A re-opening

Grainger-philes have had their temple restored to them after a seven-year closure, with last night's re-opening of the Grainger Museum.  I remember hearing that water had been found running down the wall in one of the storerooms, which led to what was meant to be closure for a matter of weeks -- which became months, and, ultimately, years.  In 2003 I was working with one of the collections in the Grainger, and closure came as something of a glitch in the research programme.  Fortunately, the curators took care to ensure that the various collections would remain available to scholars through reading facilities in the Ballieu Library.

This is a unique institution, established by Percy Grainger in 1935.  If you visit the Museum's website you'll find out about the aims of the collection, which includes documenting Grainger himself, and almost every aspect of music.

Today there was a half-day symposium at Melba Hall, a highly stimulating manner in which to while away a Saturday morning.  One of the highlights of the symposium was the launch of a new online journal, Grainger Studies, which aims to promote interdisciplinary scholarship along the lines of Grainger's multifarious interests.

The exhibition in the Museum is excellent, and I cannot recommend it enough.  The aim of the present display is to give an overview of Grainger himself (right down to the extensive collection of whips), and his context.  An interesting little detail is in the area of relics: when Rose Grainger died, Percy catalogued the items in her handbag and preserved them.  Similarly, when Grainger himself died, Ella Grainger preserved and catalogued the contents of his bedside cabinet and sent them to the Museum.  Both of these are displayed in the museum, a touching glimpse at mundane items made significant by association with a moment in a person's life.

My latest "interesting-but-why?" pieces of trivia was the discovery that Grainger stood at the manly height of 168cm.  I am nearly 10cm taller -- yet have always considered Grainger to be a big man, given his fanatical physical training regime, and the sense one gets from images that he filled a lot of space.  Yet he was relatively short.  There's a life-size mannequin of Grainger in the exhibition at the Museum, which serves to illustrate his slight stature.

All I can say is this: if you are in Melbourne, go and visit the Grainger Museum.