In the thirty years since his Centenary in 1982 it has become even clearer that Percy Grainger [1882-1961] - composer, pianist and revolutionary - was a man born out of his time. Many of his ideas, both musical and social, sit farmore easily in our contemporary world. Those thirty years have also seen a notable expansion of interest in Grainger's music. Innumerable recordings have been made, including the first complete Grainger recording survey by Chandos in its monumental Grainger Edition. The growth of the internet has made it possible, as never before, for Grainger's music to be heard widely.
The central theme of The New Percy Grainger Companion is to give information and help from established musicians for performing and listening to this life-celebrating repertoire. The Companion's fully detailed, up-to-date Catalogue of Works - the most complete of any existing catalogue - givesinvaluable assistance. Authoritative contextual chapters in the Companion offer some surprising new background information, together with thoughtful evaluations which signal a new twenty-first century perspective in Grainger scholarship.
PENELOPE THWAITES is recognised internationally as a leading Grainger exponent. Her research, performances and extensive Grainger discography over four decades reflect a unique understanding of the manand his music.
Contributors: BRIAN ALLISON, TERESA BALOUGH, ROGER COVELL, KAY DREYFUS, LEWIS FOREMAN, PAUL JACKSON, JAMES JUDD, JAMES KOEHNE, ASTRID BRITT KRAUTSCHNEIDER, BARRY PETER OULD, STEWART MANVILLE, MURRAY MCLACHLAN, TIMOTHY REYNISH, BRUCE CLUNIES ROSS, DESMOND SCOTT, PETER SCULTHORPE, GEOFFREY SIMON, RONALD STEVENSON, STEPHEN VARCOE, DAVID WALKER
Industry Reviews
An essential handbook for anyone doing research on Percy Grainger himself, on the musical world of his time, or on the types and forms of music which he wrote or researched...handbooks such as this provide the folklorist with the background to understanding the life and work of a figure who had a deep interest in folk music and the music of the non-Western world. * FOLKLORE *
A highly readable and important volume. [It will] prove invaluable to both performers and researchers in years to come. * BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY *
The New Percy Grainger Companion [...] does Grainger's legacy a great service because of the rich, and at times unexpected, contexts against which the man and his music are set. * MUSIC & LETTERS *
This book successfully removes his masks of bravado, outrageousness, contradictions and obsessions to reveal a vulnerable, warm humane man, who was proud to call Australia home. * STRINGENDO *
It is a breath of fresh air [...] to encounter a book that concentrates exclusively on Grainger's work as a composer, pianist and pioneering thinker. [...] it contributes very usefully to a better understanding of this truly remarkable Australian figure. * MUSIC FORUM *
Grainger is not just a composer, or a pianist, or an arranger, he is a phenomenon. And in The New Percy Grainger Companion we are given a vision of that phenomenon in the wealth of his music and in his wide global context. * . *
Thwaites and her fellow contributors go far in restoring to general consciousness the full scope of Grainger's work as composer, performer, and ethnomusicologist. The book has something to offer almost every conceivable audience. [...] Recommended. * CHOICE *
This is an invaluable book about one of music's least understood practitioners. [...] British-born Australian pianist and composer Penelope Thwaites has done a terrific job piecing together the jigsaw that was Grainger. * THE AUSTRALIAN *
[T]his handsome volume is an invaluable - and essential - contribution towards a fuller understanding of a composer on the cusp of overdue rediscovery. * CLASSICAL MUSIC *
Recommended without hesitation. * THE DELIAN *
This book is full of useful advice. * SYDNEY MORNING HERALD *
Generously filled with black and white photographs, reproductions of programmes and musical illustrations, this handsome volume is an invaluable - and essential - contribution towards a fuller understanding of a composer on the cusp of overdue recovery. * INTERNATIONAL PIANO *
Thwaites has already contributed substantially to a Grainger revival [...]. Here, as an editor, she manages the trick of finely balancing the various competing aspects of Grainger's energetic and highly productive life [...]. This New Companion succeeds in its aim to portray a complicated man in all his variety [...]. * TLS *
