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.
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 1066629
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 926514
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 927949
Score
Item no.: 646755
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme Sopran-Saxophon I
Item no.: 782164
for: Concert band
Single part Clarinet 1 (B-flat)
Item no.: 794289
for: 3 Blockflöten (SAT) und Klavier
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1544750
for: Flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon (wind quintet)
Set of parts
Item no.: 355122
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 318975
for: 3 Blockflöten (SAT) und Klavier
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1544637
for: SGST/13INSTR
Score
Item no.: 413324
for: Violine, Bass-Violine (Violoncello) und Klavier
Set of parts
Item no.: 413316
for: Handbells [3-5]
Single edition
Item no.: 1117045
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 1068062
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 1063219
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 1062079
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 1070187
for: 2 pianos
Music score
Item no.: 926518
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 1069741
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 941795
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme Bariton-Saxophon
Item no.: 782163
for: 2 Blockflöten (SA) und Klavier
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1546014
for: Viola
Music score
Item no.: 101698
for: Concert band
Single part Percussion
Item no.: 782160
for: Concert band
Single part Oboe
Item no.: 1546370
for: Concert band
Single part Trumpet 2 (B-flat)
Item no.: 1545071
for: Concert band
Single part Trumpet 1 (B-flat)
Item no.: 1545430
for: Concert band
Single part Clarinet 2 (B-flat)
Item no.: 1544667
for: Concert band
Single part Double bass
Item no.: 1544955
for: Concert band
Single part Clarinet (E-flat)
Item no.: 1545604
for: Concert band
Single part Percussion
Item no.: 1544940
for: 3 recorders (SAT), piano
Single part descant recorder
Item no.: 784342
Single part Violin 2
Item no.: 355606
for: 3 recorders (SAT), piano
Treble recorder (single part)
Item no.: 784343
for: Concert band
Single part Clarinet 3 (B-flat)
Item no.: 1546037
for: Concert band
Single part Kettledrum
Item no.: 1545664
for: Concert band
Single part Alto saxophone 1 (E-flat)
Item no.: 1545589
for: Concert band
Single part Horn
Item no.: 1620633
for: Concert band
Single part Oboe
Item no.: 782159
for: 3 recorders (SAT), piano
Single part Tenor recorder
Item no.: 784344
for: Concert band
Single part Flute
Item no.: 1545983
for cello or violin and piano
for: Violoncello oder Violine und Klavier
Score, part
Item no.: 733122
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1076865
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1384383
for: Violoncello oder Violine und Klavier
Score, part
Item no.: 457268
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1078272
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1077163