SKELETON IN THE MUSEUM
ABC 2003
Radio inside a Violin: A gift to Jon Rose by the marketing department of WDR Cologne
  • His production was produced privately after ABC management's destruction of The Listening Room in 2003. The composition won the Karl Sczuka Prize at the Donaueschingen Festival 2004.
  • Performed by The Blisters Ensemble - an Australian group that has pioneered the use of interactive, do-it-yourself electronics in live performance, in many respects taking Grainger's imaginative ideas and developing them further. They are Jon Rose, Rainer Linz, Tom Fryer, Joanne and Stuart Favilla. Together they spent several days at the Grainger Museum exploring the archives, unpublished recordings, and instruments.
  • Robert Menzies acted out the voice and thoughts of Grainger
  • Production by Jon Rose

The title refers to composer Percy Grainger's desire to have his skeleton exhibited in his own museum which lies in the grounds of Melbourne University. After his death in 1961, the authorities turned the request down citing reasons of public health and decency.

Percy Grainger was one of the great mavericks of 20th century music, coming up with notions of free music, beatless music and, with the help of Burnett Cross in his home at White Plains New York, inventing machines out of industrial waste that were capable of realising this music -utilising a set of musical aesthetics, such as gliding tones, which have become part of the language of contemporary music. Those budding DJs amongst you might like to know that Grainger was also a pioneer in the use of recording machines as musical instruments - documenting and transcribing (if not transforming) the folk music of Oceania, Scandinavia and Britain onto disc only shortly after the invention of the medium.

Some of the following broadcast contains themes of an adult nature which some listeners may find offensive. There is also the first broadcast of a song by Ella Grainger, Percy's long suffering wife and S&M partner.

What's New

March 2023
'Beak' - Kronos Quartet plays the world premiere, a composition based on the song of a Pied Butcherbird by Jon Rose and Hollis Taylor.
Adelaide Festival
July 2022
'Fringe Benefits 1977​-​1985' - Historic glimpses of Improvised and Experimental Music in Australia; making available recordings from the original vinyl and cassette catalogue on Fringe Benefits.
bandcamp
May 2021
'State of Play' titles my double album featuring duo improvisations and recent projects with a cast of great collaborators...out now!
ReR Recommended Records, London
May - October 2021
'Whistling in the Dark' embraces a set of duets between various pied butcherbirds (from field recordings in outback Australia) and virtuosic human musicians (in home lockdown) performing transcriptions of this extraordinary avian music.
On Line Project available September
November 2021 - Premiere
'Mendel's Mix' - A commission for Brno Contemporary Orchestra. Finally after many Covid-19 delays, the work is performed. Inspired by the 'father' of genetics, Johann Gregor Mendel, and based on the structure of DNA, you can mix your own version here.
Brno, Czech Republic
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