Born: July 8, 1882l Brighton, Melbourne, Australia
Died: February 21, 1961; White Plains, NY
Percy Grainger was known during his lifetime as a virtuoso pianist and arranger of popular English folk song. His primary contribution to music, however, lies in his prolific output as a composer of expert and highly original works. Grainger's early years were spent in Melbourne where he studied first with his mother, and later with Louis Pabst. From 1895-1899 he attended the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, Germany, and then settled in London inRead more 1901. The next 10 years or so were devoted to a combination of concert touring and folk song collection. Grainger's early reputation was as a brilliant and eccentric pianist, and it was this talent that not only provided his income for the rest of his life, but also brought him into contact with other composers. Grieg and Delius, in particular, had great influence on Grainger's development of a sympathy and sensitivity toward unique national and folk styles. In 1914, Grainger moved to New York, beginning a long career as a composer, arranger, collector of folk music, and educator; he became an American citizen in 1918. In 1925 and 1927 he collected and published over 200 Danish folk songs, and returned to Australia in 1924, 1926, and from 1934-1935 in order to establish a Grainger Museum at the University of Melbourne devoted to ethnomusicological research. His final years were spent completing and arranging his earlier works and trying to develop a workable form of his "free music" using primarily theremins, one of the earliest electronic instruments. The project remained incomplete, and Grainger died embittered and in relative obscurity, known only for a handful of light works that he referred to derogatorily as his "fripperies."
Early in his life, Grainger rejected the central European tradition of Western classical music, seeking instead a "democratic" music that was more closely related to natural sounds, speech, and world music. In his quest to assimilate as much unique musical culture as possible, Grainger became one of the first ethnomusicologists to use the wax cylinder phonograph in the collection and transcription of indigenous music. His arrangements of many of these are among the best ever done, capturing not only the melodies and harmonies, but also the timbres, inflections, and performance styles of each individual piece. In his own compositions, Grainger experimented with nontraditional rhythms, forms, and instrumental combinations in an attempt to create what he called "free music." He also created a large body of more traditional works and arrangements intended for more popular consumption, motivated, no doubt, by his experience with the Edwardian music hall and later with the U.S. Army Band. Read less
Label: Klavier Records
Catalog: 11079
Release Date: 11/19/1996
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Paul Hart,
Billy Childs,
Dana Wilson,
Percy Aldridge Grainger
...
Performer:
Steve Houghton,
Adam Wodnicki
Conductor:
Eugene Migliaro Corporon
Orchestra/Ensemble:
North Texas University Wind Ensemble
Label: Albany Records
Catalog: 206
Release Date: 09/01/1996
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Charles Ives,
David Maslanka,
Aaron Copland,
Frank Ticheli
...
Conductor:
Malcolm Rowell Jr.
Orchestra/Ensemble:
University of Massachusetts Wind Ensemble
Label: Mark Records
Catalog: 3031
Release Date: 01/01/1996
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
David Maslanka,
Edward Gregson,
Modest Mussorgsky,
Percy Aldridge Grainger
...
Conductor:
W. Dale Warren,
T. W. Gunther
Orchestra/Ensemble:
University Of Arkansas Wind Symphony
Label: Chandos
Catalog: 4541
Release Date: 11/21/1995
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Leroy Anderson,
Gordon Langford,
Traditional,
John Francis Wade
...
Performer:
Keith Rhodes,
Anthony Cooke
Conductor:
Roy Newsome,
Keith Rhodes
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Black Dyke Mills Band,
Huddersfield Choral Society
Label: Sony
Catalog: 68459
Release Date: 08/22/1995
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Sir Edward Elgar,
Sergei Rachmaninov,
Maurice Ravel,
Edvard Grieg
...
Performer:
Michie Koyama,
Ayako Shinozaki,
Marie-Claire Jamet,
Riri Shimada
Conductor:
Sir Andrew Davis,
Eugene Ormandy,
John Georgiadis,
Richard Kapp
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Philharmonia Orchestra,
BBC Symphony Orchestra,
Philadelphia Orchestra
...
Label: Cala Records
Catalog: 106
Release Date: 05/23/1995
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Percy Aldridge Grainger,
Billy Strayhorn,
Burt Bacharach,
Sergei Prokofiev
...
Performer:
Rivka Golani
Conductor:
Geoffrey Simon
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields violas,
BBC Symphony Orchestra Violas,
English National Opera Orchestras Violas
...
Label: Nimbus
Catalog: 7703
Release Date: 05/02/1994
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Charles Villiers Stanford,
Percy Aldridge Grainger,
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky,
John Dowland
Performer:
Martin Jones,
Philip Martin,
Richard McMahon
Recommendation
Label: Danacord
Catalog: 399
Release Date: 10/20/1993
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Felix Mendelssohn,
Franz Liszt,
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky,
Alexander Scriabin
...
Performer:
Sergei Babayan,
Igor Zhukov,
Peter-Jürgen Hofer,
Bernard Ringeissen
...
Label: Delos
Catalog: 3101
Release Date: 12/11/1992
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Johann Sebastian Bach,
Gabriel Fauré,
César Franck,
Percy Aldridge Grainger
...
Performer:
David Cleveland
Conductor:
Keith Brion
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Michigan State Symphony Band
Label: Mark Records
Catalog: 1211
Release Date: 01/01/1992
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Richard Strauss,
Dmitri Shostakovich,
Percy Aldridge Grainger
Conductor:
Harry Begian
Orchestra/Ensemble:
University of Illinois Symphonic Band
Label: Mercury Living Presence
Catalog: 432754
Release Date: 08/09/1991
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Vincent Persichetti,
Percy Aldridge Grainger,
Bernard Rogers,
Walter Hartley
...
Conductor:
Frederick Fennell
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Eastman Wind Ensemble
Label: Mark Records
Catalog: 2697
Release Date: 01/01/1991
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky,
Richard Wagner,
Traditional,
Gustav Mahler
...
Conductor:
Jerry Junkin
Orchestra/Ensemble:
University of Texas Wind Ensemble