Percy Grainger–speaks and plays (1948)

If we think of the popular music of today and compare it with that of the turn of the century

we will seek for some strong influence in the direction of greater delicacy and subtelty and 

I think Cyril Scott and Debussy are two of the clues. 

The chords that are used in jazz and swing today are the chords that are generally used in Cyril Scott and Debussey. And if we want one single instrument that turned music away from the late 19th century from the delicacy of 20th century music I think it is to be sorght in Debussy's admiration for the Javanese Gong Orchestras that he heard in Paris in 1888 you can hear very beautiful examples of that music in a volume of records called Music of the orient edited by Doctor Von Hornbustle I think it is put out by Decca. 

In that album of course you will hear music it is conceived for Debussey's staff was difficult to translate to our own kinds of instruments. It is not and exact transcription of what of what he heard from these orchestras in 1888. Some of the passages in it are European chords with some Oriental instruments.

Percy Grainger 1882-1961 was a multi-talented universalist who wanted to embrace and
encompass all the arts... he was not only a musician, but also a folklorist, editor, musicologist, lecturer, writer, inventor etc etc.

Playing the piano was just one of his many interests though he had enough skills to impress
Busoniand Grieg with his playing, and he had original ideas about phrasing, making contrasts and pedaling.

Here at we can hear him play Claude Debussy's "Pagodes" (from "Estampes") during a recital at the University of Texas in 1948. Before he plays he briefly talks about the influence of Oriental music on Debussy, notably the Javanese gamelan orchestras that Debussy heard for the first time during the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1888 (or 1889).