around the world.
Due to his overwhelming desire to be the first Australian composer of great worth, when the first world war hit, Grainger moved to the USA. He joined the U.S Army in 1917, and served as a bandsman, playing the saxophone. He became an American citizen in 1918, and the USA was his home for the rest of his life. He toured Europe and Australasia as a concert pianist and accompanist many, many times, he recorded with many record labels (most consistently with Colombia Records), and he never lost sight of his goal to champion Australian Music.
After a lifelong struggle to compose new and innovative works, alongside his folk music arrangements, and a critically acclaimed career as a concert pianist, when the second world war began, Grainger left his New York home, and moved to Springfield, Missouri. He feared that the fighting might hit the East Coast, and he hadn’t achieved his goal of becoming the world’s first internationally renowned, and unequivocally great Australian composer. During the war, he played many charity concerts, to help boost moral.
Grainger’s wish to create new musical forms, and to stretch the boundaries of classical composition, led him to write in many styles, using many techniques. He never conformed to classical structures, and rarely used traditional instrumentation. He was the first aleatoric composer, leaving elements of choice in his scores for the performers, and he tried to create a type of “free music” which did not have regular time signatures, or traditional structures.
As he became more and more frustrated with the lack of progress in his exploration of new musical forms, and his growing feeling that he would never reach his goals as a composer, he began to focus more and more on his work with a young physics teacher, Burnett Cross, to try to invent instruments first mechanically, and later electronically, which could play his “free music”. These “free music machines” were only ever rather limited, and Grainger became more and more depressed, not only by the lack of success in these endeavours, but also in the decline of his piano playing.
One source of joy for Grainger, was his work on military music. His experiences in the USA during both world wars led him to be a great advocate for Wind Ensemble and Brass music, and he wrote a great wealth of repertoire for Concert Band, Brass Band and Marching Band. These range from folk-song arrangements, to original compositions.
As a highly intelligent and eccentric man, Grainger spent many trips to Australia building the Grainger Museum, in the grounds of the University of Melbourne, which he hoped would be an honest and thorough account of his life and work. Despite the museum never being open to the public in his lifetime (only private viewings), it has been restored and is open to the public today.
His life-long search for folk-music is undoubtedly his greatest legacy, and towards the end of his life, he was awarded the St. Olav Medal of Norway for his service to the works of Grieg, and Norwegian Music.
Grainger died in White Plains, New York in 1961, and despite a long and turbulent career as a concert pianist, recording artist, composer, and innovator, he is remembered fondly for his eccentricity and for his wonderful folk music arrangements.
for middle-fiddle (viola) solo
for: Viola
Music score
Item no.: 782335
for: String orchestra
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1378730
Edition Schott
for: Male choir
Choir score
Item no.: 782185
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme Horn III und IV
Item no.: 783481
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme Posaune I und II
Item no.: 794089
Edition Schott
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 782333
No. 4 from British Folk-Music Settings
for: Piano
Noten erleichterte Fassung
Item no.: 748747
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 748897
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme Trompete III in B
Item no.: 783480
Bridal Song
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 750277
for piano trio
for: Violin, cello, piano (piano trio)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 782327
for: Piano Duets & Four Hands
Item no.: 1523569
Edition Schott
for: Violin, piano
Music score
Item no.: 782085
from "Tribute to Foster"
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 782328
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 733732
for 2 pianos, 6 hands
for: 2 Klaviere 6-händig
Music score
Item no.: 750172
after J.S. Bach's "Sheep may Graze in Safety"
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 750171
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1381282
for: String orchestra
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1382145
for: String orchestra
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1378475
for violin and piano
for: Violin, piano
Music score
Item no.: 726173
British Folk-Music Settings No. 1 (Revised Edition)
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 741673
Edition Schott
for: Flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon (wind quintet)
Score
Item no.: 748779
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1378663
for piano
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 748744
on Tchaikovsky's "Flower-Waltz"
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 733123
Fanfare
for: Blechblasorchester
Score, Parts
Item no.: 750273
version for two voices and piano or piano alone
for: Sopran, Tenor und Klavier oder Klavier allein
Partitur This edition can be used as additional vocal scores for the other versions of Colonial Song
Item no.: 750180
for brass band arranged by Dennis Wright
for: Blechblasorchester
Score, Parts
Item no.: 750181
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme Horn I und II
Item no.: 752209
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1381308
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1381736
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 740690
Edition Schott
for: 2 Klaviere 6-händig
Music score
Item no.: 782332
Passacaglia on an English Folksong
for: 2 Klaviere 6-händig
Music score
Item no.: 782313
Edition Schott
for: Concert band
Conductors score reduction
Item no.: 748781
a free ramble on J. S. Bach's aria Sheep may Graze in Safety
for: 2 pianos
Noten 2 Ausgaben erforderlich
Item no.: 782337
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1384783
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1379817
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme Fagott I und II
Item no.: 794197
"Alleluia let us sing"
for: 3 Singstimmen oder Chöre (SMezA/TBarB) oder 6stg. Chor (SMezATBarB)
Choir score
Item no.: 784439
Edition Schott
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 761167
for: String orchestra
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1379949
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1381323
No 22 "Country Gardens" (Handkerchief Dance)
for: Piano 4 hands
Music score
Item no.: 748753
"Ther's a conrict"
for: Männerchor (ATTBarBB)
Choir score
Item no.: 735158
3. Morning Song in the Jungle
for: gemischter Chor a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 784079
"Where have you been"
for: Männerchor unisono und Klavier 4-händig oder Orchester
Chorpartitur (= Klavierstimme)
Item no.: 748896
© 2004–2024 by Stretta Music. Order and buy sheet music online.
Your specialist for all kinds of sheet music. Online shop, sheet music, music scores and play along for download, books, music stands, music stand lights, accessories.
Germany
Austria
Switzerland
Netherlands
Belgium
France
Luxembourg
Italy
Spain
Portugal
Denmark
Finland
Sweden
Poland
Czech Republic
Worldwide
