Extractions: Percy Grainger, (Larrikin, 1999) Born in Victoria, Australia in 1882, Percy Grainger was a very influential folk-song collector, whose classical arrangements of the songs he found are still used and admired today. Though an accomplished pianist by the age of twelve, it was not until his family relocated to London and his friendship with composers such as Grieg and Delius developed, that he began to seriously investigate the traditional music of the UK and Europe. Following the path of Cecil Sharp, Maud Karpeles et al, he travelled widely, collecting tunes from the older singers in various communities. Where Grainger differed from other collectors was in his rearrangements of the songs for orchestra rather than more "humble" arrangements. "English Country Garden" is probably his best-known piece and the one most associated with his name. Although he died in 1961, his influence still continues today English band Home Service recorded their own arrangement of Grainger's "A Lincolnshire Posy" suite on their classic 1986 album "Alright Jack," and Ric Sanders of Fairport Convention is a confirmed fan of his work. And now director Peter Duncan has just released a film on (at least part of) Grainger's life, "Passion." This CD is not a direct tie-in to the movie but is an interesting adjunct to it. While his collecting and performing work is well documented, it may be not so well known that Grainger also made a number of recordings during his life. A large number of these were piano rolls. Of late, this has become an excellent method of acquiring examples of artists from the early twentieth century, such as "Jelly Roll" Morton and George Gershwin, playing their music before the phonograph became widely available to the public. The selections on this CD are all taken from Grainger's Duo-Art rolls between 1915 and 1933.
For A Change Magazine -- Profile Of Penelope Thwaites and unpredictable profession for 25 years,' says concert pianist Penelope Thwaites leadingexponent of the work of Australian composer percy grainger, but has http://www.mra.org.uk/fac/feb00/profile.html
Extractions: Australian concert pianist Penelope Thwaites talks to Mike Lowe about music, parenthood and the need for grace. Doing the music justice 'I 've been working in an extremely competitive and unpredictable profession for 25 years,' says concert pianist Penelope Thwaites as she offers me another exquisite pastry in her beautiful north London home. 'There is only room for so many people, and at the very top just a tiny handful.' Thwaites made her London debut at the Wigmore Hall in 1974 and has played in over 25 countries since then. Highlights have included Mozart with the Philharmonia, performances at the Festival Hall and a Royal Gala at Covent Garden. Her career has also taken some unorthodox turns. She is best known as a leading exponent of the work of Australian composer Percy Grainger, but has also created the music for a show about John Wesley, composed much besides and raised a family. Preparing for a performance takes 'blood, sweat and tears'. She starts thinking about a new recital up to a year aheadjust memorizing the pieces is a huge achievementand as it draws near she lives with the music day and night. 'You dwell on certain technical problems, and suddenly the solutions come to you. On the positive side you have the wonderful privilege of a deep acquaintance with the pieces of music you choose. On the negative side, you become haunted by the fear of not doing the music justice. You can't stand up and say to an audience "I'm sorry, I usually play that better, I'll try again".'
Percy Aldridge Grainger Symposium (2nd Ed.) the percy Aldridge grainger Symposium looks at the wideranging achievements of grainger,focussing on such areas as grainger the pianist, grainger's free music http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/CIRCME/catalogue/grainger1.htm
Extractions: THE CALLAWAY CENTRE CATALOGUE 2002 Percy Aldridge Grainger Symposium (2nd ed.) Compiled and Edited by Frank Callaway A companion volume to A Musical Genius from Australia , the Percy Aldridge Grainger Symposium looks at the wideranging achievements of Grainger, focussing on such areas as Grainger the pianist, Grainger's free music, the choral, keyboard and band music, and Grainger's interest in nonwestern societies. That Grainger was a figure well ahead of his time is amply illustrated by this volume, and the book provides fascinating reading for anyone interested in learning more about one of the true pioneers of 20th century music. 235x175mm 137pp 1997 ISBN 86422 447 8 $30 Back
Extractions: percy grainger G rainger was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1882 and died in White Plains, New York in 1961. Although he had a huge reputation in his lifetime as a virtuoso pianist and composer of easy listening pieces such as Country Gardens and Molly on the Shore, amongst contemporary music fans, he is often hailed as innovator and wayward genius. He predicted and experimented with many 20th century music concepts before they became known and credited through the work of other composers. For example, Grainger's The Warriors written in 1913 seems to predict Charles Ives with its use of offstage brass band, rhythmic complexities, masses of tuned percussion, use of two conductors and outbursts of spiky dissonance in basically a tonal piece. Random Round , from 1912, anticipates the indeterminate aleatory music of John Cage and Stockhausen (in the piece, musicians are free to start playing when ever they like...not much of a new idea for improvising musicians but for the composed music of the time, quite radical!) T hroughout Grainger's whole career, he was busy trying to realise the concept of Free Music; a music free from the tonal or atonal structures of western music. Towards the end of his life, he built (with Burnet Cross) a number of Free Music machines out of industrial waste and junk capable of 'non-harmony' and 'gliding tones'. His first experiments with Beatless Music were started as early as 1899 with his piece
Extractions: Composer, pianist; born in Melbourne, Australia. A child prodigy on piano, he studied in Australia and Germany; after 1900 he was a famed traveling virtuoso based in London. Making a sensational American debut in 1915 with his "signature" work, the piano concerto by his friend Edvard Grieg, he remained in the U.S.A. for most of the rest of his life. Most of his compositions are marked by his interest in traditional folk music, yet he had an experimental streak and was among the first to compose for electronic instruments.
