Born in Australia, Percy Grainger grew up taking piano lessons from his mother and then later attended conservatory. He spent most of his adult life in America and Europe composing, conducting, and collecting English folk tunes. His good friend and fellow composer Edvard Grieg encouraged him to use wax-cylinder phonographs to record his folk tune collection, making him the first to do such a thing. Grainger was known to be quite eccentric. It is said that he carried his favorite piano stool around in a wheelbarrow and dressed in his own, unique way.
