Percy Aldridge Grainger Essay - 1842 Words

Percy Aldridge Grainger was born on the 8th of July 1882, in Brighton, Melbourne. As an only child of John and Rosa Grainger he began learning music at the age of 5 with his mother Rosa. Grainger’s music studies many aspects of life and artistic persona, making him a unique Australian musician. He had a diverse musical career including pianist, composer, folklore collector, musical arranger, ‘free musician’ and inventor, making him one of Australia’s greatest musicians of all time. Whilst living in Australia Grainger came before the public eye as a pianist at a concert at Melbourne’s Masonic Hall during 1894. His life intention was to communicate every feature of his life to the public and soon after his creative achievement was seen†¦show more content†¦Although known for his pianistic abilities Grainger is best known throughout Australia as a composer. He had planned his life as a composer before he was twenty years of age and held true to that plan as best as he could. His arrangements of folk music including ‘Country Gardens’ and ‘Folk Song from Country Derry’ were not what he classed as compositions. Rather his serious compositions include ‘Kipling Jungle Book Cycle’ and ‘The Warriors’ during his quest for free music. Grainger’s folk music are short melodic works that are set in a variety of rhythms, pitches and instruments. During his early years in London he composed a transcription of Tchaikovsky’s Flower Waltz and this sparked a venture into piano transcriptions including Four Irish Dances by Charles Stanford. It was also during this time that he met Edward Grieg, his long time musical hero and inspiration. Whilst in Australia Grainger was first introduced to Grieg by his mother Rose and thus ignited his passion for Grieg’s lyric pieces, resulting him to arrange a series of theses during 1898. Grainger continued to arrange folk music, pre senting a collection of work which is unique in music history. During a visit to Scotland during 1900, Grainger was heavily influenced by his cultural experience and arranged 25 new accompaniments to Augener’s ‘Minstrelsy of England,’ thus had a profound effect on his future musical