Untitled and the composer of same.) percy ALDRIDGE grainger, the AustralianAmerican composer,pianist, and conductor, was born on July 8, 1882 in Melbourne, Victoria. http://www.angelfire.com/ct/TORTUGA/grainger.html
Extractions: (NOTES: Have you ever had the very frustrating occurence of a piece of music bouncing around in your head, whose title you cannot for the life of you remember, though you try to find out over a long period of time, as the musical thread comes and goes over and over again? If you haven't, let me tell you that it's excruciating to say the least! That is what happened to me, until by mere chance I heard the tune played at the end of a movie called Paradise Road. Some detective work later, and with the help of the wonderous web, I discovered the title of the tune you may be hearing at this very moment, and the composer of same.) PERCY ALDRIDGE GRAINGER, the Australian-American composer, pianist, and conductor, was born on July 8, 1882 in Melbourne, Victoria. He was best known for his work in collecting folk music. Educated at home in Melbourne by his mother, he studied piano there with Louis Pabst. Grainger's first appearance in front of a public audience as a pianist took place when he was age 10. It was in London in 1901, that he achieved a reputation as a brilliant concert pianist.
CWO October 26 2002 Program percy Aldridge grainger (1882 1961), the Australian-born pianist andcomposer, contributed greatly to the repertoire of the wind band. http://www.cawinds.com/cwo_11-24program.htm
Extractions: Sunday, November 24, 2002 4:00 p.m. Program Autumn Walk (1958) Julian Work Lincolnshire Posy (1937) Percy Aldridge Grainger Lisbon Horkstow Grange Rufford Park Poachers The Brisk Young Sailor Lord Melbourne The Lost Lady Found Concertino for Tuba (1983/1998) Rolf Wilhelm 1 Moderato deciso 2 Andante lirico 3 Allegro commodo Jim Self, Tuba soloist -Intermission- Pictures at an Exhibition (1874) Modest Mussorgsky Promenade Orchestration (1922) by Maurice Ravel Gnomus Transcribed for band (1959) by Mark Hindsley Promenade The Old Castle Promenade Tuileries Bydlo Promenade Ballet of the Unhatched Chickens Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle The Market-place at Limoges Catacombs, Sepulchrum Romanum Cum mortuis in lingua mortua The Hut on Fowl¹s Legs The Great Gate of Kiev compiled from a variety of sources*
Passion Passion seeks to tell the story of one of Australia's most eccentric composers,percy grainger a pianist of world renown, a health fanatic, a cultural http://home.vicnet.net.au/~artsalive/film_review/passion.htm
Extractions: Herman Sandby: Simon Burke Mention Percy Grainger and I grit my teeth, remembering my antipathy to the less than dulcet tones, to my schoolgirl ear at least, of "English Country Garden". Then I remember "free music", terry-towelling clothes and a range of whips that I saw at the Grainger Museum at Melbourne University . Certainly an oddball! Now Percy, complete with all his eccentricities, has been brought to life and to the screen by Peter Duncan, he who wrote the award-winning "Children of the Revolution" and the less well received "A Little Bit of Soul" For a lawyer turned film-maker Peter Duncan certainly seems to be able to pull his weight in terms of cast for his films. He has worked with the likes of Judy Davis, David Wenham and Geoffrey Rush and, in his latest film "Passion", he is working with Richard Roxburgh and Barbara Hershey, as well as the delightful Emily Woof (the only highlight of the very wooden film "The Woodlanders" ) and Claudia Karvan who has always succeeded in lighting up the screen for me, whatever the quality of the script.
