Editing Percy Grainger (section)

== Early life ==
=== Family background ===
[[File:Princes Bridge Melbourne 01a.jpg|thumb|Princes Bridge, Melbourne, designed by John Grainger]]
Grainger was born on 8 July 1882 in [[Brighton, Victoria|Brighton]], south-east of Melbourne. His father, [[John Harry Grainger|John Grainger]], an English-born architect who had emigrated to Australia in 1877, won recognition for his design of the [[Princes Bridge]] across the [[Yarra River]] in Melbourne;<ref name= ADB>{{cite web|last= Dreyfus|first= Kay|url= http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A090072b.htm|title= Grainger, George Percy (1882–1961)|work=Australian Dictionary of Biography online |year= 2006}}</ref> His mother Rose Annie Aldridge was the daughter of Adelaide hotelier [[James Henry Aldridge|George Aldridge]].<ref name= Bird2>Bird, pp. 2–6</ref>

John Grainger was an accomplished artist, with broad cultural interests and a wide circle of friends.<ref name= Simon2 /> These included [[David Mitchell (builder)|David Mitchell]], whose daughter Helen later gained worldwide fame as an operatic [[soprano]] under the name [[Nellie Melba]]. John's claims to have "discovered" her are unfounded, although he may have offered her encouragement.<ref>Bird, p. 9</ref> John was a heavy drinker and a womaniser who, Rose learned after the marriage, had fathered a child in England before coming to Australia. His promiscuity placed deep strains upon the relationship. Rose discovered shortly after Percy's birth that she had contracted a form of [[syphilis]] from her husband.<ref name= Bird2 /><ref name= Simon2 /> Despite this, the Graingers stayed together until 1890, when John went to England for medical treatment. After his return to Australia, they lived apart. Rose took over the work of raising Percy,<ref>Bird, pp. 14–15</ref> while John pursued his career as chief architect to the Western Australian Department of Public Works. He had some private work, designing Nellie Melba's home, Coombe Cottage, at [[Coldstream, Victoria|Coldstream]].<ref name= ADB />

=== Childhood ===
[[File:Melbourne international exhibition 1880.jpg|thumb|An 1880 lithograph of the Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, venue for Percy Grainger's early concerts, October 1894]]
Except for three months' formal schooling as a 12-year-old, during which he was bullied and ridiculed by his classmates, Percy was educated at home.<ref name= Simon2>Simon, pp. 2–3</ref> Rose, an [[autodidacticism|autodidact]] with a dominating presence, supervised his music and literature studies and engaged other tutors for languages, art and drama. From his earliest lessons, Percy developed a lifelong fascination with [[Nordic countries|Nordic culture]]; writing late in life, he said that the Icelandic [[Grettis saga|''Saga of Grettir the Strong'']] was "the strongest single artistic influence on my life".<ref>Bird, p. 11</ref><ref name= ODNB>{{cite web|author-link= Malcolm Gillies|last= Gillies|first= Malcolm|title= Grainger, Percy Aldridge|url= http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/41/101041081 |work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online|year= 2004}} {{subscription}}</ref><ref name= OMO>{{cite dictionary|last1= Gillies|first1= Malcolm |last2=Pear |first2=David|title= Grainger, (George) Percy (Aldridge)|url= http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/11596|dictionary= Oxford Music Online|year= 2007}} {{subscription}}</ref> As well as showing precocious musical talents, he displayed considerable early gifts as an artist, to the extent that his tutors thought his future might lie in art rather than music.<ref>Bird, p. 13</ref> At the age of 10 he began studying piano under Louis Pabst, a German-born graduate of the Moscow Conservatory, Melbourne's leading piano teacher. Grainger's first known composition, "A Birthday Gift to Mother", is dated 1893.<ref name= ADB /> Pabst arranged Grainger's first public concert appearances, at Melbourne's Masonic Hall in July and September 1894. The boy played works by [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]], [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]], [[Robert Schumann|Schumann]] and [[Domenico Scarlatti|Scarlatti]], and was warmly complimented in the Melbourne press.<ref name= Bird20>Bird, pp. 20–22</ref>

