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.
Southern Music
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 926830
Southern Music
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 928908
Southern Music
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 923413
European Parts
for: Concert band
Set of parts
Item no.: 925289
for: String orchestra
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1384659
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1384383
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1384228
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1384783
from A Lincolnshire Posy
for: Concert band
Score, set of parts, online audio
Item no.: 803297
Irish Reel
Southern Music
for: Woodwind ensemble
Score
Item no.: 925220
Irish Reel
Southern Music
for: Woodwind ensemble
Score, Parts
Item no.: 928742
Nr. 43 from British Folk-Music Settings
for: Mezzo-Sopran oder Bariton und Klavier
Item no.: 473323
for: Organ
Item no.: 462705
Fanfare
for: Blechblasorchester
Score, Parts
Item no.: 432760
or The Jolly Sailor
for: Voice, piano
Item no.: 432810
Book (Hardcover)
Item no.: 872092
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 1060647
European Parts
for: Concert band
Set of parts
Item no.: 926249
Southern Music
for: Symphonic orchestra
Score
Item no.: 926246
Southern Music
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 927655
Southern Music
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 926766
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1060626
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 1059744
Southern Music
for: Symphonic orchestra
Score
Item no.: 924433
Southern Music
for: Symphonic orchestra
Score, Parts
Item no.: 924390
Southern Music
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 926325
Bridal Song
for: Piano
Item no.: 433097
for: Piano
Item no.: 177056
for: Cello, piano
Item no.: 571468
for: String orchestra
Score
Item no.: 939995
from "Tribute to Foster"
for: Piano
Item no.: 1546304
for piano trio
for: Violin, cello, piano (piano trio)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1545803
for brass band arranged by Denis Wright
for: Brass band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 585900
for 2 pianos, 6 hands
for: 2 Klaviere 6-händig
Item no.: 646772
for: 2 Klaviere 6-händig
Item no.: 1544932
for cello or violin and piano
for: Violoncello oder Violine und Klavier
Score, part
Item no.: 457268
Passacaglia on an English Folksong
for: 2 Klaviere 6-händig
Item no.: 1545001
for high voice and piano
for: Voice, piano
Item no.: 1544747
Southern Music
for: Saxophone
Music score
Item no.: 924278
Irish Reel
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 889379
Southern Music
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 928176
Southern Music
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 923902
for: Concert band
Conductor score
Item no.: 893526
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 170587
Southern Music
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 928783
Irish Reel
for: Concert band
Conductor score
Item no.: 894559
European Parts
for: Concert band
Set of parts
Item no.: 928784
Irish Reel
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 193563