I hadn't been to the Grainger Museum since it had been renovated so I went again and spent over an hour marveling at the strange collection that this composer and eccentric left to Melbourne. It is only a small museum but it is packed full of the curious exhibitions.
The Grainger Museum is half a biographical museum and half a music museum specializing in musical invention. It is the egotistical creation of a man who thought that he was a genius and wanted to leave a museum in his honor but he turned out to be just another talented eccentric.
Fortunately not all of Grainger's desire for the museum have been carried out; such as, his bequeathing his skeleton "for preservation and possible display in the Grainger Museum" and his stipulation that the museum be lite by "daylight only, and to contain no electric lighting or other lighting (to avoid fire danger)".
I don't know anything about Percy Grainger the musician but the museum is still very interesting as an uncensored display of the life of an early 20th century conductor. There is Percy Grainger's collections of whips (he was a masochist), his suit made of colorful beach towels, his experimental electronic instruments and his many other eccentric hobbies.
In tribute to Grainger's musical experimentation there is now a display of musical inventions - fantastic instruments made of leather. read more