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: Concert band
Conductor score
Item no.: 898190
Just Brass Lollipops 8
for: 2 trumpets, horn, trombone, tuba (quintet)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 315400
for: 2 pianos
Item no.: 212114
Volume 1
Edition Schott
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 212111
for: Piano
Item no.: 277290
for: Clarinet, piano
Item no.: 375854
G. Schirmer Band-Orchestra
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 1657813
LudwigMasters
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1689755
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1545759
"Alleluia psallat"
for: 3 Singstimmen oder Chöre (SMezA/TBarB) oder 6stg. Chor (SMezATBarB)
Choir score
Item no.: 1545522
Sailor's Song
MusicWorks Grade 2
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 799799
for violin and piano
for: Violin, piano
Item no.: 634322
No. 1 Mock Morris
for: 6 Streicher oder Streich-Ensemble
Score
Item no.: 355007
for: Piano 4 hands
Item no.: 604803
Vocal Solo
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 317067
Southern Music
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 923795
Southern Music
for: Symphonic orchestra
Score
Item no.: 927708
European Parts
for: Concert band
Set of parts
Item no.: 925339
European Parts
for: Concert band
Set of parts
Item no.: 925289
for: 2 trumpets, horn, trombone, tuba (quintet)
Set of parts
Item no.: 1193776
for: Klarinettenensemble
Score, Parts
Item no.: 994473
version for two voices and piano or piano alone
for: Sopran, Tenor und Klavier oder Klavier allein
Partitur
Item no.: 190376
for: Mixed choir (SATB) a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 1545042
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 1069741
for: Viola
Music score
Item no.: 101698
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 941795
Handkerchief Dance
for: 2 Blockflöten (SA) und Klavier
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1546014
Southern Music
for: 2 pianos
Music score
Item no.: 926518
for: Concert band
Single part Flute
Item no.: 1545983
for: 4 clarinets
Book
Item no.: 994193
Blasorchester
Direktion
for: Concert band
Direktion
Item no.: 922587
Piano Solo
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 316968
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 895910
No. 7 Brigg Fair "It was on the fifth of August" (England)
for: gemischter Chor (SATBB) mit Tenor-Solo
Choir score
Item no.: 211097
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1077925
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1077874
For: Concert Band or Woodwind Choir
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1552042
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1077939
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1078332
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1077013
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1077474
for: Organ
Item no.: 462705
Handkerchief Dance
for: Piano
Item no.: 355002
for: Piano
Item no.: 354844
FJH Starter Series
for: Concert band [youth concert band]
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1109449
Das Warschauer Konzert für 2 Klaviere vierhändig
aus dem R-K-O-Film "Dangerous Moonlight"
for: Piano, orchestra
Piano reduction, solo part
Item no.: 199519
Southern Music
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 926360
Southern Music
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 925758