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Percy Grainger
John Bird's acclaimed biography of the Australian-born composer and pianist Percy Grainger gives the first full account of the life and works of one of the strangest figures in twentieth-century music. Behind Grainger's highly original compositional achievements, folksong collecting, and glittering career as a virtuoso concert pianist lay a tragic and chaotic personal life--long domination by his mother, unorthodox sexual predilections, an eccentric athleticism, a demonic spiritual drive, and a wildly inconsistent personal philosophy with Anglo-Saxon obsessions such as his famous "Blue-Eyed English." A list of published compositions, a current discography of performances by Grainger, and a selection of his seminal writings complete what has already proved to be a standard work.
This fully revised edition includes much new biographical material from John Bird's continuing research. Grainger's reputation and popularity as a uniquely individual composer continue to grow, and this book remains the definitive biography.
This fully revised edition includes much new biographical material from John Bird's continuing research. Grainger's reputation and popularity as a uniquely individual composer continue to grow, and this book remains the definitive biography.
379 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1976
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January 12, 2012
I'm reading this book in preparation for an upcoming doctoral audition. In the process, I'm learning some things about myself. Namely, in some small way, why I "am the way I am."
I last read this book when I was a sophomore in college. Now...imagine being a sophomore in a music ed program, and reading things like this, being written about your "favorite" composer ("Favorite" being the understatement of the century. Grainger is and has been since I was about 15 "the composer" as far as I'm concerned. He's the reason I'm a wind conductor and could hardly care less about most orchestral music.):
"His own relentless pursuit of what he felt to be the truth created many friends and ardent admirers as well as a few enemies and fierce detractors."
"However obscure they might at first appear to be, there is an infinity of links between a composer's musical odyssey and the surrounding, non-musical events, ideas, experiences and circumstances in his life."
"The fruits of his teeming intellect and imagination present the students at times with glaring inconsistencies and infuriating and perhaps unanswerable questions."
"In trying to understand how and why music is created, of course, some would say that formal musical analysis has its applications and for some this is the key to the kingdom of heaven. But this presents the dangerous notion that what we can dismantle and measure we can also understand - especially if the tools used to do this is a language so inelegant and obscure that hardly anyone outside the inner halls of academe can comprehend it."
"This writer, at least, has no truck with such twaddle so frequently and fraudulently sold to us by the psychologists, music theorists and musicologists and any number of other 'ists' under the banner of 'scholarly objectivity.'"
"Ignoring someone is far more dangerous than hating them and that, to a great extent, is what happened to the subject of this book."
"It is also true that he was one of a whole galaxy of composers whose musics were perhaps just too [damned] enjoyable to be taken seriously by university egg-heads."
"He was similarly disadvantaged inasmuch as he had a connoisseur's ear for a thundering good tune and perhaps this is too easy and comfortable a handle to offer a casual listener who might otherwise be willing to make a deeper exploration of the complex rhythmic structures and the enormously skilful contrapuntal delights that lurk beneath the beguiling melodies and toe-tapping rhythms."
"It is strange to reflect that it is often the slow, sentimental and seemingly easiest of his works that are given the most uninspired and ropy performances. The truth is that, beneath the attractive veneer, much of Grainger's music, particularly the slow pieces, consists of tough, forceful and intricately thought-out musical argument that absolutely demands and artistic investment of matching weight from the performers to bring off a successful performance."
"They appeared unable to reflect upon or discuss any aspect of music or musical history without carrying around with them the baggage of an immutable 'hierarchy of excellence' engraved in stone (most probably by God) starting at the top with their unapproachable and awesome 'great' composers who produced 'serious' music and trickling down to the irredeemably disadvantaged 'minor' composers at the bottom who produced 'light' music. And it would never occur to them that anyone might challenge these labels and lists or even wish to dispense with them altogether. What would they prescribe, for example, for some poor, contemptible soul who disliked or was bored by the music of one of their 'great' composers and who loved and admired the music of one of their 'minor' composers? Would they suggest that they throw themselves under a London Transport omnibus?"
"The basic questions must be asked therefore, what does this term 'serious' mean when applied in the realm of music? If the word is so thoughtlessly over-used that it has lost all its potency, then why use it at all? Is it not already meaningless? As it is presently used, it speaks of a kind of elitism and tells us far more about the person who used it that the piece of music it so inadequately is supposed to describe."
"Why, one is forced to ask, is the duration of a piece of music generally reckoned to be the measure of its excellence, its worth, its emotional content, or a testament to the amount of love, skill, craftsmanship or sheer hard work that was invested in it by the composer?"
"It is a source of profound sadness to observe that most of what I see as these absolutist and therefore false values which have constantly bedeviled an honest and fair assessment of the music of Grainger (and many others) and which have hastened the removal of these composers to the peripheries of musical history are born of and enshrined in the dogmas laid down in the Music Departments of our Universities."