After Pabst returned to Europe in the autumn of 1894, Grainger's new piano tutor, Adelaide Burkitt, arranged for his appearances at a series of concerts in October 1894 at Melbourne's [[Royal Exhibition Building]]. The size of this enormous venue horrified the young pianist; nevertheless, his performance delighted the Melbourne critics, who dubbed him "the flaxen-haired phenomenon who plays like a master".<ref>Bird, p. 23</ref> This public acclaim helped Rose to decide that her son should continue his studies at the [[Hoch Conservatory]] in [[Frankfurt]], Germany, an institution recommended by William Laver, head of piano studies at Melbourne's Conservatorium of music. Financial assistance was secured through a fund-raising benefit concert in Melbourne and a final recital in Adelaide, after which mother and son left Australia for Europe on 29 May 1895.<ref>Bird, pp. 24–25</ref> Although Grainger never returned permanently to Australia, he maintained considerable patriotic feelings for his native land,<ref name= Scott /> and was proud of his Australian heritage.<ref name= ADB />

=== Frankfurt ===
[[File:Percy Grainger in 1901.jpg|thumb|upright|Grainger aged 18, towards the end of his Frankfurt years]]
In Frankfurt, Rose established herself as a teacher of English; her earnings were supplemented by contributions from John Grainger, who had settled in [[Perth]]. The Hoch Conservatory's reputation for piano teaching had been enhanced by the tenure, until 1892, of [[Clara Schumann]] as head of piano studies. Grainger's piano tutor was [[James Kwast]], who developed his young pupil's skills to the extent that, within a year, Grainger was being lauded as a prodigy.<ref name=Bird26>Bird, pp. 26–29</ref> Grainger had difficult relations with his original composition teacher, [[Iwan Knorr]];<ref name= Simon2 /> he withdrew from Knorr's classes to study composition privately with Karl Klimsch, an amateur composer and folk-music enthusiast, whom he would later honour as "my only composition teacher".<ref name= ADB />

Together with a group of slightly older British students – [[Roger Quilter]], [[H. Balfour Gardiner|Balfour Gardiner]], [[Cyril Scott]] and [[Norman O'Neill]], all of whom became his friends – Grainger helped form the [[Frankfurt Group]]. Their long-term objective was to rescue British and Scandinavian music from what they considered the negative influences of central European music.<ref name= Simon2/> Encouraged by Klimsch, Grainger turned away from composing classical pastiches reminiscent of [[George Frideric Handel|Handel]], [[Joseph Haydn|Haydn]] and [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]],<ref>Bird, p. 35</ref> and developed a personal compositional style, the originality and maturity of which quickly impressed and astonished his friends.<ref name= Scott /> At this time Grainger discovered the poetry of [[Rudyard Kipling]] and began setting it to music; according to Scott, "No poet and composer have been so suitably wedded since [[Heinrich Heine|Heine]] and Schumann."<ref name= Scott>Scott, pp. 51–54</ref>

After accompanying her son on an extended European tour in the summer of 1900, Rose, whose health had been poor for some time, suffered a nervous collapse and could no longer work.<ref name= Bird39 /> To replace lost income, Grainger began giving piano lessons and public performances; his first solo recital was in Frankfurt on 6 December 1900.<ref name= ADB /> Meanwhile, he continued his studies with Kwast, and increased his repertoire until he was confident he could support himself and his mother as a concert pianist. Having chosen London as his future base, in May 1901 Grainger abandoned his studies. With Rose, he left Frankfurt for the UK.<ref name= Bird39>Bird, pp. 39–41</ref>

Before leaving Frankfurt, Grainger had fallen in love with Kwast's daughter Mimi.<ref name= Bird39 /> In an autobiographical essay dated 1947, he says that he was "already sex-crazy" at this time, when he was 19.<ref name= Bird42 /> John Bird, Grainger's biographer, records that during his Frankfurt years, Grainger began to develop sexual appetites that were "distinctly abnormal"; by the age of 16 he had started to experiment in [[flagellation]] and other [[sado-masochism|sado-masochistic]] practices, which he continued to pursue through most of his adult life. Bird surmises that Grainger's fascination with themes of punishment and pain derived from the harsh discipline to which Rose had subjected him as a child.<ref name= Bird42>Bird, pp. 42–43</ref>