Grainger Museum

Full description

The Grainger Museum (officially opened in 1938) was established by the composer, pianist and folklorist Percy Grainger, to show the 'sources from which composers draw their inspirations'. The collection numbers over 100,000 items and consists of music manuscripts and printed editions by many composers, correspondence, musical instruments, ephemera, photography and fine and decorative arts. Items in the collection include: art works, including oil paintings, prints, works-on-paper and sculpture; costumes, including Percy Grainger's unique towelling clothing designs, his military uniforms, childhood clothes, and formal wear; decorative arts & furniture, including copper utensils, vessels and lamps, silverware, porcelain and ceramics; ethnographic collection, including costumes, masks, headgear, footwear, utensils, weapons and an extensive collection of bead artefacts; musical instruments, comprising a wide collection of approximately 250 items including keyboards, tuned percussion, woodwind, brass and non-western instruments; Hirschfeld-Mack Collection, comprising experimental wooden wind and string instruments; Percy Grainger's Experimental Free Music Machines; and photographs, comprising 15,000 images. The Grainger Museum Archive includes: correspondence, comprising approximately 50,000 items, as well as the Ella Grainger collection of correspondence and letters collected by Rose Grainger; business records and personal papers,; concert programs (1894-1960), containing an almost complete set of concert programs from Grainger's performing career; graphic designs/ typography, including numerous sketches, finished artworks, printers' proofs, colour tests and examples of calligraphy; music manuscripts and published musical editions; archives of Australian composers, comprising manuscripts, published scores and supporting archival material for several Australian composers; Grainger's personal library, comprising 4,000 volumes including literature in English and Nordic languages, music, song, poetry, pornography, history and linguistics. The Sound Archive includes: phonograph cylinders, containing 400 recordings of English, Danish, Rarotongan (Cook Islands) and Maori folk singers; gramophone records, including recordings of Percy Grainger's piano performances, musical experiments, rehearsals and interviews; piano rolls, including Grainger playing his own works and works by other composers; audio tapes, consisting of 100 tapes of private recordings of radio broadcasts, rehearsals, musical performances acquired from various sources.