Klarinet Archive - Posting 000349.txt from 1994/11

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re Conrad Josias' comments about Grainger's likes/dislikes
Date: Thu, 24 Nov 1994 15:30:14 -0500

Under no circumstances could either Beethoven or Mozart have been in
Grainger's like list. He hated them both and it broke my heart. I
once asked him that question directly and he said, with respect to
Mozart that "he is too tonic and dominant." I said nothing but
bit my lip.

He very much enjoyed Alban Berg and Stravinsky. But I got the shock of
my life when I asked him who he considered the greatest American
composer. His response was, "Without doubt, the greatest American
composer was Fickenscher." I was too embarassed to say that I didn't have
(and still don't have) the slightest idea who Fickenscher (first name,
Arthur) was or is. I never heard of him, never heard a piece by him,
don't know when he lived or where he lived or in what style he wrote. I
may not have spelled his last name correctly either.

Let me end my reminiscences of Grainger by giving you the details of one
that he told me about the English composer Frederick Delius.

Delius was dying of syphillis (just how does one spell that ugly word,
anyway?) and was paralyzed, and almost blind. He was incontinent and
soiled himself constantly but he was still composing by dictating his
music to an amanuensis, Eric Fenby who was living with the family
(Delius, his wife, and a maid) in France. He was working on Songs of
Summer with Fenby when Grainger arrived to visit him. Percy spent a
lot of time throwing a ball over the house and running through the house
to try and catch it as it came down the other side. This occupied him
as Fenby and Delius worked on Songs of Summer. Grainger said that it
took days to get just a few measures written down because of Delius'
illness and his difficulty in explaining anything. He would say, "Fenby,
I have a wonderful theme going on in my head and it goes like this:
la-la-la-la-la-la-la." And Fenby would say, "What key? What is the
first note? What instrument is playing? What clef? What is the
precise length of the first note? Is it tied or slurred to the second
note?" etc., etc., etc.

And Delius would become furious and say, "He can't do it. He doesn't
know anything about music." Delius was almost tone deaf and he was
also unable to sing very well since his nervous system was almost gone.
So he couldn't explain well and Fenby had to reduce everything to a
very precise structure which Delius could hardly do. He was not
a structured person to begin with. And being paralyzed, blind, and
incontinent had not improved him. His wife was at her wits end trying
to keep things going and having to live with the fact that Delius could
never keep his fly zipped whenever that was a woman around.

So Grainger decided that he was going to get this practically blind man
to see!! How's that for a goal? And one morning at 3 am, he picked up
Delius' frail, sickly body - which was probably less than 100 pounds by
that time - put him in a wheelbarrow and wheeled him to the top of a
nearby mountain (maybe a big hill). Grainger felt that the rising sun
would be enough light for Delius to see by and it was. Delius kept
bouncing around in the damn wheelbarrow saying "I can see the sun!"
And after about an hour or two until full light, Grainger wheeled him
down the side of the mountain again, bumping this poor incontinent
man so that he pissed all over himself, the wheelbarrow, and half of
France. But Grainger didn't care. He had gotten Delius to see and
it was the last thing he ever saw; i.e., the sun rising.

Percy left a few days later and shortly after Songs of Summer was
completed, Delius died. It was a tragic life, a tragic end. To
a great extent he is a forgotten man today, but what I have heard of
his music causes me to want to hear more, particularly Songs of Summer.

Strange story. Grainger pushing this syphlitic man up a mountain side
in a wheelbarrow at 3 am. Grotesque but at the same time very humane
and touching.

====================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
====================================

   
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