Welcome To ASV CD WHL 2117 Barcode 7 43625 21172 6 Australian pianist Janine Sowden debutswith a wonderful trip through the amazing world of percy grainger, dishing up http://www.asv.co.uk/whl2117.htm
MMD Archives: Percy Grainger Movie, "Passion" featuring Australian actor Richard Roxburgh as percy grainger, was released on howlittle in the movie related to grainger's talent as a pianist and composer http://mmd.foxtail.com/Archives/Digests/200106/2001.06.15.05.html
Jenny Lin - Pianist whirls and swirls its way through four exciting minutes; percy grainger's BeautifulFresh the 1930s, but he married a young Chinese concert pianist, Lee Hsien http://www.artistsinternational.com/jenny.htm
Extractions: Pianist Featured on the cover of The New York Times Arts Section and called by Gramophone an exceptionally sensitive pianist, Jenny Lin has established a distinguished place among performers of her generation. She was awarded the Best Performer Prize from the 2000 Golden Music Awards, the "Grammys of Asia", and continues to receive accolades worldwide as an orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. Ms. Lins current concert season will take her to Austria, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan and the United States. Recent performances include recitals at Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, Miller Theatre (New York), Phillips Collection (Washington), Myra Hess Memorial Concerts (Chicago), Flanders Festival (Belgium), and Festival Archipel (Switzerland), as well as Live radio appearances on WNYC (New York), WFMT (Chicago), and Klara (Belgium). She regularly collaborates with composers many of whom have written works for her. Upcoming recital programs will feature premieres by Donnacha Dennehy, Stefano Gervasoni, Laura Elise Schwendinger, and Johannes Maria Staud. Her discography on BIS Records includes the complete piano music of Ruth Crawford Seeger, and Chinoiserie, featuring a collection of works of Western composers inspired by China. Two new recordings are scheduled for 2003.
Percy Grainger (1882-1961) - Klassiekemuziekgids.net klassiekemuziekgids.net. percy grainger Melbourne 1882 New York 1961Australisch-Amerikaans componist en pianist. grainger studeerde http://www.klassiekemuziekgids.net/componisten/grainger.htm
Extractions: Australisch-Amerikaans componist en pianist Grainger studeerde bij zijn moeder, een bekend pianopedagoge, en debuteerde op tienjarige leeftijd. Na concertreizen als wonderkind studeerde hij nog bij Kwast in Frankfurt en bij Busoni in Berlijn. Van 1900 tot 1914 verbleef hij in Londen. Bij zijn wereldreizen raakte hij gedurende de Eerste Wereldoorlog in Amerikaanse dienst en sindsdien was hij Amerikaans staatsburger. Hij is vooral belangrijk als componist van op het Amerikaanse leven en de Amerikaanse kunst (literatuur, folklore, enz.) geïnspireerde muziek. Daarnaast legde hij verza- melingen Engelse, Ierse en IJslandse volksmuziek aan. Ten slotte hield hij zich bezig met 'tree music', waarin microtonen (kwarttonen, achtste tonen) centraal staan en waarin het ritme geheel wordt vrijgelaten. Daartoe stelde hij verschil- lende muziekmachines samen (halfmechanische voorlopers van synthesizers).
