Percy Grainger



Percy Aldridge Grainger (8 July 1882 – 20 February 1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist. In the course of a long and innovative career he played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the early years of the 20th century. He also made many adaptations of other composers' works. Although much of his work was experimental and unusual, the piece with which he is most generally associated is his piano arrangement of the folk-dance tune "".

Quotes

 * All my life, I have been sickened by everything connected with meat-, fish-, and poultry eating. As a child, I saw apparently nice, kind people wring the necks of fowls, and I thought it foul; and I wondered if I could ever exert any influence to help bring such unworthiness to an end.
 * “How I Became a Meat-Shunner,” in American Vegetarian, Vol. V no. 4, Dec. 1946, p. 4; quoted in Vegetarianism in Australia - 1788 to 1948: A Cultural and Social History by Edgar Crook (Huntingdon Press, 2006), p. 78.


 * I do not eat meat, I do not smoke, and I do not drink, and therefore, I do not feel the cold.
 * Asked why he was wearing few clothes in the middle of winter. Quoted in Percy Grainger by John Bird (Currency Press, 1998), p. 253; quoted in Vegetarianism in Australia - 1788 to 1948: A Cultural and Social History by Edgar Crook (Huntingdon Press, 2006), p. 79.