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Music in literature

Thelma

Thelma

New Member
Music in prose I mean, generally. ;) I guess you're still wondering what I mean, so: can you give examples of novels or short stories in which music played an important role in your opinion? ( It may have been in the title, it may have been used as a symbol to mark a key moment in the plot or to suggest something about the characters or it may have just created atmosphere. )
The first examples that come to my mind right now are The Kreutzer Sonata, by Tolstoi, Norwegian Wood, by Haruki Murakami, to name a few titles related to music. And I remember Thomas Mann can describe music so well in his novels that he almost makes you hear it.
What do you think?
 
Umm, Stephen King uses music a lot. It's been years since I read it, but 'It' had quite a few credits at the front for all the songs he used. I'm not really a fan of his anymore, but he does use music as a way of setting the era and also the personality of his protagonists. It works best when you know the songs though, and growing up at a different time and in a different country means that a lot of his references go completely over my head.
 
I haven't seen music used as often as visual art, a lot of descriptions of paintings in poems, and the there's the Matisse stories by A.S. Byatt.
 
I sometimes use music when I write or sometimes that music can inspire me. Talk to me and tell me.

I once wrote a story about an angel in a blues bar and so listened to blues constantly until it was in my blood. I then wrote the story with one blues song playing over and over.

I guess lots of writers use music as they write. Some might use it for insperation, some to calm them, some to fuel them and some just because they simply enjoy it :)
 
Thelma said:
Music in prose I mean, generally. ;) I guess you're still wondering what I mean, so: can you give examples of novels or short stories in which music played an important role in your opinion? ( It may have been in the title, it may have been used as a symbol to mark a key moment in the plot or to suggest something about the characters or it may have just created atmosphere. )
The first examples that come to my mind right now are The Kreutzer Sonata, by Tolstoi, Norwegian Wood, by Haruki Murakami, to name a few titles related to music. And I remember Thomas Mann can describe music so well in his novels that he almost makes you hear it.
What do you think?
Click to expand...


Jean-Christophe by rolland romain. a great book, with lots of description of music. very passionate.

From amazon:

Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Nobel prize winner Rolland's epic tale was first printed in 1910. This semi-autobiographical novel follows the misadventures of protagonist Jean-Christophe Krafft, a gifted composer whose dedication to his art alienates him from society.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Romain Rolland (18661944), who won the 1915 Nobel Prize for Literature, was a versatile and indefatigable man of letters, best remembered today for this massive roman-fleuve (published in three volumes, between 1902 and 1912), which may best be described as the history of a great musician's sensibility, the growth of his art, and the realization of his goal--roughly, the expression of man's moral nature through the creation of art. A variety of vividly rendered friends and lovers function as...
 
Herman Hesse

Hesse often involves music in his novels and does a very good job of building a sense of the emotional depth that characters feel about music...
 
Thelma,

I'm reading a novel right now that has an opera singer as one of the main characters plus a piano player is another character. It's called Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. Music is a very important element to this story. The title is also a clue as bel canto is a style of operatic singing and it's Italian for "beautiful singing". It's an excellent story and I recommend it.

Why are you asking for examples of novels or short stories where music plays an important role? I'm intrigued by your quest. Is this research for something you are writing? I'm very curious. I hope you don't mind me asking. :)
 
Music is very important in Proust. It's been awhile since I've read it, but I think in Swan's Way, music is associated with memory.

On the lighter side, in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams, the music of Beethoven is all that remains after the heroes save all humanity from extinction by chainging history.

Those are the first that come to mind :)

buddi
 
for Maureen

I'm not doing any particular research and of course I don't mind your asking. It's just that I love music as much as I love literature and I have realized that music and literature are interconnected. Music can be such a powerful symbol in prose, it can become a literary device.
I left poetry out of the discussion because we all know that poetry depends on music ( the musicality of the lines ) and music needs poetry ( lyrics ).
But in prose, music is a silent, paradoxical presence, you have to feel it in your mind and it depends on the writers talent to be described properly.
And I read books in which references to music could tell a lot of things.
 
Thelma,

Thanks. :) I haven't been back to this forum for a while and just noticed your reply. Your topic makes a lot of sense since you love both music and literature. I finished reading Bel Canto. I definitely recommend it.
 
Jazz plays an important part in Jack Keruoac's work :cool: , or how about The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason, one theme of which is the power of music on the imagination?
 
One of my favourite books in which music has a very important role. It is called Beatles and it is written by a norwegian writer named Lars Saabye Christensen. I do not know if there is any english translation of the book, but if there is, then you all should read it.

It's not about the beatles, per se, but there is five boys growing up while the beatles are popular. Each chapter is named after a Beatles song.

Very well written, and funny 8)
 
The only one I can think of at the moment is Seth's An Equal Music (which I raved about recently in another post :) ). But am thinking of running an experiment of reading A Clockwork Orange while listening to Beethoven alongside Alex to see if the music evokes the same reactions from me as it does him. Watched Kubrick's version, but I don't think its quite the same thing, considering it doesn't portray Alex's mindset to the same extent.

Hmm, I wonder if the experiment will turn me into one of his droogs :D
 
Long time buried,i found this thread because of the piano tuner by Daniel Mason,a book i forgot about but was quite good.
(Some old timers in this,only one left,don't mess with her)

Anyway it sound interesting,I read recently Hard as rain by Pelecanos and the funck musical background was very good,with few soundtrack by Ennio Morricone.
American psycho as full chapitres on music ,80's horrible stuff but funny.
A short book called the Bass by Suskind,is also about music.

There is so many,but its all i can remenber now
 
Oddly enough, as I would not have associated the two, the Ripley series of Patricia Highsmith's protagonist Tom Ripley is very open, or soothed by music. Beethoven....oh gosh there was more, have to look it up but it was definitely mood setting for TR.
 
I read the piano tuner and I liked it a lot, especially the way he describes the piano and the presence of music in that exotic, forgotten land, threatened by war.
 
Oh, and Pontalba, I know music has a very important role in the movie-Talented Mr Ripley, I heard some comments saying that Ripley's passage from classical and Bach to jazz marks the moment when chaos and false identity take over.Not that there is anything wrong with jazz, I love the jazz music in the film, they meant that the unexpected, improvised quality of jazz contrasts with classical discipline in music to suggest an unexpected ending to the events in the story.
 
Here are a few novels that deal with music:

The Tin Drum, Günter Grass
The Piano Teacher, Elfriede Jelinek
Doctor Faustus, Thomas Mann

I can't help noticing these are all German-language writers.
 
Two books I have enjoyed in which music was very important are An Equal Music by Vikram Seth and The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West. The West book, especially, is all about a family in which music helps to define the various members of the family.
 
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