Grainger the Modernist

By reappraising Percy Grainger's social and historical connectedness and exploring the variety of aspects of modernity seen in his activities in the British, American and Australian contexts, the authors create a profile of a composer, propagandist and visionary whose modernist aesthetic paralleled that of the most advanced composers of his day.

Introduction; 'The beauty of bravery': alternative modernisms, de-historicizing Grainger, Sarah Collins and Simon Perry; Grainger and the performativity of folk song, Graham Freeman; A 'treat equal to Wagner': Grainger's interactions with the music and culture of Polynesia, Graham Barwel 'A natural innovationist': Percy Grainger's early British folk song settings, Dorothy de Val; Giving voice to 'the painfulness of human life': Grainger's folk song settings and musical irony, Peter Tregear; Grainger and the 'new iconoclasts': forays into modernist French music, Emily Kilpatrick; The Hispanic Grainger: encounters with the modern Spanish school, Michael Christoforidis and Ken Murray; Minstrelsy, ragtime, 'improvisatory music' and Percy Grainger's 'unwritten music', John Whiteoak; When Grainger was ultra-modernist: a study of the American reception of In a Nutshell (1916), Suzanne Robinson; 'Serious music': the Brisbane reception of Grainger's historical chamber music recitals (1934), Samantha Owens; Percy Grainger, Henr Cowell and the origins of the world music survey course, Peter Schimpf; Grainger as educator: on the first performance of The Immovable Do for wind band, Phillip All…