"Grainger was a visionary. He was also a maverick, an outsider, an anarchist with a thousand bees in his bonnet and in thrall to no 'cause' or leadership but his own."
"Could it be that their failure to find a convenient label for him threatens to expose their absurd analytical procedures as being the rag-bag of time-wasting and useless intellectual party-tricks that they are? Could it be that these 'experts' know so much about music that they can no longer enjoy it? Would the world of music be a happier and healthier place if these university departments were to be burnt to the ground (having salvaged the libraries first) and their staff put out to doing something useful like sweeping streets or cleaning out toilets?"
Yeah...and these are just from the preface. While this chain of quotes may mean nothing to you, for me they reveal a great deal about why I myself have such "maverick" and democratic ideals when it comes to music. At a young, impressionable time in my development as a musician, when I was just beginning to formulate these ideals, I read this book and completed a rather intense study of Grainger - all of which served as validation. Regardless of what your ideals are, this is powerful (and perhaps dangerous) stuff. My master's program was a particularly miserable time because I studied in a department where the "elitism" that Byrd describes was paramount. I feel like I spent three years doing nothing but compiling an all-encompassing list of what is "serious" (and therefore "good") music and what isn't. Pretty horrifying for someone who has such an unsophisticated and simple belief such as mine, being that if music impacts the listener in a permanent way, it is good.
Here are some more thoughts from within the text itself:
Grainger always considered his "only true composition teacher" to be Karl Klimsch, with whom he studied in Frankfurt from the time he was around 13 until they left for London when he was about 19. Klimsch was an amateur musician who Grainger went to after leaving the "professional" teachers at the Hoch Conservatory. He describes Klimsch's theory of composition thus: "If you have no theme or melody in your head, don't compose at all. If you have a theme or melody, start off with it right away and the moment your melodic inspiration runs out stop your piece. No prelude, no interlude, no postlude, just the pith of the music all the time."
A couple more of Grainger's thoughts on his music:
"Out of this World of violence, war, cruelhood & tragedy, my longing to compose arose. Many children are cruel to animals & many little boys harsh to little girls, but this fierceness wanes as they grow up. But I never grew up in this respect & fierceness is the keynote of my music..."
"The object of my music is not to entertain but to agonize - to make mankind think of the agony of young men forced to kill each other against their will & all the other thwartments & torturings of the young."
From Grainger's "Note to Conductors:"
"I do not even care whether the players are skilful or unskilful, as long as they play well enough to sound the right intervals and keep the afore-said tonal balance - as long as they play badly enough to still enjoy playing ('Where no pleasure is, there is no profit taken' - Shakespeare)"
(About his "elastic scoring"): "It is intended to play its part in weaning music students away from too much useless, goalless, soulless, selfish, inartistic soloistic technical study, intended to coax them into happier, richer musical fields - for music should be essentially and art of self-forgetful, soul-expanding communistic cooperation in harmony and many-voicedness."
Now on to two consecutive volumes of Grainger's letters - or as I call them, "Grainger Uncensored."
I last read this book when I was a sophomore in college. Now...imagine being a sophomore in a music ed program, and reading things like this, being written about your "favorite" composer ("Favorite" being the understatement of the century. Grainger is and has been since I was about 15 "the composer" as far as I'm concerned. He's the reason I'm a wind conductor and could hardly care less about most orchestral music.):
"His own relentless pursuit of what he felt to be the truth created many friends and ardent admirers as well as a few enemies and fierce detractors."
"However obscure they might at first appear to be, there is an infinity of links between a composer's musical odyssey and the surrounding, non-musical events, ideas, experiences and circumstances in his life."
"The fruits of his teeming intellect and imagination present the students at times with glaring inconsistencies and infuriating and perhaps unanswerable questions."
"In trying to understand how and why music is created, of course, some would say that formal musical analysis has its applications and for some this is the key to the kingdom of heaven. But this presents the dangerous notion that what we can dismantle and measure we can also understand - especially if the tools used to do this is a language so inelegant and obscure that hardly anyone outside the inner halls of academe can comprehend it."
"This writer, at least, has no truck with such twaddle so frequently and fraudulently sold to us by the psychologists, music theorists and musicologists and any number of other 'ists' under the banner of 'scholarly objectivity.'"
"Ignoring someone is far more dangerous than hating them and that, to a great extent, is what happened to the subject of this book."
"It is also true that he was one of a whole galaxy of composers whose musics were perhaps just too [damned] enjoyable to be taken seriously by university egg-heads."
"He was similarly disadvantaged inasmuch as he had a connoisseur's ear for a thundering good tune and perhaps this is too easy and comfortable a handle to offer a casual listener who might otherwise be willing to make a deeper exploration of the complex rhythmic structures and the enormously skilful contrapuntal delights that lurk beneath the beguiling melodies and toe-tapping rhythms."
