Musical glass created by Percy Grainger, c.1930s

Musical glass created by Percy Grainger, c.1930s

This is one of the musical glasses created by Percy Grainger for performances of his Tribute to Foster. In performance, most of the glasses were filled to a marked line with liquid, to sound at a specific pitch. Ella Grainger painted the tuning lines on the glasses with black oil paint. A few of the glasses, including this large blue vase marked for playing by Ella, produced the desired pitch without the need for water.

This instrument is formed from 5cm-thick glass, attached to large sheets of cardboard with green string and sticking plaster. It has handwrittten "C# for Mrs. Percy Grainger to play."

Grainger Museum Collection

1930s

00.0153