MUSEUM OF MUSIC.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20919, 28 July 1933, Page 12

MUSEUM OF MUSIC.

MELBOURNE INNOVATION. MR PERCY GRAINGER'S GIFT. (FEOM OUB OWN COEE7.SPONDEHT.) SYDNEY, July 20. An innovation, as far as Australia is concerned at least, will be a museum of music, to be made possible by a gift from Mr Percy Grainger, the Australian composer, who has had such a successful career abroad. Mr Grainger is now in America, but he will visit Australia next month and will complete arrangements for the establishment of the museum. The museum will be erected in the grounds of the Melbourne University at Mr Grainger's expense, and the architecture and the nature of the exhibits will not be decided until Mr Grainger has had an opportunity of discussing such matters with interested parties. Mr Grainger intends to pay for the upkeep of the building, and in his will he will make provision for concerts at which his own works, and those of his contemporaries, will be kept before the public for an indefinite period. Sargent's charcoal portrait of Mr Grainger, now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and other paintings and drawings associated with music, will be placed in the museum. The piano .on which Mr Grainger practised in Melbourne from six years to 12 years, will be included in the exhibits as well as various instruments on which he made his first experiments or used at important first appearances. Mr Grainger is making arrangements whereby a wide variety of original musical manuscripts and relics will be preserved in the museum. In addition there will be records of English folk songs, Spanish gipsy music and Oriental, [Madagascar and South Seas music. Manuscripts of Grieg, the Norwegian composer, who for a number of years was a close friend of Mr Grainger, his watch, and other Griee relics will form a separate collection. As the museum grows in importance it is bound to attract a great deal of attention, and it is hoped that, eventually, the collection will be unique in the world.

Mr H. Kitson, chairman of the Christchurch Domains Board, speaking at the meeting of the Canterbury District Council of the New Zealand Institute of Horticulture last night, referred to the vist of the boys of Standard VI. from the Fendalton School to the Botanic Gardens and to the propagating houses, and said that the curator, Mr J. A. McPherson, made the hour very interesting to them. The scholars took notes of what they saw and were told, and the headmaster, Mr A. R. Blank, had said that they had been delighted with their visit. Mr Kitson thought that it would be a splendid thing for horticulture if the scholars in Standard VI. in other primary schools took advantage of the opportunity to go over the gardens. Mr McPherson said that it was as good as * or scholars, and they did not forget what they dnld ffl a hnna, *