July 23rd, 2006
Music in Literature
I’ve just started Irvine Welsh’s new book which opens at a Clash gig and after last week’s writers & musicians piece about Brian Eno and Michael Faber, I spotted a piece in the UK Independent during the week about music in literature. The article namechecks Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Vikram Seth’ s An Equal Music, Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto (as much about hostage-taking as it is about music) and EM Forster’s Howard’s End.
Being a music and book freak in equal parts, I figured I could come up with lots of examples of music as a major theme in books I’d read. Wracking my brain, I only came up with John B Keane’s The Bodhran Makers, High Fidelity, Annie Proulx’s Accordian Crimes, The Commitments, Dermot Bolger’s Father’s Music and Willa Cather’s Lucy Gayheart (which is still on the shelf waiting to be read)
Then there are also narratives, some long, some short which aren’t about music specifically but feature a key scene involving music. In one of the most chilling scenes in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go Kathy dances to an old song watched by the sinister Madame. In James Joyce’s The Dead, the key exchange between husband and wife happens when Gretta is reminded of someone from her past upon hearing the old song The Lass of Aughrim (there’s actually a lot of music and discussion of music in The Dead).
Surely there’s more? Any suggestions?
I think Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow is about a musician (Charlie Parker?) - wonder if music will feature in his new book?
July 23rd, 2006 at 3:30 pm
The Groud Beneath her Feet - Salman Rushdie?
An equal music - Vikram Seth (serious tear-jerker)
July 23rd, 2006 at 3:54 pm
Terry Pratchett has a couple - Soul Music and Maskerade. Obviously it depends on whether you count Pratchett as literature per se. I’m sure there are more that I’ve read over the years, but can’t think of them.
The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason is on my list to read as is
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank - The Hidden World of a Paris Atelier (must check if that’s available in French). That latter one probably doesn’t count though as it is more of an autobiography.
July 23rd, 2006 at 4:34 pm
Some of Murakami’s books, especially Norwegian Wood, have quite strong musical references throughout. There are a lot of Beatles refs/lyrics in J S Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Iain Banks’ rather good Espedair Street is all about the music industry (the first couple of pages in partic are excellent, then it goes downhill somewhat but still a good read!). (As an aside, this post reminds me somewhat of my Literary References Mix CD!)
July 23rd, 2006 at 7:08 pm
Interesting post, Sinéad.
Truman Capote’s short-story A Diamond Guitar. It’s a lovely little 10-page piece and is to be found at the back of the grey Penguin edition of Tiffany’s.
Sartre’s Nausea was, I thought, an awful book. If it was saved by anything though, it was saved by the delicacy with which Sartre describes this one piece of music which he has played for him everytime he enters his café.
I’m almost sure there’s a brilliant passage of music in Lolita, but it’s very possible that I’m mistaking Nabokov’s prose for song.
Virgil Thomson said of Music Criticism, “Never intrude your personal opinions when you write music criticism. The words that you use to describe what you’ve heard will be the criticism.” It’s probably a good way of approaching music in literature too.
July 23rd, 2006 at 7:26 pm
Cheers guys, keep them coming.
Markham - how could I forget Rushdie?
Winds - Thanks for the recommendations, hadn’t heard of either.
Mish - Norweigan Wood - of course! I’m curious to hear about this literary mix CD…
Kevin, I just pulled Capote’s Complete Stories off the shelf and it has ‘A Diamond Guitar’ in it. I’ll read it tonight, thanks for that.
I keep thinking of Paul Auster, but can’t remember which book. I know The Music of Chance would be an obvious one, but it’s one of his I haven’t read.
July 23rd, 2006 at 8:40 pm
2 more to add to that list: Roddy Doyle - Oh, Play That Thing and Patrick Neate - Twelve Bar Blues (just re-reading it, excellent).
July 24th, 2006 at 8:19 am
Would “High Fidelity” by Nick Hornby count? or how about “The Gospel Singer” by Harry Crews? and not forgetting any of the George P. Pelecanos detective novels for musical references.
July 24th, 2006 at 1:34 pm
There’s a Don DeLillo one- Great Jones Street? Not about music exactly but the protagonist seems analogous to Bob Dylan so might count in the same way that Gravity’s Rainbow does. Of course there’s always Bob’s own Tarantula- which could be about anything for all the sense it makes.
Actually- surely the entire Beat canon qualifies? Generally they’re as much about jazz as anything else.
July 24th, 2006 at 4:15 pm
Oh I forgot about practically every Kerouac book I’ve read.
July 25th, 2006 at 6:43 am
Willy Russell - ‘The Wrong Boy’
The graphc novella “St. Swithin’s Day” by Grant Morrison and Paul Grist is named after a Billy Bragg song (named after the day obv), has plenty of Smiths references and contains the best prose description of ‘There she goes’ by The La’s ever…
July 25th, 2006 at 6:50 am
Yep, the Beat stuff certainly counts.
Read ‘The Diamond Guitar’ last night. Very sad actually but so well observed - it felt like winter despite last night’s clamminess.
Martin - totally forgot about ‘St. Swithin’s Day’, but I do remember The La’s bit. I think the main character says something like, “There’s only one song I can dance to - There She Goes by The La’s. In the bathroom. With the door locked.” Didn’t know that was a Grant Morrison GN either.
July 25th, 2006 at 10:43 am
Espedair Street by Iain Banks is one of my favourite books. Its a biopic that tells the story of a reclusive millionaire ex-rock star. Plenty of cliches but a good read.
July 25th, 2006 at 10:43 am
Diamond Guitar is brilliant! What about Powder by Kevin Sampson too (dreadful book but all about a rock band)? There’s also quite a long section on music in Ian McEwan’s “Saturday” as the narrator’s son is a blues guitarist. I’ve heard it said that often the world of music, specifically rock music, is off putting for a writer as, if you’re not directly involved in it, it takes a lot of research to get it right and authentic. Perhaps that explains why there aren’t as many novels as you would think which take place in that world. After all, it’s perceived as glamorous, exciting and aspirational - so it’s strange that there aren’t more books set in it…
What do you reckon Sinead?
July 25th, 2006 at 12:09 pm
Jaime Hernandez’s stories in Love and Rockets (many of which have been collected together in one volume as Locas) are often pretty music-centric - one of the heroines is in a band, and the Californian punk scene features prominently, especially in the earlier stories. Best ever portrayal-of-female-characters-by-a-male-writer, too.