A Free Music Machine?

What is that strange object in the dining room of the Percy Grainger Home & Studio at 7 Cromwell Place? It looks like a pile of junk (an early effort at "reduce, reuse, recycle" perhaps?) loosely tied together, waiting for the trashman.

In fact, it is a small model of Percy Grainger's biggest idea, the Free Music Machine, a device to produce music that was like the sounds of the real world, unconstrained by conventional pitch and rhythm. Designed in the last years of his life, he felt that it was his "only important contribution to music."

The early Free Musci Machine will be front and center at the opening of the Percy Grainger Society's latest exhibit, "Tone Rhythm Pitch: Exploring Percy Grainger's Free Music," at the Percy Grainger Home & Studio, 7 Cromwell Place in White Plains. This exhibit opening will take place, from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, September 14, 2023, and run through March 2024.

Percy Grainger occupied 7 Cromwell Place for forty years, using it (among his many activities) as his laboratory for his experimental music machines. Drawing inspiration from the sounds of nature, Grainger's lifetime passion was Free Music. From an early age, he imagined music that would glide continuously across the pitch spectrum, without the need for metrical rhythms and, ultimately, without the need for a performer; the composers’ ideas would be translated directly into sound.

Through original photos, images, and artifacts, the exhibition highlights how the White Plains home functioned as a creative workshop, illuminates Grainger’s methods and ideas, and celebrates the collaboration with both his wife, Ella Grainger, and Burnett Cross.

West Point Clarinet Quartet performance

As special guests, we are thrilled to announce that the clarinet quartet from West Point Academy will be our special guests. Their performance is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and we are sure they will pay homage to Grainger's experimental spirit.

We look forward to welcoming you to the opening of "Tone Rhythm Pitch: Exploring Percy Grainger's Free Music." Registration is encouraged.

“Third Sunday” Tour

This Sunday, September 17, 2023 at 2 pm, the Percy Grainger Society President, Dr. Paul Jackson, will be leading a tour focused on the exhibition. Percy Grainger and Free Music will offer a closer look at Grainger’s approach to and work on Free Music. The presentation will be centered around the newly-conserved Gliding Tones on Whistle, Notes on Recorders machine, one of only two remaining examples of Grainger's Free Music machines. This event is free and open to the public, but due to space limitations, registration is requested.

The exhibition remains at the Percy Grainger Home and Studio until March 6, 2024. In addition to scheduled tours, visitors can view the exhibit on "Walk-In Wednesdays”. Please visit our website for more information.

The Percy Grainger Home & Studio is a significant local landmark associated with the life and work of Australian-born Percy Grainger (1882-1961): a composer, pianist, arranger, music world celebrity of his time and larger-than-life figure with an unusually fascinating personality. For forty years, from 1921 until his death in 1961, Grainger occupied the house at 7 Cromwell Place, using it as his home base for his world tours, practice studio (there are three pianos inside), and laboratory for his avant-garde musical compositions and experimental music machines. It is owned and maintained by the Percy Grainger Society, White Plains, New York.