Percy Grainger

By John Bird

Book Overview

John Bird's acclaimed biography of the Australian-born composer and pianist Percy Grainger gives the first full account of the life and works of one of the strangest figures in twentieth-century music. Behind Grainger's highly original compositional achievements, folksong collecting, and glittering career as a virtuoso concert pianist lay a tragic and chaotic personal life--long domination by his mother, unorthodox sexual predilections, an eccentric athleticism, a demonic spiritual drive, and a wildly inconsistent personal philosophy with Anglo-Saxon obsessions such as his famous "Blue-Eyed English." A list of published compositions, a current discography of performances by Grainger, and a selection of his seminal writings complete what has already proved to be a standard work.
This fully revised edition includes much new biographical material from John Bird's continuing research. Grainger's reputation and popularity as a uniquely individual composer continue to grow, and this book remains the definitive biography.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0198166524
• ISBN13: 9780198166528
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 424 Pages
• Weight: 1.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Excellent

I found this biography of Percy Grainger to be very informative and interesting to read. It accurately describes the musician's life and should be read by anyone interested in the man or his works.

A valuable resource

As with many composers, to understand the man is essential to understanding how to interpret his music. My reserach on "Lincolnshire Posy" would have been incomplete without this book. There is a lot of persistence on the author's part to present an accurate and indepth portrayal of one of the more eccentric figures in music. A shame that all biographies are not constructed with such care.

The revised edition of THE Grainger biography by John Bird.

In this biography, John Bird masterly tells us about the live, thoughts and 'adventures' of one of the strangest music makers of all times, composer and pianist Percy Aldridge Grainger. A very complete book, which is special, for, as the author stresses in his preface, making an understandable view of the complicated life of Grainger, is not a simple task. Besides all important facts about 'Perks', the book contains lots of interesting backgroud information, letting us know under which circumstances and in what time the composer lived. Also an updated discography and a list of all places where manuscripts etc are to be found are included. The current edition is fully revised, the first print was released in the mid seventies. In one word: brilliant!!!