A Composer in Africa: Essays on the Life and Work of Stefans Grové, with an Annotated Work Catalogue and Bibliography (review)

What do you know about classical music from Africa? Can you name one composer from that continent? Have you heard any of the music on radio or television or at a concert? Here is a chance to become ever so slightly familiar with one composer who comes from Africa, studied at Harvard on a Fulbright, taught at Peabody, and returned to his native land to continue composing, using African elements in his musical and literary compositions.

Stefans Grové was born in 1922 in Bethlehem, Orange Free State of South Africa. He studied with his composer uncle D. J. Roode. After music studies in Cape Town, Grové went to Harvard on a Fulbright scholarship in 1953. While studying composition with Piston and Copland, he also took private lessons at the Longy School of Music with Boston Symphony Orchestra flutist James Pappoutsakis. After a "year stint" at Bard College, Grové taught composition at Peabody from 1956 to 1972. He spent his 1961 sabbatical at the University of Cape Town. In 1972 he returned to South Africa, taught at the University of Pretoria, retired in 1987, but continued to work part-time. He is now "Composer in Residence" there.

The book is written as a Festschrift, a series of essays to honor someone at a hallmark point in the person's career (in this case, his eightieth birthday). The essays take up less than seventy-five pages and reveal memories of a teacher, overall impressions, and individual recollections. Each essay is followed by endnotes. The remainder of the book is filled with a list of works, recordings, reviews, "The Hoofstad Sketches" (eight of Grové's short stories in Afrikaans), a bibliography, and an index of names. The bibliography lists five pages of articles Grové has written and twelve pages of concert reviews plus many more reviews for scores and recordings. Grové is "most likely to be remembered" as a music critic (p. 76). Possibly most interesting is the list of works which includes instrumentation and, occasionally, the story or inspiration for the music.

From these essays, or anecdotes, one gets an impression of his persona. He was quiet, shy, and made critical comments only at his students' private lessons. One student did not feel he received much guidance, but his compositions apparently pleased Prof. Grové because he made few suggestions about them. The final years at Peabody were not happy ones for Grové personally—he was going through a divorce; many writers commented that he seemed deeply depressed and withdrawn. Upon returning to Africa he found his stylistic "road to Damascus" and happiness with a new wife and family.

In the essay "Stefans Grové's narratives of lateness" there is a lengthy section about Adorno's comments on Beethoven and late style. I must agree with the author of this essay that to apply a theory from one composer to another "would rightly seem methodologically suspect and bound to lead to dubious conclusions" (p. 56). Muller then talks about Grové's String Quartet (1993) as his best example of "Africanness" fused with Western elements. The last essay, by Walton, discusses Grové's 1972 return to South Africa from a historical political perspective. He also attributes the return, his marriage, and his African style to be turning points in Grové's life; then makes comparisons with Bartók and Stravinsky and their use of folk materials. In this book one can find music examples of his timbre modulations, a detailed analysis of his Sonata on African Motifs for violin and piano (pp. 17–25), and the fable for Soul Bird, a trio for flute, cello, and piano (p. 25).

Observations are made by various contributors about Grové on racial issues. At his...