Browse Items (337 total)

The Lynch Family were renowned for using many unusual instruments, including handbells, organ chimes, glasses, and a metallophone (‘the Marimba Resonators’). This latter instrument, described as ‘the only instrument of its kind in the world’, is an…

Audience interest in the compositions of Australia’s celebrated composer-pianist Percy Grainger was immense, and his tours in Australia in 1934 and 1935 are typical. His 1934 tour included performances of In a Nutshell Suite, To a Nordic Princess,…

Ella Grainger became an expert player of her husband’s compositions using the bells and steel marimba, under Percy’s tutelage, despite having no formal musical training. She played the bells on tours across America in the period 1929-33, and in…

Grainger used this marimba for performances of his Tribute to Foster, exploiting the design innovation that enabled single notes and resonators to be removed from the instrument for playing individually. Grainger wrote instructions, such as ‘violin…

There are 80 musical glasses in the Grainger Museum Collection, which were created by Ella and Percy Grainger in the 1930s for use in performances of Tribute to Foster and Norse Dirge. Ella and Percy sourced the glasses from many different…

This heavily annotated cover of the singers’ parts for Tribute to Foster demonstrate the complexity of the performance arrangements, which included three conductors harnessing three sets of musicians, often playing to a different beat.

This metallophone has bronze keys, each fitted below with a hollow bronze resonator. The beautiful embossing on each resonator, in Japonisme style, is a remarkable feature. The instrument is created from elements constructed by multiple makers,…

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,…