The New Percy Grainger Companion. Ed. by Penelope Thwaites.

Abstract

The most intriguing aspect of The New Percy Grainger Companion is not so much the diversity of authors and entries, but rather the assertions made on the dust jacket. Here, we learn that Grainger ‘is one of the least understood figures in musical history’. Is he? That ‘he was a man born out of his time’. Was he? And finally, that ‘many of his ideas, musical and social, sit far more easily in our contemporary world’. Do they? I’ll negotiate these tired clichés in due course, but for now it should suffice to acknowledge the contribution made by the book in offsetting (or at least working around) them. Whether or not there is some irony in this—what the book giveth the dust jacket taketh away—there remains a stimulating, if at times troublingly uncritical, collection of writings that coincides approximately with the fiftieth anniversary of Grainger’s death. Penelope Thwaites flags in the introduction that her intention was to encourage readers to ‘experience Grainger’s music—whether as executants, professional or amateur, or as involved listeners’ (p. 1, her emphasis). The approach taken is disarmingly pragmatic in that the essays, which steer clear of topics such as Grainger’s mother, wife, sexual proclivities, athleticism, and Blue-eyed English, are penned by an array of individuals who have come into contact with Grainger and his music in a range of professional capacities.