y separately published work icon Self-Portrait of Percy Grainger single work   autobiography  
Issue Details: First known date: 2006... 2006 Self-Portrait of Percy Grainger
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Shortly before his death, Percy Grainger lodged over twenty unpublished sketches in his Australian museum. This book draws exclusively from these sketches, revealing a portrait of the composer's life. With such titles as 'The Aldridge-Grainger-Stroom saga', 'Thanks', 'Ere-I-forget', 'The love-life of Helen and Paris' , and 'Anecdotes', these manuscripts were intended as precursors to Grainger's autobiography, My Wretched Tone-life, which he commenced only in his final years. Expertly shaping these sketches, the editors have created a self-portrait along the lines that Grainger himself had intended. The volume first introduces Grainger's forebears, parents, friends, wife, and himself before moving on to his views on composition, performance, and the musical world. In these sketches, Grainger addresses such topics as racial and national identity, the meaning of work, physical culture, language reform, sexual practice, and artistic patronage. Grainger also probes the nature of musical genius, discussing a broad range of composers including Igor Stravinsky, Thomas Beecham, Frederick Delius, Edvard Grieg, Charles Stanford, Cyril Scott, Fritz Kreisler, Donald Tovey, Ferruccio Busoni, and Balfour Gardiner. Among the works of his own that Grainger most featured are his The Warriors - Music for an Imaginary Ballet, Colonial Song, the Lincolnshire Posy series of band pieces, his greatest 'hit' Country Gardens, and his many settings of English folk-music. (Book jacket)

Notes

  • Dedication: To Kay Dreyfus

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Oxford, Oxfordshire,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Oxford University Press ,
      2006 .
      Extent: xxxi, 284p., [14] p. of platesp.
      Description: illus., facsims, ports
      Note/s:
      • Includes bibliographical references and index.
      ISBN: 9780195305371, 019530537X

Works about this Work

Percy, Welts and All Elizabeth Silsbury , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 3 February 2007; (p. 12)

— Review of Self-Portrait of Percy Grainger Percy Grainger , 2006 single work autobiography
Percyflage Michael Shmith , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 285 2006; (p. 21-22)

— Review of Facing Percy Grainger 2006 selected work biography ; Self-Portrait of Percy Grainger Percy Grainger , 2006 single work autobiography
Percyflage Michael Shmith , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 285 2006; (p. 21-22)

— Review of Facing Percy Grainger 2006 selected work biography ; Self-Portrait of Percy Grainger Percy Grainger , 2006 single work autobiography
Percy, Welts and All Elizabeth Silsbury , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 3 February 2007; (p. 12)

— Review of Self-Portrait of Percy Grainger Percy Grainger , 2006 single work autobiography
Last amended 15 Feb 2007 13:02:25
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