The Round Letters of Percy Grainger
This thesis comprises the transcription, editing and critical commentary of thirty-nine selected letters—known as the Round Letters—of the Australian-born composer Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882–1961). The edited collection is intended to form a valuable contribution to the growing body of Grainger’s letters brought into the public domain, but otherwise not readily accessible.
Drawing on a range of archival resources, this edition of the Round Letters includes an extended essay, detailed footnotes, a chronology of events, biographical sketches of principal characters, a glossary of Blue-eyed English, and a number of appendices of previously unpublished writings by Grainger intended to provide a framework for a critical reading of the letters.
A key feature of the letters is Grainger’s use of ‘Blue-eyed English’, a sustained attempt at English language reform that sought to replace words of Latin or Greek origin with Anglo-Saxon equivalents. A critical consideration of Grainger’s word usage sheds light on his conceptions of race, nature, individual and societal behaviours, and notions of democracy that were integral to his identity as a musician. Grainger’s life-long progress towards the realisation of ‘Free Music’, music that is reflective of the natural world, and which is unrestricted by adherence to metrical rhythms or fixed pitches, also features prominently in the Round Letters and provides the second focus for investigation.
I argue that Grainger’s use of language, and specifically ‘Blue-eyed English’, far from being an expression of eccentricity as many commentators have claimed, was both central to the articulation of his world-view and informed his approach to composition. ‘Blue-eyed English’, as an expression of Grainger’s ideas of democracy, is further found to lead to ‘Free Music’, a concept that is offered as a lens through which to read his compositional output as a whole.
History
Institution
Anglia Ruskin UniversityFile version
- Published version
Thesis name
- PhD
Thesis type
- Doctoral