Self-Portrait of Percy Grainger
Edited by Malcolm Gillies, David Pear, and Mark Carroll
Reviews and Awards
"Malcolm Gilles, David Pear and Mark Carroll steer us unflinchingly through a personal history that calls for a systematic handling, applying a degree of assiduousness that can only arise from a genuine and deep respect for their subject." - Mark Tanner, Musical Opinion
"All this fretful retrospection must have kept Malcolm Gillies, David Pear and Mark Carroll, the editors of Self Portrait, very busy. Grainger gave them half a million words of fragmented autobiography to choose from, deposited at the Grainger Museum in the University of Melbourne, and they have done a thorough job of exposing him in all his glory and his madness. It's a long way from "Country Gardens." - Michael Caines, Times Literary Supplement
"What began life in Grainger's hand as detailed, candid notes for an autobiography he would never fulfill are here shaped into a compelling, unsanitized portrait of a brilliant artist and a vital epoch. A great read." - Paul Kildea
"The volume as a whole is fascinating and a very revealing portrait of this complex personality. It's a must for Delians and those interested in the Frankfurt Gang." - The Delian
"This substantial and revelatory anthology of the private writings of Percy Grainger fills many significant gaps in our knowledge of the composer as both artist and man. The collection has been prepared with impeccable attention to detail but in a manner which allows the text to speak for itself. With its fine balance between scholarship and sheer readability, it is difficult to see how the task could have been accomplished more effectively." - Mervyn Cooke, Department of Music, University of Nottingham
"Self-Portrait of Percy Grainger goes beyond existing volumes of letters and other documents, in terms of intimate revelations, and in illuminating neglected areas of Grainger's life. Rarely have the shadowy relationships of ideas about music, sex, and race been so frankly laid bare." - Alain Frogley, Department of Music, University of Connecticut
"Malcolm Gilles, David Pear and Mark Carroll steer us unflinchingly through a personal history that calls for a systematic handling, applying a degree of assiduousness that can only arise from a genuine and deep respect for their subject." - Mark Tanner, Musical Opinion
"All this fretful retrospection must have kept Malcolm Gillies, David Pear and Mark Carroll, the editors of Self Portrait, very busy. Grainger gave them half a million words of fragmented autobiography to choose from, deposited at the Grainger Museum in the University of Melbourne, and they have done a thorough job of exposing him in all his glory and his madness. It's a long way from "Country Gardens." - Michael Caines, Times Literary Supplement
"What began life in Grainger's hand as detailed, candid notes for an autobiography he would never fulfill are here shaped into a compelling, unsanitized portrait of a brilliant artist and a vital epoch. A great read." - Paul Kildea
"This substantial and revelatory anthology of the private writings of Percy Grainger fills many significant gaps in our knowledge of the composer as both artist and man. The collection has been prepared with impeccable attention to detail but in a manner which allows the text to speak for itself. With its fine balance between scholarship and sheer readability, it is difficult to see how the task could have been accomplished more effectively." - Mervyn Cooke, Department of Music, University of Nottingham
"Self-Portrait of Percy Grainger goes beyond existing volumes of letters and other documents, in terms of intimate revelations, and in illuminating neglected areas of Grainger's life. Rarely have the shadowy relationships of ideas about music, sex, and race been so frankly laid bare." - Alain Frogley, Department of Music, University of Connecticut
"The volume as a whole is fascinating and a very revealing portrait of this complex personality. It's a must for Delians and those interested in the Frankfurt Gang." - The Delian