Music by Percy Aldridge Grainger
by Dr Kay Dreyfus
Volume 1
Percy Grainger's life was a virtuoso performance, rich in imagination and energy, spanning many lands. Pianist and composer, collector, guardian and arranger of folk music and songs, experimenter in forms and machines for his Free Music - music not limited by time and pitch intervals - Percy Grainger decided at an early age that limits of time must apply neither to music nor to man. On 2 May 1909 he wrote:
Fear of Death and loss,
destruction and forgottenness,
spur me to compose, collect,
preserve and embalm.
In October 1955 he recalled how he was impelled, "to collect manuscripts, musical sketches, letters, articles, mementos, portraits, photographs, etc. ... always with the intention of someday putting this collection on permanent display in Melbourne."
The collection is not restricted to Grainger. Whereas Grainger's bias was "English-speaking and Scandinavian", the scene is international and comprises a vast range of material relating to music, its composer and performers: "The sources," said Grainger in 1938, "from which composers draw their inspiration."
In July 1974, Dr. Kay Dreyfus commenced an intensive programme of sorting, listing and indexing Grainger's works and sketches. With generous financial support from the Music Board, Australia Council, and the University of Melbourne, Dr. Dreyfus and her colleagues have worked on behalf of the Grainger Museum Board under the general direction of the University Archives.
Music by Percy Aldridge Grainger (Percy Grainger Music Collection Part 1), is the first published catalogue for this rich resource. Its structure embodies differing elements which are united in a tracery of the genealogy of particular compositions. This catalogue is one of a series on the music holdings in the Grainger Museum, which, nearly twenty years later, finally includes a Supplementary List and Index.
Cost: $20AUD + postage and handling.