The Grainger Museum is a repository of items documenting the life, career and music of the composer, folklorist, educator and pianist

Percy Grainger Percy Aldridge Grainger (born George Percy Grainger; 8 July 188220 February 1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist who lived in the United States from 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. In the course of a long an ...

(b. Melbourne, 1882; d. White Plains, New York, 1961), located in the grounds of the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, Australia. In the early 1920s, Grainger began to develop an idea for an autobiographical museum so that "all very intimate letters or notes should be deposited in an Australian Grainger Museum, preferably in birth-town Melbourne". Grainger was a linguistic purist, advocating for the use of a 'Blue-Eyed English' derived from Anglo-Saxon and Germanic glossary. As a result, he generally used the word 'past-hoard-house' for museums, but agreed to the word 'museum' in this case.

Architecture

The Museum was designed by the University's staff architect John Gawler of the local firm Gawler and Drummond, with input and funding from Grainger himself. It was built between 1935 and 1939 on land provided for the purpose by the University of Melbourne, and officially opened in December 1938. Designed specifically to fulfill the role envisioned by Grainger, it is the only purpose-built autobiographical museum in Australia. The building is included on the Register of the National Estate, the

Victorian Heritage Register The Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) lists places deemed to be of cultural heritage significance to the State of Victoria, Australia. It has statutory weight under the Heritage Act 2017. The Minister for Planning is the responsible Minister. ...

and with the

National Trust of Australia (Victoria) The National Trust of Australia (Victoria) is a community-based, non-government organisation committed to promoting and conserving Australia's indigenous, natural and historic heritage places of cultural significance in Victoria. It was founded in ...

. The Grainger Museum was closed in 2003 for seven years, for restoration and conservation work, after waterproofing issues were detected. It reopened on 15 October 2010.

The collection

Among displays of original manuscripts and published scores, musical instruments, field recordings, artworks, photographs, books and personal items, are Grainger’s whips and other items relating to his sado-masochism (which Grainger called the "Lust Branch"), the contents of his bedside cabinet, and a gallery devoted to his mother’s suicide. There are also sound-making devices Grainger used to make his innovative and experimental "Free music". The substantial archival collection includes some 50,000 items of correspondence (Grainger corresponded with people such as

Edvard Grieg Edvard Hagerup Grieg ( , ; 15 June 18434 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the foremost Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use of ...

Frederick Delius Delius, photographed in 1907 Frederick Theodore Albert Delius ( 29 January 1862 – 10 June 1934), originally Fritz Delius, was an English composer. Born in Bradford in the north of England to a prosperous mercantile family, he resisted atte ...

, Cyril Scott,

Roger Quilter Roger Cuthbert Quilter (1 November 1877 – 21 September 1953) was a British composer, known particularly for his art songs. His songs, which number over a hundred, often set music to text by William Shakespeare and are a mainstay of the E ...

and

Julius Röntgen Julius Engelbert Röntgen (9 May 1855 – 13 September 1932) was a German-Dutch composer of classical music. He was a friend of Liszt, Brahms and Grieg. Life Julius Röntgen was born in Leipzig, Germany, to a family of musicians. His father, ...

, and collected letters of

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

and

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

among others). The collection generally comprises over 100,000 items in total, only a small proportion of which are on display. The remainder of the collection is accessible for research by prior arrangement.

Opening hours

Sunday to Friday: 12:00pm – 4:00pm. Saturday: Closed. The Grainger Museum is closed on public holidays and from Christmas throughout the month of January each year.

Past exhibitions

*2018 Objects of Fame: Nellie Melba and Percy Grainger *2018 Synthesizers: Sound of the Future *2017 Grainger Photographed: Public Facades and Intimate Spaces *2017 Fugal Alternatives: Reverberations of Studio 01 *2017 Instrument of Change: Visions of the Guitar in the Early 20th Century *2016 Percy Grainger: The Accidental Futurist *2016 Experiments in Freedom *2016 Water, marks and countenances: Works on paper from the Grainger Museum collection *2015 Pack up your troubles: Music and the Great War *2015 Patrick Pound at the Grainger Museum

External links

Grainger Museum homepage

The Melbourne Newsroom

International Percy Grainger Society

References