Grainger the Modernist

Abstract

Grainger the Modernist Suzanne Robinson and Kay Dreyfus, eds. Farnham and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2015. xv + 270 pp. Illus. Music. Index. ISBN 978-1-4724-2022-0. 65.00 [pounds sterling]. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This volume is the published result of a conference that took place at the University of Melbourne in 2007. Featuring papers mainly from Australia-based scholars, it seeks to establish Percy Grainger's place in the history of 'modernism' in music. While most of the fourteen chapters deal with unrelated aspects of the composer's work, there is much of interest here for the folk music enthusiast, if only to shed more light on the fascinating life of this extraordinary man. Three chapters deal directly with Grainger's involvement with folk song. Graham Freeman discusses his approach to folk song collecting and its fundamental difference from that of the other contemporary collectors. Grainger's aim was not to preserve musical relics but to capture and analyse complete performances. In this he was, Freeman argues, anticipating by many years the development of ethnomusicology. Dorothy De Val contrasts Grainger's arrangements of folk songs with the 'watered Mendelssohn' approach of his predecessors. She analyses a number of his early folk song arrangements, made before he started collecting, and notes his use of unconventional chords and rhythms. Commenting on his influence on Benjamin Britten, she credits Grainger with inspiring a move away from the 'pastoral' approach to folk song arrangement. Grainger's contribution to musical modernism through folk song arrangements is the focus of Peter Tregear's chapter. In challenging accepted ideas and seeking fresh approaches, Grainger, he argues, tries to contrast superficial melodic qualities of tunes with deeper, underlying tensions. The composer valued his settings of 'Shepherd's Hey' and 'Molly on the Shore', for example, because 'there is so little gaiety & fun in them'. Tregear contends that Grainger's contributions merit much greater appreciation. Two further chapters examine Grainger's interest and involvement with folk song from other cultures. Graham Barwell describes his fascination with the music and culture of Polynesia. His visit to the area in 1909 was the start of a lifelong interest. He describes listening to the music of the Cook Islands as a 'treat equal to Wagner'. Barwell notes that Grainger regretted not having more time to spend on the analysis of his recordings, but reaffirms his consistently scientific approach. Peter Schimpf describes how Grainger set up a university course in New York that featured many of his folk music recordings, including those of the Lincolnshire singer Joseph Taylor. …