Maestro

Plot

• Paul's growth to maturity throughout the novel. This is the main plot. An example from the novel of how Paul shows increasing maturity:
  • Paul starts his relationship with Rosie
  • As a result, his self-confidence increases
  • As a result, he is confident enough to give musical advice to Jimmy Papas.
  • As a result, he is invited into Rough Stuff, where Paul learns things that will affect him in later life (eg music to shit by)

Setting

• Setting is an important part of Maestro. The cartoon-like world is used by Goldworthy to set the mood of the story.
• Mostly set in Darwin, Wet, moist, humid. Implies strong emotion, and also sexuality.
• A town populated by men who had run as far as they could flee - Keller
• Contrast Keller in his dark room with the bright sunlight outside. Implies repressed emotions.

Contrasts within the Novel

• Paul and Rosie's Uni choices: Law and Music are stereotypically masculine, Medicine is more caring and thus more stereotypically feminine. Ties in with Goldworthy's attack on masculinity.
• Sensual vs Intellectual.
  • Sensuality represented in the environment: wet, moist, humid. CF to another quote from the novel: Sweet, sticky glue of sex.
  • Intellectuality represented by Vienna. We see Adelaide as aspiring to European values, and Darwin as harshly rejecting those values. Keller sees through the facade of Vienna and has moved to Darwin.
  • "Mangoes and Mozart," he joked. "Now that's living."
  • Keller:
    • Unable to come to terms with his emotions after a tragedy for which he feels responsible.
    • Important quote: We mustnot make the mistake of confusing music with emotion.
    • Paul: He hates the Romantics... Empty rhetoric vs Heinisch: He liked to entertain... a big, strong sound
  • Paul:
    • Coming to terms with his sexuality, has difficulty balancing the two.
    • When Keller finally opens up to Paul, he leaves: I should have stayed... the aroused, sexual present overwhelmed the past
  • Paul's Parents:
    • The distinction is not a clear-cut as this, but Mr Crabbe steers towards the intellectual, Mrs Crabbe to the sensual. Paul: In these painings of opposites I have always put my father first - does Paul value intellect over sense as well? From his final attitude to Megan it would seem so.
  • Other characters:
    • Megan and Rosie epitomise intellect vs sense.
    • Generally the adults seem intellectual (Keller is the extreme example), however the important thing is that adults have struck a balance between sense and intellect - something which Paul, with Rosie, eventually manages.
• Facade vs Reality
  • The external beauty of European cities vs the corruption and atrocities committed there. Old Vienna vanished long ago... it was demolished into a Great City. Also Australia's vain attempts to imitate European culture: Paul's mother feeding Keller weiner schnitzel and sauerkraut, for example.
  • The mystery surrounding Keller vs the real man. There are several mentions of Keller as a paradox: The suit, white linen, freshly pressed vs a cheap, ruined leather.
  • Illustration of this theme when Keller visits the Crabbe household.
    An excellent forgery," he said.
    "I'm sorry?"
    "Technically perfect."
    [...]
    [a reproduction of a]"Van Gogh. A fascinating art work. Each violent brushstroke was reproduced with painstaking, non-violent care[...] it was technically better than the original... And yet something was missing. Not much, but something [...] And it may as well have been everything."
  • Keller:
    • Must atone for his inablilty to distinguish between facade and reality: Who would harm the wife of Eduard Keller? and These murderers [...] I had signed their concert programmes.
  • Paul:
    • Paul leaves when Keller is finally prepared to talk about his past. Only now, I can recognise that scene for what it was: a confessional...
  • Megan:
    • Unable to make the distinction. Develops no skill, but cultivates the image of a sex object. Has no future. Perhaps the most tragic character in the novel, as she never develops. Even Keller finally reconciles himself with the world, but Megan is "stuck in a rut".
• Paul's parents: When I think of my parents I see only polarities. Hard, and soft. Fair, and dark. Thick, and thin...

Major Themes

• The difference between competence and virtuosity: That last "littleness" was impossible to bridge: a tiny gulf that was the sum of a million infinitestimal differences.
• Facing up to reality
  • Who would harm the wife of Eduard Keller?
  • By the end of the novel, Paul has still not attained the perfection he strives for - he was unable to recognise that he could not be a virtuoso.
• The power of Art. If you want people to believe your lies, set them to music - Keller.
• Emotion vs Reason. See also "sensual vs intellectual", in "Contrasts", above.
• Love vs Lust. IE, Paul's relationship with Rosie vs Paul's relationship with Megan. The former grows because it is based on more than sex. Paul eventually realises Megan is unsatisfying because she provides no emotional or intellectual stimulation.
• Masculinity. Goldsworthy attacks some traditional markers of masculinity.
  • Tattoos: Rick Whitely and Jimmy Papas both get tatoos. The two "weakest" characters in the book prove their masculinity in this way. Also contrast these tattoos with the tattooed numbers forced upon both Keller and Heinisch in the Nazi concentration camps.
  • Paul's relationship with his father:
    • Paul: Surprised to find the idea of me fighting impressed him...
    • Mrs Crabbe: Your father never had your opportunities...without any regard for Paul, Mr Crabbe forces Music on to Paul - he is determined to make Paul the musician he could never be.
    • Physical violence:Buttons popped...
  • Keller's mark of atonement: his missing finger.

Structure

• Musical structure. The chapter "Intermezzo" is a brief change of pace, as it is in music. Also Keller's scrawled "Libretto" (the lyrics to an opera) on his newspaper-clipping "textbook".
• Poetic. Goldsworthy is primarily a poet and the style is like that of poetry - compressed and vivid. First impressions? Misleading, of course...
• There is some character parallel between Paul and Eduard Keller, although it is not very strong.

Some general quotes

• Mangoes and Mozart... now that's living (Mr Crabbe)
• Old Vienna vanished long ago... it was demolised into a Great City (Keller)
• When I think of my parents I see only polarities... Thick and thin, hard and soft. (Paul)
• In these pairings of opposites I have always put my father first. (Paul)
• The suit, white linen, freshly pressed (Paul, of Keller)
• A cheap, ruined leather (Paul, of Keller's skin)
• We must not make the mistake of confusing music with emotion (Keller)
• An excellent forgery... technically perfect (Keller, of Paul's playing)
• I loathe newspapers... the goite of the world... but we must study the goiter (Keller)
• That last "littleness" was impossible to bridge: a tiny gulf that was the sum of a million infinitestimal differences (Paul)
• Who would harm the wife of Eduard Keller? (Keller)
• If you want people to believe your lies, set them to music (Keller)
• Of course he sounded better. He had the better piano (Paul, of Keller)
• A vast croaking, rustling, crawling abundance (Paul, of the Darwin environment)
• You've been like a father to me (Paul, to Keller)

Some Essay Questions

HSC, 199- (?) (Single Novel question)

If we were discussing the same man, how different our two versions.

Of perhaps I was mistaken. Perhaps they were not the same man, in a sense.

Perhaps his Keller had died long before mine was born.

"Paul's view of Keller grows and develops throughout the novel but remains incomplete even at the end"

Do you agree?

HSC, 1997 (Two Novels question)

"The most effective endings lead us to think again about what we have finised reading".

Discuss the endings of TWO of the novels you have studied, commenting on their effectiveness.

HSC, 1997 (Single Novel question)

"What Maestro shows us is that failure can be success"

What do you think? Give reasons.

Non-HSC

"A beautifully crafted novel with dealing with the tragic gulf between talent and genius; between the real and the spurious."

Discuss this opinion of Maestro.