Reconstructing Grainger the Educator: A Commonsense View of All Music

In this talk, Paul Jackson will provide a framework for better understanding the core ideas expounded in Grainger’s lecture series “A General Study of the Manifold Nature of Music,” delivered at New York University between 1932 and 1933, and “Music: A Commonsense View of all Types”, delivered for the Australian Broadcasting Commission between 1934 and 1935, placing them within the context of the then-emerging field of ethnomusicology and of parallel attempts of formalised music education that sought to make the world’s music available to the wider public. A key method of illustrating Grainger’s central ideas is the reconstruction of the musical content of selected lectures—drawn from a range of archival sources—which naturally serves to illustrate his central beliefs more vividly and tellingly than by a consideration of his written words alone.

During this event, the Grainger Museum will be open from 5:30pm and the talk itself will start at 6pm.

Bookings encouraged, drop-ins welcome.

Image credit: Percy Grainger teaching a class at the National Music Camp, Interlochen, Michigan, c 1942.