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.
No. 5 Irish Tune from County Derry
for: gemischter Chor (SATBarBarB)
Chorpartitur mit unterlegter Klavierstimme zum Üben
Item no.: 748772
"Chrisimas Day in the morning"
for: Frauenchor oder Kinderchor (SSAA) oder 4 solo Singstimmen
Choir score
Item no.: 755312
for medium voice and piano
for: Voice (medium), piano
Music score
Item no.: 784172
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 316979
for: Cello, piano
Item no.: 571468
Handkerchief Dance
for: Piano
Noten vereinfachte Version
Item no.: 748743
Edition Schott
for: 2 pianos 8 hands
Music score
Item no.: 735576
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 316968
for: Concert band
Direktion
Item no.: 922587
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 895910
for: 3 Blockflöten (SAT) und Klavier
Score, Parts
Item no.: 475179
for: 2 pianos
Music score
Item no.: 748899
for: 2 pianos
Music score
Item no.: 316411
Book (Hardcover)
Item no.: 872092
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 1317933
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 1317932
for: Frauenchor oder Kinderchor (SSAA) oder 4 solo Singstimmen
Choir score
Item no.: 493334
for: Concert band
Score, set of parts, online audio
Item no.: 803297
No. 30 Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Score
Item no.: 782094
for: gemischter Chor (SATBB) mit Tenor-Solo
Choir score
Item no.: 211097
or The Jolly Sailor
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 784173
No. 6 from Kipling Settings
for: Bariton, Männerchor (oder 4 Männerstimmen) und Klavier
Choir score
Item no.: 784138
for: Mezzo-Sopran oder Bariton und Klavier
Item no.: 473323
for: Voice (high), piano
Item no.: 1545752
for: gemischter Chor (SATBarBarB)
Chorpartitur
Item no.: 1667777
No. 7 Brigg Fair "It was on the fifth of August" (England)
for: gemischter Chor (SATBB) mit Tenor-Solo
Choir score
Item no.: 748748
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 734949
for low voice and piano
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 750272
for voice and piano, low key
for: Voice (low), piano
Music score
Item no.: 784137
for: Voice, piano
Item no.: 1582568
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 157721
for: Männerchor (Bar) und Klavier
Score
Item no.: 1667015
Choral Music of Our Time
for: gemischter Chor a cappella; Klavier ad libitum
Choir score
Item no.: 784440
No. 1 from Kipling Settings
for: hohe Männerstimme (Tenor) und Klavier
Music score
Item no.: 784140
for: Voice, piano
Item no.: 1546057
for: Bariton (ad libitum), gemischter Chor und 5 Holzbläser oder Harmonium
Choir score
Item no.: 1546234
for: Voice, piano
Piano reduction
Item no.: 355120
or The Jolly Sailor
for: Voice, piano
Noten Low (original) key version
Item no.: 750303
for: Bariton, Männerchor (oder 4 Männerstimmen) und Klavier
Choir score
Item no.: 1546266
for: hohe Männerstimme (Tenor) und Klavier
Item no.: 1545470
for: Voice, piano
Item no.: 1544747
for low or medium voice and piano
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 784139
for: Voice (low), piano
Music score
Item no.: 432948
for: Männerchor (ATTBarBB)
Choir score
Item no.: 211101
for: gemischter Chor (SATBarBarB)
Chorpartitur
Item no.: 355090
Book (Hardcover)
Item no.: 870221
Nr. 43 from British Folk-Music Settings
for: Mezzo-Sopran oder Bariton und Klavier
Music score
Item no.: 750464
for high voice and piano
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 782311