шш in review DISCOURSE OF THE OTHER - University of British ...

BOOKS IN REVIEWperformance life on their own momentum?Why did the 1929-30 United Statesperformances under Stokowski and Stocknot induce a dozen German orchestrasto play Sonia's music? Ideally, new worksought to become known by havingpleased score-exploring performers andunderstanding audiences, rather than by"marketing techniques." Too often thequestion "Who will do something tomake my music known?" becomes anobsession; egocentricity and bitternessare likely to result. In April 1942 Soniawrites :Until now, I was so naive as to believe thatone could go directly to a musician and themusic, good music, would speak for itself.But now I set aside that foolish misunderstandingonce and for all. You can onlyreach musicians the long way, eitherthrough extortion or through giving personaladvantage. But not just through themusic.One must not forget that each new compositioncompetes against a hundred contemporaryand a thousand established orrediscovered ones and that score-readingor comprehension after a single listeningopportunity is often extremely difficult.Fortunately there are enlightened performerswho do examine new scores andperform the ones they like, and since1942 national music centres have takenover many of the promotional and quasipublishingfunctions while internationaljuries for festivals or competitions andbroadcasting organizations provide ameasure of objective expert evaluation.A subject deserves either no biographyat all or at least two, one expressing thatperson's or an intimate's view of life"from within" and one, or more, providingsociety's view of the subject. AlthoughFerdinand Eckhardt goes someway to combining both approaches,there is a challenge for a musician andpsychologist to explore further along severalpaths. Obviously a critical guide tothe compositions is needed. And threecircumstances that must have had a profoundeffect on the shaping of Sonia'sgrowth as human being and artist deserveelucidation : her fatherless upbringing,her lack of schoolmates, and the delayof expert instruction or supervisionin composition until her middle thirties.Were these disadvantages turned intoassets, did they promote individualitywhile retarding self-control? One mightalso probe for an explanation why onlya minuscule part of her works are forvoice. Could this have something to dowith the fact she was never allowed tomature completely in the use of any onelanguage? English was her first and lastlanguage, French the language of herchildhood and conversation with hermother, but German, her daily environmentfor over 40 years, she had taken uponly as a teenager.The design of the book, with its boldprint and black leaves separating chapters,is very attractive. In addition to ashort list of works and recordings and anindex, there are six reproductions ofWalter Gramatté's pictures of his wife,30 photos from her childhood to heryears in Canada, and specimen pages ofher handwriting. Errors are few, butthree deserve mention: the cellist is EdwardBisha, not Edmund Bishe; Sir ErnestMacMillan's wife was Lady Elsie,not Louise; and Sonia's Berlin addressfor over 12 years was Neue Winterfeldtstrasse,not Wintersfeldt, an error repeatedseveral times. The book originallywas written in German, with all quotationsfrom letters, diaries, and other notesleft in the languages they were written in.The author's own translation into Englishwas then edited and condensed byGerald Bowler of the University of Manitobaand the Canadian Nazarene College.The condensation achieves a good balance;if there is one regret about the269