Garran was also involved with the arts; he was the vice-president of the Canberra Musical Society, where he sang and played the clarinet, and in 1946 won a national song competition run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.[1] Garran also published translations of Heinrich Heine's 1827 work Buch der Lieder ("Book of Songs") in 1924,[35] and of the works of Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann in 1946.[36]