Andromeda’s Strains
Review in yesterday’s NYT of a novel called The Spanish Bow by a Chicago-born, Alaska-domiciled writer with the unlikely name of Andromeda Romano-Law. The teaser is this: “In a dusty, turn-of-the-century Catalan village, the bequest of a cello bow sets young Feliu Delargo on the unlikely path of becoming a musician.”
Reminds me that I don’t think we’ve done a list of novels in which music, or musical instruments, have played a key role. I’ll start the list with the distinctly unfriendly to the little people Annie Proulx’s Accordian Crimes. Who’s next?
Alex Ross already said “Doktor Faustus”, so my contribution will be…
Louise Erdrich “The Painted Drum”.
Haven’t even finished it yet, but it has the signature Erdrich elements of Native American-flavored dream mythology, layered onto real world storytelling. That drum talks to you, all by itself!
Just finished reading Europe Central, by Bill Vollmann. Shostakovich is the primary figure in the book. Whole sections with the 8th Str. Quartet and other pieces as motifs and references.
Now I’m reading Mardew Czgowchwz, by James McCourt, about opera divas and a very late-40s, early-50s New York. “There was some fainting, but it was controlled.”
opps … I had also meant to add that I recall finding Paolo Maurensig’s “Canone Inverso”, from 1999, quite haunting and affecting. (I have not read Maxence Fermine’s The Black Violin nor Barbara Quick’s Vivaldi’s Virgins.)
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The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald is also a very fine quasi-musical small book (about the poet Friedrich Hölderin) which makes a fine small gift.
Thanks Reena for the correction!
Did we miss Robertson Davies “The Lyre of Orpheus”, which has as its protagonist a (female) composer?
Like Randall Jarrell’s “Pictures from an Institution,” I recall that it skewers the later 20th c. academic world — as well as the seemingly all-powerful later 20th c. foundation world.
James M Cain’s Serenade – which was pretty forgettable, to tell the turth. Thopugh to fans it’s of interest as it’s a very “personal” novel – he was a wannabe opera singer before becoming a crime writer. But it’s no Double Indemnity or Postman Always Rings Twice – though I suppose few books are.
Hmm… there’s no dearth of novels and stories about down-on-their-luck musicians. Tom Piazza’s Burn Me Up – a story in his collection Blues and Trouble – is coming to mind.
There’s Anne Rice’s Violin, though it’s interminably awful.
What else… Carson McCullers’ The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter is sort of about a musician, though music isn’t it’s primary subject matter or anything.
Does Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity count?
“The Samplist” by Francis Ellen.
It’s a self-published novel that managed to get reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement, and it comes with music created by the characters in the book.
I’m a little surprised that no one has mentioned Proust yet – though much of the first book of _In Search of Lost Time_ especially hinges on the narrator’s response to hearing a musical work (inspired by Franck, I believe). It’s not about compositon, of course, but rather about the ineffable connection between music and memory. For me it’s at least as remarkable an evocation of what music is and does as _Doctor Faustus_.
I liked “An Equal Music” and I agree about “The Time of Our Singing.” I also agree that “Doctor Faustus” probably wins the prize. It’s striking to me that by writing about music, he cracked the problem of, as it were, the play within the play. Whenever you see in a movie a play or a movie (fictional) that they’re doing, it’s invariably terrible. Also true, I think, of books in books. In Doctor Faustus he can describe the music and the descriptions are wonderful, and I guess the music is too, but we don’t have to (can’t) find out otherwise.
It isn’t about music, but my recollection of Point Counterpoint by Huxley is that it has wonderful writing about music in it. For that matter I really like the scene in Howard’s End where they’re at the concert with the Beethoven 5th Symphony (it got hideously represented in the movie).
Not a book, but my brother showed me an advertisement for a video game about Chopin (!?). It doesn’t have much to do with a piano or the composer, from what I can tell.
I believe it’s called “An Equal Music” by Vikram Seth. Regardless, it is definitely the first book I thought of when this question was posed. I would never have been able to tell he wasn’t well versed in music before writing the book — it is one of my favorite novels.
“The Loser” by Thomas Berrnhard. A book “about” three friends, one of them is Glenn Gould, in the year 1953. Only Glenn Gould succeeds. It is more of a book-length rant on one idea.
The Ground Beneath Her Feet, by Salman Rushdie was pretty good, totally overblown. Was going to mention Doktor Faustus but that was written like 80 years ago! If we’re going to go back that far he’s something every weird modernist should love. H.P. Lovecraft’s short story, The Music of Erich Zann: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Music_of_Erich_Zann
I’ve never read Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time (it’s twelve volumes) but I understand that the character Hugh Moreland is based on Constant Lambert. I haven’t heard a lot of Lambert but what I have heard is very good.
Thomas Mann’s “Doctor Faustus,” anyone? For me, the most remarkable book ever written about music, fiction or non-fiction. There’s E. T. A. Hoffmann, of course. I have started reading Romain Rolland’s “Jean Christophe,” though it is slow going.
I strongly, strongly recommend Randall Jarrell’s “Pictures from an Institution” to anyone who hasn’t read it. It’s a brilliant, convulsively funny satire of academic life at mid-century. The characters include an emigre Austrian composer named Gottfried Rosenbaum whose charmingly batty works will have composers crying with laughter. Explaining where he got his talent, he says, “De devil soldt me his soul.”
Christopher Miller’s “Simon Silber: Works for Solo Piano” is a quite funny satire of a Glenn Gould-style composer-pianist.
My spouse, Elsie Russell’s new novel, In Over Her Head, is about a young woman composer that gets sucked into a world of ne’er do well Euro-trash rich people. I can’t tell you guys too much more cuz she’s still shopping it around. 😉
…. (cont.) Does the human voice count as a musical instrument? Then, Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto (coming soon to an opera house or live opera-transmission movie house near you …)
Junichiro Tanizaki’s unsettling long story “A Portrait of Shunkin”.
Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
Gertrude by Hesse
And my favorite–The Piano Shop on the Left Bank. A light and very “French-y” read. Sit in a sunny room with a glass of lemonade, throw on some Poulenc and enjoy yourself
I must recommend “The Time of Our Singing” by Richard Powers to anyone interested in a beautifully-written (epic) novel about members of a mixed-race/mixed-religion family, the music in their lives, America in the 40’s through the 90’s, and the nonlinear nature of Time. I have given this book as a present to at least five people, all of whom have agreed that it is inexplicably amazing. It really touches on certain points about how the music we love, or create, or perform, is part of a multitude of cultures – not necessarily what others might recognize as being our own – and how we identify with this music, as well as the way our aesthetic inclinations represent what role we think we play in present and past, American and non-American, society. Just read it. I swear by the experience. It is quite long, but I must say I was completely engaged once I got about 10 pages into it.
Vikram Seth’s An Unequal Music is very much worth reading all of the way to the end. I have given copies to several non-classical musical, literary friends to help deepen their understanding of the relevance of classical music in today’s world. All of these gifts were appreciated.
I’ve always thought Frank Conroy’s Body & Soul a terrific piece of work. It’s the only modern novel that I can think of that artfully & believably nails the evolution of a thoughtful young composer/performer in mid 20th century America.
The Student Conductor by Robert Ford is a much lighter weight pot boiler-type piece of work but it’s a lot of fun if you spend any time working in the orchestra biz.
After about 75 pages I found that Vikram Seth’s An Unequal Music worked very well when nailed to a tree & used to test 9mm hollow points. But that’s just me.