Percy Grainger was born on Saturday 8 July 1882 in Brighton, a seaside suburb on the outskirts of Melbourne, then the largest city on the Australian continent. His early family life was relatively affluent but inharmonious because of poor relations between his parents. Grainger soon revealed special talents in drawing and music-making. His father, an architect, supported his development in graphic arts, while his mother, a pianist, promoted his musical interests. In the late 1880s the Graingers incurred large losses in mining speculation and the family was forced to live more humbly. By 1890 Grainger's parents had separated. Except for three months of formal schooling in 1894, most of his education was undertaken at home under his mother's tutelage. She paid scant attention to mathematics, science or physical education, but fostered his abilities in reading, writing, history and the arts, teaching him piano each day and supervising his two hours of practice. By the early 1890s he was receiving special lessons in drawing and acting, French tutorials, and was starting to study piano with one of Melbourne's leading teachers, Louis Pabst. At the age of twelve he started to perform in public, to widespread acclaim, and in 1895, with the financial support of his father and an enthusiastic local committee, he left Melbourne with his mother to study at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main. Although Grainger toured Australia many times over the following sixty years he never again resided in the country.

JOHN H. GRAINGER

(1855–1917)