"It is strange to reflect that it is often the slow, sentimental and seemingly easiest of his works that are given the most uninspired and ropy performances. The truth is that, beneath the attractive veneer, much of Grainger's music, particularly the slow pieces, consists of tough, forceful and intricately thought-out musical argument that absolutely demands and artistic investment of matching weight from the performers to bring off a successful performance."
"They appeared unable to reflect upon or discuss any aspect of music or musical history without carrying around with them the baggage of an immutable 'hierarchy of excellence' engraved in stone (most probably by God) starting at the top with their unapproachable and awesome 'great' composers who produced 'serious' music and trickling down to the irredeemably disadvantaged 'minor' composers at the bottom who produced 'light' music. And it would never occur to them that anyone might challenge these labels and lists or even wish to dispense with them altogether. What would they prescribe, for example, for some poor, contemptible soul who disliked or was bored by the music of one of their 'great' composers and who loved and admired the music of one of their 'minor' composers? Would they suggest that they throw themselves under a London Transport omnibus?"
"The basic questions must be asked therefore, what does this term 'serious' mean when applied in the realm of music? If the word is so thoughtlessly over-used that it has lost all its potency, then why use it at all? Is it not already meaningless? As it is presently used, it speaks of a kind of elitism and tells us far more about the person who used it that the piece of music it so inadequately is supposed to describe."
"Why, one is forced to ask, is the duration of a piece of music generally reckoned to be the measure of its excellence, its worth, its emotional content, or a testament to the amount of love, skill, craftsmanship or sheer hard work that was invested in it by the composer?"
"It is a source of profound sadness to observe that most of what I see as these absolutist and therefore false values which have constantly bedeviled an honest and fair assessment of the music of Grainger (and many others) and which have hastened the removal of these composers to the peripheries of musical history are born of and enshrined in the dogmas laid down in the Music Departments of our Universities."
"Grainger was a visionary. He was also a maverick, an outsider, an anarchist with a thousand bees in his bonnet and in thrall to no 'cause' or leadership but his own."
"Could it be that their failure to find a convenient label for him threatens to expose their absurd analytical procedures as being the rag-bag of time-wasting and useless intellectual party-tricks that they are? Could it be that these 'experts' know so much about music that they can no longer enjoy it? Would the world of music be a happier and healthier place if these university departments were to be burnt to the ground (having salvaged the libraries first) and their staff put out to doing something useful like sweeping streets or cleaning out toilets?"
Yeah...and these are just from the preface. While this chain of quotes may mean nothing to you, for me they reveal a great deal about why I myself have such "maverick" and democratic ideals when it comes to music. At a young, impressionable time in my development as a musician, when I was just beginning to formulate these ideals, I read this book and completed a rather intense study of Grainger - all of which served as validation. Regardless of what your ideals are, this is powerful (and perhaps dangerous) stuff. My master's program was a particularly miserable time because I studied in a department where the "elitism" that Byrd describes was paramount. I feel like I spent three years doing nothing but compiling an all-encompassing list of what is "serious" (and therefore "good") music and what isn't. Pretty horrifying for someone who has such an unsophisticated and simple belief such as mine, being that if music impacts the listener in a permanent way, it is good.
Here are some more thoughts from within the text itself:
Grainger always considered his "only true composition teacher" to be Karl Klimsch, with whom he studied in Frankfurt from the time he was around 13 until they left for London when he was about 19. Klimsch was an amateur musician who Grainger went to after leaving the "professional" teachers at the Hoch Conservatory. He describes Klimsch's theory of composition thus: "If you have no theme or melody in your head, don't compose at all. If you have a theme or melody, start off with it right away and the moment your melodic inspiration runs out stop your piece. No prelude, no interlude, no postlude, just the pith of the music all the time."
A couple more of Grainger's thoughts on his music:
"Out of this World of violence, war, cruelhood & tragedy, my longing to compose arose. Many children are cruel to animals & many little boys harsh to little girls, but this fierceness wanes as they grow up. But I never grew up in this respect & fierceness is the keynote of my music..."
"The object of my music is not to entertain but to agonize - to make mankind think of the agony of young men forced to kill each other against their will & all the other thwartments & torturings of the young."
From Grainger's "Note to Conductors:"
"I do not even care whether the players are skilful or unskilful, as long as they play well enough to sound the right intervals and keep the afore-said tonal balance - as long as they play badly enough to still enjoy playing ('Where no pleasure is, there is no profit taken' - Shakespeare)"
(About his "elastic scoring"): "It is intended to play its part in weaning music students away from too much useless, goalless, soulless, selfish, inartistic soloistic technical study, intended to coax them into happier, richer musical fields - for music should be essentially and art of self-forgetful, soul-expanding communistic cooperation in harmony and many-voicedness."
Now on to two consecutive volumes of Grainger's letters - or as I call them, "Grainger Uncensored."
November 30, 2014
This was really interesting. As a person who attends a lot of band concerts, it was fun to learn about this composer and his place in musical history. It really adds to my appreciation of his music.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews