 Grainger was a musical democrat ; he believed that in a performance each player 's role should be of equal importance . His elastic scoring technique was developed to enable groups of all sizes and combinations of instruments to give effective performances of his music . Experimentation is evident in Grainger 's earliest works ; irregular rhythms based on rapid changes of time signature were employed in Love Verses from " The Song of Solomon " ( 1899 ) , and Train Music ( 1901 ) , long before Stravinsky adopted this practice . In search of specific sounds Grainger employed unconventional instruments and techniques : <unk> , theremins , marimbas , musical glasses , harmoniums , banjos , and ukuleles . In one early concert of folk music , Quilter and Scott were conscripted as performers , to whistle various parts . In " Random Round " ( 1912 – 14 ) , inspired by the communal music @-@ making he had heard in the Pacific Islands on his second Australasian tour , Grainger introduced an element of chance into performances ; individual vocalists and instrumentalists could make random choices from a menu of variations . This experiment in " aleatory " composition presaged by many decades the use of similar procedures by avant @-@ garde composers such as Berio and Stockhausen . 
