20th Century Composer

Percy
Grainger
Music need not be a pedantic adherence to
pointless rules and traditions.
Tunes should be entertaining and accessible
 Example: “English Country Gardens”
Background of a weird man
Born George Percy Grainger on 8 July 1882,
near Melbourne, Australia to mother Rose
Annie Aldridge (hotelier from Adelaide) and
father John Harry Grainger (British architect)
Abandoned by alcoholic father
Home-schooled by his mother
 Extremely harsh environment
Hailed as a genius at a very young
age. Went at age 11 to study music
in Frankfurt, Germany.
First public tour at age 12, began
composing at age 17
Fluent in up to eleven(!) languages
 English
 Russian
 German
 Icelandic
 Norwegian
Met poet and artist
Ella Ström in 1926
while touring Sweden.
Married in 1928 at the
Hollywood Bowl
before a crowd of
20,000.
Grainger could never
marry before his
mother’s death.
Obsessive, highly
maternalistic relationship
with mother Rose
Adopted her maiden name
Mother commits suicide 30
April 1922 amid rumors of
an incestuous relationship
with Percy
 By far the most influential
event in Grainger’s life
 Lived in London from 1901-1914
 Joined US Army in 1914
 Became a naturalized US citizen in 1918
 Dean of Music at NYU from 1932-1940
 Moved in Springfield, Missouri in 1940
 Abdominal cancer was cured in 1953, but
later metastasized to prostate cancer
 Died from cancer in White Plains, New
York 20 February 1961.
What makes Grainger so unusual?
Envelope
Containing
Private
Material

This envelope
contained
photographs and
writings exploring
sexuality,
including the
photo on the
previous slide.
“True Thrills”
Pulp Fiction
Lust Magazine
Volume 1,
Issue 3,
Country Press
(USA) 1942
“True Thrills”
Pulp Fiction
Lust Magazine
Volume 1,
Issue 4,
Country Press
(USA) 1942
Sadomasochism
 owned a huge collection of flagellation whips
 enjoyed watching himself self-injure
Racially and ethnically prejudiced
 Avoided words of Latin and Greek etymology
“Blue-Eyed English” or “Anglish”
 Accepted Aryan Anglo-Saxons as the superior
race
  Ritardando  slow down
 Mezzoforte  medium loud
 Crescendo  get louder
 Allegro  fast and lively
 Poco a poco accelerando  speed up bit by bit
 A Piano  a keyed hammer-string
 A harpsichord  a keyed hook-string
“Meat-Shunner” (vegetarian)
 Diet consisted of rice, oranges, cereals, lots of
dairy
 Almost exclusively drank varieties of milk
Fashioned his own clothing
 Often dug through other
peoples’ trash to find
discarded towels to make his
clothes
 Wore homemade togas,
muumuus, jackets, leggings,
and grass-beaded skirts.
Highly energetic person
 Liked to perform while out-of-breath, very
fatigued
 Would jog and walk between cities while on tour
 Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5d53hnXvmA
Absolutely obsessed with
his legacy
 He and his mother
collected all kinds
personal items
 Invested huge portions
of his earnings into a
museum about himself
that opened in 1938.
 Paradoxically grew to
detest his own work.
What distinguishes Grainger?
Pioneered much of modern music
techniques and styles:
 Reduced emphasis on strings
 Employed the saxophone
And the oboe, English Horn, and bassoon
 Dissonance
 Unplayable music for piano
 Progressive rhythms
 Free-time (no time-signature)
 Chance or aleatoric music
Greater emphasis on horns such as baritone
and trombone, and on saxophone and
double-reed horns
Layered complexity—multiple lines of
melody that “interact” with each other
Tidbits of sudden variance within the music
that keeps the listener from falling into a lull
Complex rhythms
Oftentimes uses unusual and creative
ending cadences
Catchy tunes that are fun to play and hear
 Example: “1. Lisbon (Dublin Bay)”
Adaptations provide fantastic
examples vis-à-vis other
composers. Easy for the average
listener to discern:
 JS Bach’s “Sheep May Safely
Graze” adapted into “Blithe Bells”

 R. Vaughan Williams’ “English

Folk Song Suite, 2nd Movement”
versus Grainger’s “Passacaglia on
English Folk Song”
Adapted many traditional folk songs from
Scandinavia and the British Isles.
 “Lincolnshire Posy”
1. Lisbon (or Dublin Bay)
2. Horkstow Grange (A Miser and His Man: A Local
Tragedy)
3. Rufford Park Poachers (Poaching Song)
4.The Brisk Young Sailor (Who Returned to Wed His True
Love)
5. Lord Melbourne (War Song)
6. The Lost Lady Found (Dance Song)
 “Molly on the Shore”
 “Shepherd’s Hey!”
Coined a concept of “free music”
 Abandon discrete scales and rhythms
 Machines will play the music
Theremin
Will Liam Neeson one day play Percy Grainger
in a film? Only time will tell.
Will Liam Neeson one day play Percy Grainger
in a film? Only time will tell.
Will Liam Neeson one day play Percy Grainger
in a film? Only time will tell.