The Young Grainger and his Circle

Percy Grainger’s youthful studies at the Hoch Conservatorium in Frankfurt am Main brought him into contact with a group of fellow composers that were to influence him throughout his life. The ‘Frankfurt Gang’, as this group of would-be world changers became known, comprised Grainger, Cyril Scott, Roger Quilter, Henry Balfour Gardiner, and Norman O’Neill, and their mission was to establish a new and radical English music style, in stark contrast to the prevailing German musical outlook that seemed to them to be ubiquitous. In 1907, Grainger met Frederick Delius, with whom he achieved an immediate rapport, since the two musicians had similar ideas about composition and harmony, and also shared a dislike for the classical German masters. Both were inspired by folk music; Grainger gave Delius his setting of the folk song Brigg Fair, which Delius developed into his famous orchestral rhapsody, dedicated to Grainger. This presentation will explore these collegial relationships with special reference to never-before-seen letters and documents recently discovered in the Grainger Home and Studio.

The event is part of the ongoing series, Third Sundays. It is free and open to the public. Due to space limitations, registration is encouraged.

Percy Grainger occupied the house at 7 Cromwell Place from 1921 until his death in 1961, using it as his home base for his world tours, practice studio and laboratory for his avant-garde musical compositions and experimental music machines. After Percy Grainger’s death in 1961, his widow Ella continued to live in the house until her passing in 1979. This historic house, built in 1893, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in April of 1993.

Dr. Paul Jackson is a pianist, conductor, lecturer, musicologist, and education consultant, who was, for over 20 years, Director of Music and Performing Arts at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK. His publications include contributions to The New Percy Grainger Companion (2010), to Grainger Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal (2012) and to John Ruskin and Nineteenth-Century Education (2018). He is editor of The Grainger Journal and President of the Percy Grainger Society.