Items from our Heritage Collection
The first item on this new web page was referred to in our 2022 Auckland Heritage Festival concert on 13 October in Freemans Bay Community Hall. Further items from the Leys Orchestra heritage collection will be added in due course.
Percy Grainger Score
A score of 'Mock Morris' apparently autographed by the composer reads:
Harold Baxter, from Percy Grainger 30.3.36
Harold Baxter conducted the Leys Institute Orchestra from 1927 – when it was re-formed after a period of inactivity since the First World War – until 1935, when the orchestra again went into recess.
Percy Grainger was a virtuoso Australian pianist and an innovative composer and orchestrator. He toured New Zealand in 1903, 1924, 1926, 1934 and 1935, but not 1936. So how Harold Baxter obtained Grainger's score is unclear. How the score came to be added to our collection is also not known.
A comparison with autographs available on various web sites seems to show this is not Grainger's autograph, but rather Harold Baxter’s inscription on his copy of the score, which needs confirmation with an example of his hand-writing. It is also possible it was written by Grainger’s secretary, publisher or wife, on his behalf.
Examples of Grainger's autograph from 1908, 1920 and 1939.
