The towel clothes in the Grainger Museum are one of the highlights of the Costume Collection. Numbering 26 individual pieces or outfit, the towel clothes represent the Graingers’ innovative ideas and creativity in dress. Percy Grainger wrote about…
Grainger was a compositional radical, a fact that
was not well known to a public accustomed to
compositions like ‘Country Gardens’. ‘Train Music’
shows Grainger’s experimentation with irregular
metres. His note at the top indicates that…
Watercolour, ink and graphite on paper. Illustration of instrument (a modified sewing machine) with handwritten explanations and instructions. 14.2 x 25.7cm
Excerpt from Percy Grainger's daybooks 1944-1960: Thursday 25 October 1951
‘Red Letter day…
This ‘reed box’ is designed somewhat like a giant
mechanically-operated mouth organ. A large strip of
paper (not present), like a pianola roll with holes cut at
calculated points, was to be rolled…
This invention was Grainger's first attempt at constructing an instrument which could glide smoothly from one tone to the next and which was controlled by a 'musical score' rather than a player. The sound was produced…
Grainger took his role as educator about music in the general community very seriously, and exploited the opportunities afforded by radio broadcasting. While in Australia and New Zealand in the 1930s, he delivered a series of lectures for the ABC,…