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.
Sheet music
Item no.: 1587369
for: String orchestra
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1378475
for: String orchestra
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1378730
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1378663
for: Piano Duets & Four Hands
Item no.: 1523569
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1379017
for: String orchestra
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1379712
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1379817
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1380009
for: String orchestra
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1379949
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1380618
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1380588
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1381282
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1381308
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1381323
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1381736
for: String orchestra
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1382145
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1382627
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
for: Concert band
Single part Percussion
Item no.: 782160
Handkerchief Dance
for: Piano
Noten Original-Ausgabe
Item no.: 748742
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 784062
No. 5 Irish Tune from County Derry
for: gemischter Chor (SATBarBarB)
Chorpartitur mit unterlegter Klavierstimme zum Üben
Item no.: 748772
for: Flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon (wind quintet)
Set of parts
Item no.: 748780
No. 6 Zanzibar Boat Song
for: Piano 6 hands
Music score
Item no.: 748754
for cello or violin and piano
for: Violoncello oder Violine und Klavier
Score, part
Item no.: 733122
No. 1 Mock Morris
for: 6 Streicher oder Streich-Ensemble
Score
Item no.: 734911
"Ther's a conrict"
for: Männerchor (ATTBarBB)
Choir score
Item no.: 735158
Handkerchief Dance
for: Piano
Noten vereinfachte Version
Item no.: 748743
Irischer Volkstanz nach 2 Volkstänzen
for: Violin, piano
Music score
Item no.: 732734
No. 30 Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Score
Item no.: 782094
"Chrisimas Day in the morning"
for: Frauenchor oder Kinderchor (SSAA) oder 4 solo Singstimmen
Choir score
Item no.: 755312
Edition Schott
for: 2 pianos 8 hands
Music score
Item no.: 735576
for: Blechblasorchester
Set of parts
Item no.: 782334
No. 40 Lisbon
for: Flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon (wind quintet)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 748733
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme Tuba
Item no.: 782161
"Angelus ad virginem"
for: 3 Singstimmen oder Chöre (SMezA/TBarB) oder 6stg. Chor (SMezATBarB); Orgel ad libitum
Choir score
Item no.: 782213
3. Morning Song in the Jungle
for: gemischter Chor a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 784079
Edition Schott
for: 3 recorders (SAT), piano
Score, Parts
Item no.: 756325
No. 6 from Kipling Settings
for: Bariton, Männerchor (oder 4 Männerstimmen) und Klavier
Choir score
Item no.: 784138
Edition Schott
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 748715
for solo tenor and mixed choir
for: Tenor solo und gemischter Chor a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 782493
Edition Schott
for: Piano 4 hands
Music score
Item no.: 782331
Room-Music Tit-Bits
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 748745
No. 1 Molly on the shore
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 748746
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