ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 45 | June 2000
Recent
rarities in retrospective Australiana
Unrecorded Grainger
A piece of music credited to Percy Grainger has been acquired through the collection of singer Frank Forrest. It is something of a mystery as it does not appear in any of the comprehensive, standard listings of Graingers works. Titled Choral Prayer, it is a two-page dyeline print copy.
It is scored for four voices. The title banner clearly credits Music Percy Grainger. The text is a prayer beginning Spirit Divine hear our prayer, open our hearts to receive thy word. Also appearing on the banner title is Sydney Central Meth. Mission Choir. This association is not unexpected as Frank Forrest was a regular soloist with the Sydney Central Methodist Mission Choir from the 1920s onwards. There is no date on the copy of the music. It may well be that Grainger originally wrote the music for a different purpose and it has been later used for the prayer. Any information on this piece is welcome: contact Ted Harley (Monograph Acquisitions and Cataloguing) on (02) 6262 1651.
Richard Stone
Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: gateways@nla.gov.au