The Fates of music history have ever been fickle. This is especially true in the last thirty years, as the easy availability of sound sources—that is, the music itself—has placed under renewed scrutiny those inherited canons of greatness propagated in mid-century. At the time of his death, in 1961, Percy Grainger had every reason to believe that, despite a few well-known ‘pot-boilers’, he had failed to influence the course of ‘musical progress’ and would, at best, only be accorded footnote status in the history of music. Six years later, when presented with the first documentary study of Grainger's life and works, by the Australian composer Colin Brumby, a well-known London publisher caustically replied that ‘Grainger's contribution to music was rather slight’, that ‘any study or biography of him needs to have very special qualities’ and, moreover, that ‘its only possible appeal would be to the Australian market’. By century's end Grainger's footnote and geographical pigeonholing has turned out to be premature. Print, sound and film publications have now emerged to defy those mid-century assessments of his ultimate contribution to Music's course. Above all through the engaging qualities of Grainger's music, they have raised an increasing interest in the qualities of the extraordinary man himself.

Right from the start, Percy Grainger raised multiple problems of identity. Was he Australian, British or American? Born in 1882 in the British colony of Victoria, Australia, he had by 1895 moved to Germany to further his musical studies. In 1901 he determined to base his career as a pianist in London, but was persuaded by the onset of war in 1914 to move to New York, where he resided for the remainder of his life. In 1918 he became an American citizen, but persisted in identifying as an Australian national and, thereby, as a British subject. Grainger, however, looked to a broader, supranational affiliation. He saw himself as a member of the Nordic race, which to him was self-evidently the most talented and heroic race on earth. Through its pioneering zeal this race had spread further across the globe than any other, and had, he believed, a natural claim to world leadership, including in the arts.