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Arnold Schoenberg's Journey (review)

the book. For here, in abundance, are demonstrated the human qualities of passionate enthusiasm, joyful exuberance, giftedness, physical strength, charm, warmth, and kindness (Hulda Garborg, pp. 63 and 77). The man himself was what attracted people, writes his colleague and helper Burnett Cross (p. 178). Over and again one reads how Grainger would take over a situation and dominate by sheer force of personality and energy—a kind of egotism almost, but one which is offset by his courtesy, charm, and sheer zestfulness. The book offers many valuable insights into Grainger’s individual qualities as performer, teacher, composer, and conductor, and reveals both the strengths and limitations of his innovative attitudes towards music. There are some careful descriptions of his technique at the piano, none more memorable perhaps than John Douglas Todd’s observation that, “On the keyboard, at least, his motto was ‘live dangerously’ ” (p. 149). Apocryphal stories abound, some familiar, some very funny. I loved the description of the children of the Crooks family watching enraptured as Grainger lined up his peas on his dinner knife and then slid them, without losing a single one, into his mouth (p. 114). There is very little in the book that is negative, for it radiates with the affection Grainger inspired in the people he met. Perhaps for that reason, the shadows, when they fall, are all the more disturbing. Of his father’s behavior in the family, for example, his governess Medidney simply says “there are some things one cannot talk about” (p. 8). Antonia Sawyer’s moving account of the events of Rose Grainger’s suicide is reproduced here (pp. 99–103), but there is nothing of its cause or the painful events leading to it. It is clear that Grainger’s friends knew nothing of his sexual proclivities—it is hardly surprising perhaps that he maintained a careful separation of his public and private faces. In the section devoted to the early American years, a counterpoint develops between Grainger’s splendid successes and a deep anxiety arising from his defection from England as war was declared. The bitterness of Robin Legge’s very public recriminations (pp. 86–89) is truly startling in this context. The editors, Malcolm Gillies and David Pear, are to be congratulated on another fine contribution to Grainger scholarship.