Novels about Music

[Belgrove]

Since we are all going to have more time for reading, what musically themed novels spring to mind? I’ll kick-off by recommending Vikram Seth’s An Equal Music. A beautiful love story, the tragedy of impending deafness for a musician, and with some beguiling descriptions of the music itself. Perhaps the time has come to pull down from the shelves Mann’s Doctor Faustus and take the plunge.

[Count Boso]

Slightly peripheral - Aldous Huxley's Point Counterpoint which features Beethoven's A minor quartet, op 132 (the Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der Lydischen Tonart could be hopeful in the circs).

[LMcD]

A pianist is one of the principal characters in Rose Tremain's 'The Gustav Sonata'.
There's also Steven Galloway's 'The Cellist of Sarajevo'.
(Jilly Cooper has, I believe, also produced novels with musical connections).

[richardfinegold]

Thomas Mann Doctor Faustus. My favorite is the chapter devoted to the last movement of Beethoven’s last Piano Sonata

[gurnemanz]

Thomas Mann Doctor Faustus. My favorite is the chapter devoted to the last movement of Beethoven’s last Piano Sonata

I read this in the original German (quite a challenge, I remember) as part of my undergraduate course umpteen years ago. Our lecturer, John Smeed, was also a fine musician and expert on Lieder. He gave us a special lecture with musical examples, eg helping us to understand the concept of of music as Zweideutigkeit als System - ambiguity as a system. A lifetime later I should certainly go back to it.

[ardcarp]

Low Notes at a High Level by J.B. Priestley. It is subtitled 'A Frolic'. Well written, amusing if slightly dated. Secondhand copies a bit rare, but:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Low-notes-high-level-frolic/dp/B0000CIXOZ

For God's sake avoid The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason if you want also to avoid clinical depression. (Everyone dies in a Burmese jungle IIRC.)

OTOH The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thomas Carhart is a charming and atmospheric light read. Review....

This is a gentle, meandering book, a collage of images, memories and history, and at times Carhart's effort to stuff these miscellaneous elements into a narrative feels a little strained. But the book is rich with understated evocations of Paris; Carhart has an eye for the salient detail that will conjure a person or a street vividly without tripping up in overwrought description.

[Rjw]

The Dwarves of Death by Jonathan Coe.

[richardfinegold]

I read this in the original German (quite a challenge, I remember) as part of my undergraduate course umpteen years ago. Our lecturer, John Smeed, was also a fine musician and expert on Lieder. He gave us a special lecture with musical examples, eg helping us to understand the concept of of music as Zweideutigkeit als System - ambiguity as a system. A lifetime later I should certainly go back to it.

I think I might reread it now. I’m always fascinated by your stories of studying in the former DDR, gurne, as well as your general knowledge of German Culture. I just pulled Schubert Wintereise off the shelves, DFD with Jorg Demus, and listened last night. Somehow the sorrowful tale of a man wandering in Mental desolation seems to fit the present mood

[ardcarp]

Music and Silence - Rose Tremain

[Pulcinella]

Music and Silence - Rose Tremain

That's the one I was trying to remember.

[johnb]

OTOH The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thomas Carhart is a charming and atmospheric light read. Review....

This is a gentle, meandering book, a collage of images, memories and history, and at times Carhart's effort to stuff these miscellaneous elements into a narrative feels a little strained. But the book is rich with understated evocations of Paris; Carhart has an eye for the salient detail that will conjure a person or a street vividly without tripping up in overwrought description.

It's a lovely book.

[jayne lee wilson]

Napoleon Symphony by Anthony Burgess.....

Modelled closely on the structure and phrasal shape of the Eroica.... e.g......

There he lies
Ensanguinated tyrant
O
Bloody bloody tyrant


OK - so which movement's beginning d'you think that is?

Try singing it....sprechstimme style....

[ardcarp]

Vikram Seth’s An Equal Music. About members of a string quartet.

IIRC Virginia Woolf also wrote a book entitled The String Quartet.

[cloughie]

Vikram Seth’s An Equal Music. About members of a string quartet.

There is an excellent 2CD set which was brought out at the time of the book - a charity shop purchase for me - Excellent!

[johnb]

Vikram Seth’s An Equal Music. About members of a string quartet.

... and about a pianist losing her hearing.