Not the toussled haired folkie you think you know

When we think of Percy Aldridge Grainger we think of his salon music like Country Gardens and Handel in the Strand, but that was the commercial Grainger. His life and mind was much more complex and interesting then you might think.

Grainger was a mass of contradictions. He was a vegetarian that didn't like vegetables, a man interested world music, yet spoke only "blue-eyed" English with no Latin derived words. He was an inventor that imagined a mechanical music composition computer in 1892 and made a working model in 1920's (seen below left).

On the Piano this Sunday a look at the life and times of Grainger with a particular interest in the history you will not find in record notes.

The Piano heard Sunday afternoon at 5 on KPAC and KTXI

host, Randy Anderson