Self-Portrait of Percy Grainger

Abstract

In his later years Percy Grainger (1882-1961) penned over twenty personal sketches, intending them as the basis of an autobiography. This book draws a vivid portrait of the Australian-American musician exclusively using these unpublished sketches and upon a plan Grainger himself had intended. The volume first introduces Grainger's forebears, father, mother, friends, wife, and himself before moving on to his views on composition, performance, and the broader musical world. Grainger wanted everything about himself to be known, and this volume attempts to honour his wish. His compositional views, particularly regarding The Warriors, Colonial Song, Country Gardens, and Lincolnshire Posy are presented, alongside controversial views about race, nationality and the role of art. His interest in language reform and his subsequent attempts to make English a more purely Nordic tongue are revealed, as are his views on work ethic, socialism, and physical culture. The book includes Grainger's incisive perspectives on such musical contemporaries as Thomas Beecham, Ferruccio Busoni, Frederick Delius, Balfour Gardiner, Edward Grieg, Fritz Kreisler, Charles Stanford, Cyril Scott, Igor Stravinsky, Donald Tovey, and Vaughan Williams. The volume unfolds Grainger's confronting sexual proclivities, including his belief that sado-masochism was a perfectly natural activity for a genuinely creative artist. Over its course, the book plots Grainger's changing self-perception, from the romantically tinged, even lustful, views of his forties and fifties, through a period of wistfulness in his sixties, to the bitterness and self-loathing of his old age. Show more