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.
Clarendon Press
Book (Hardcover)
Item no.: 870221
for: gemischter Chor a cappella; Klavier ad libitum
Choir score
Item no.: 1545889
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1077137
for: Piano
Item no.: 1677046
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1063742
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1077338
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1077853
for: Flötenquartett
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1191282
for piano trio
for: Violin, cello, piano (piano trio)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1545803
Hill-Songs I and II
for: 2 pianos
Item no.: 261160
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1077289
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1076965
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 891348
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 888671
Young Concert Band
for: Concert band [youth concert band]
Score, Parts
Item no.: 904960
G. Schirmer Band-Orchestra
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 778836
Southern Music
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 927395
Condensed Score
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 927156
Southern Music
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 927803
English morris dance
Concert Band
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1061982
FlexBand
for: Flexible ensemble (5 voices); drums ad lib.
Score, Parts
Item no.: 697736
Young Concert Band
for: Concert band [youth concert band]
Score, Parts
Item no.: 813080
for: 2 pianos
Item no.: 1545336
for: Male choir
Choir score
Item no.: 1545142
Arrangement for two Pianos by Percy Grainger
for: Piano 4 hands
Ensemble score
Item no.: 661836
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 1059943
for: Handbells [3-5]
Single edition
Item no.: 1115389
for: Concert band
Conductors part
Item no.: 896952
"Angelus ad virginem"
for: 3 Singstimmen oder Chöre (SMezA/TBarB) oder 6stg. Chor (SMezATBarB); Orgel ad libitum
Choir score
Item no.: 1544991
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1544876
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1544749
Single part Violin 2
Item no.: 355606
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1076923
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 1059744
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1041055
Arranged for solo piano
Piano Solo
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 316979
"Ther's a conrict"
for: Männerchor (ATTBarBB)
Choir score
Item no.: 211101
for low voice and piano
for: Voice (low), piano
Music score
Item no.: 432948
Nr. 5 Irish Tune from County Derry (Vokalisen)
for: gemischter Chor (SATBarBarB)
Chorpartitur
Item no.: 355090
Percussion II
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1077696
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1065158
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1076994
Eine Kurzbiographie und Graingers Werke für Blasorchester
Book (softcover)
Item no.: 796052
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1078176
No. 6 Zanzibar Boat Song
for: Piano 6 hands
Item no.: 355023
The Percy Grainger Critical Edition
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 684445
für Klavier
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 381626
Score
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 903159