Index To 'Ragging The Classics' Dohnanyi, Erno Three pianistConductors; Rudolf Ganz, Alfred Cortot, Erno Enesco,Georges The Centenarians Part Two; Exit percy grainger, Entry Georges Enesco http://www.hensteeth.com/classics.html
Klavier LP KD139 $18.00 percy grainger Plays Grieg Via the Duo-Arte reproducing piano,composer and pianist percy grainger plays, in excellent stereo, several Grieg http://www.uhfmag.com/Klavier.html
Extractions: Trying to reach UHF? Our contact page tells you how to find us. Founded in the 1970's, Klavier was originally set up to record keyboard music of a special type. In the early part of the century, famous pianists had "recorded" their performances on the reproducing piano, a high-tech version of the player piano. A reproducing piano was set up in a concert hall, and recorded in modern stereo. Conventional classical recordings followed. A number of these recordings were done by Keith O. Johnson, who would later make Reference Recordings famous. Today's Klavier is making modern classical recordings, however, sometimes with some of the world's finest artists. Remember...all of the recordings on this list are recommended by UHF. Records shown in red are used by UHF Magazine in its tests of audio equipment. Harp Spectacular
Grainger Kitchen Inez Bull, singer, pianist, and interpreter of percy grainger's music, reminiscesthus about the kitchen as the hospitality center of the house http://www.percygrainger.org/grakitch.htm
Extractions: Percy and Ella's kitchen is cozy and old-fashioned, with one end dominated by its cast-iron stove. (The latter is superseded for modern everyday use by a microwave oven.) The back door, opening onto a small back porch, was used by Percy and Ella as a shortcut when going into town. A secret stairway leads from the opposite corner of the kitchen to the second floor, where it exits from an anonymous-looking door next to the main staircase, doubtless a reminder of the days when every well-to-do family had servants. Inez Bull, singer, pianist, and interpreter of Percy Grainger's music, reminisces thus about the kitchen as the hospitality center of the house: "There was the wood burning stove at the right wall as you entered Ella's kitchen, and a wooden table neatly set near the back door wall. A long wooden counter was always piled high with lots and lots of Swedish goodiesespecially the delicate cookies and the (Swedish krisp bread), which rested under the windows by the sink. And on the wall were shelves of cans and boxes of tea, mixed or matched. It really didn't matter whether the tea was English or Americanit was there anxiously waiting to be brewed. Somehow, the kitchen invited everyone to sit down and have a "lovely party"... Here, in a country kitchen, guests from around the world gathered, talked, and just munched goodies as they enjoyed themselves immensely." (Inez Bull, 7 Cromwell Place: A Loving Tribute to Percy Grainger View of the kitchen. The large cast iron wood-and-coal-burning stove dominates the end of the room. In the background to the left is the dark wooden door to a pantry; on the right is the door into the foyer. (Photo by Pamela Tucker).
Program Description - The Castro Theatre 230 PROGRAM 2 A Maverick from Melbourne percy grainger The Noble Savage This extraordinarydocumentary on virtuoso pianist and composer grainger (18821961 http://www.thecastrotheatre.com/archive/fall2002/p-list2.html
Extractions: Lou Harrison, John Cage, Henry Cowell, . . . where would contemporary music be without them? Rare footage of these pioneer California composers and their spiritual descendants Robert Erickson, Morton Subotnick, Pauline Oliveros, Paul Dresher, Terry Riley, Daniel Lentz, John Adams, Janis Mattox, and others present a capsule overview of a revolution that rocked the classical world. Directed by Michael McIntyre. Produced by Eva Soltes. (1986) 75m Special guests Soltes, Dresher, Lentz, Mattox, and others will take questions following the film. 2:30 PROGRAM 2
MSN Entertainment - Movies: Passion pianist, composer and archivist percy grainger was publicly known for a brief concertcareer, several interesting contemporary classical compositions, and http://entertainment.msn.com/Movies/Movie.aspx?m=12649
Extractions: PERCY ALDRIDGE GRAINGER th July 1882 - 20 th Febraury 1961 Original name Percy Aldridge Grainger (born July 8, 1882, Melbourne, Victoria, Australiadied Feb. 20, 1961, White Plains, N.Y., U.S.), Australian-born American composer, pianist, and conductor who was also known for his work in collecting folk music. Grainger first appeared publicly as a pianist at age 10. He was educated at home in Melbourne by his mother. He studied piano with Louis Pabst in that city and later went to Frankfurt, where he attended the conservatory. He achieved a reputation as a brilliant concert pianist beginning in London in 1901. In 1906 Grainger became a friend of Edvard Grieg, under whose influence he began collecting and recording English folk songs by means of wax-cylinder phonographs. He settled in the United States in 1914, performing for a few years with a U.S. Army band. Grainger was deeply affected by the suicide of his mother in 1922. He returned to Australia alone in 1924 and toured there as a pianist in 1926 and again in 1934-35. In 1932-33 he was head of the music department of New York University. In 1935 he founded the Grainger Museum at Melbourne, a museum of Australian music where much of his own work and some of his artifacts are preserved. Grainger was heavily influenced by English folk music, which he arranged for keyboard instruments, chamber ensembles, and both solo voice and chorus. He is probably best remembered for
Ali Wood - Pianist G minor) by Rachmaninoff; Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, Tchaikovsky's Waltz ofthe Flowers which the late Australian pianist percy grainger arranged for http://www.aliwood.com/media.html
