'Musical' Novels

Subject: 'Musical' Novels
From: CarlZen
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 12:29 PM

I recently reread the novel "Corelli's Mandolin" by Louis de Bernieres. While it was not directly about music, the mandolin was an important aspect of the book and music was central to the themes in the story.

Any suggestions for other good reading which features music as a central character.

BTW - just my personal opinion, but Annie Proulx' "Accordion Crimes" was a little too bleak a view of humanity for my tastes.

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 01:15 PM

Elizabeth Scarborough wrote the Songkiller Saga, light and dark, fun with an underlying message about society & what the loss of folk music would bring about.

Phantom Banjo, Songkiller Saga Vol. 1

Picking the Ballad's Bones, SS Vol 2

Strum Again?, Vol. 3

Can't recommend them enough!

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: campfire
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 01:31 PM

Kat - I think I read that too - did it have a wee bit of magic thown in, too? If its what I'm thinking, I thoroughly enjoyed it, too. Had forgotten about it til you reminded me.

campfire

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 01:37 PM

Yes, the plot basically of all three is the devil trying to eradicate all folk music, with the colussion of the big, mainstream records companies and teh folkies who battle them. BUT IT IS A LOT DEEPER, MEANINGFUL AND ENGAGING THAT QUICK SYNOPSIS!

kat

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Joe Offer
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 02:07 PM

I'm reading Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes. Don't know if you could say music is central to the theme, but the book is filled with references to great songs. I've been reading it in restaurants on the road this week. People kinda look at me funny when I start laughing out loud when I hit a good passage in this book about growing up in Ireland.
With my Catholic upbringing, I get a real kick out of things like the description of Saint Christina the Astonishing.
-Joe Offer-

---

And now, five years later, I find I'm married to a saintly and astonishing woman named Christina. who woulda thunk it?
-Joe Offer, January, 2004-

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Chet W.
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 03:28 PM

These also are not exactly about music, but I think Woody Guthrie's two novels, Bound for Glory and Seeds of Man, are two of the best works of fiction I've read. Read them.

Chet

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Henrik W.
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 03:44 PM

Joe,

I agree that "Angela's Ashes" does have very funny
passages (especially the parts where Frank describes the
world as seen from his young boy perspective - all the
things that seem so strange, when you're a kid), but
on the whole I would say it's not really a "funny" book
but rather a hard hitting account of a brutal, miserable
childhood, don't you agree? It hit me in the stomach
for sure - great book.

On the subject of 'Musical' Novels, ex-Battlefield Band
member and songwriter extraordinaire Brian McNeill has
written a book called "The Busker" about... a busker!
I have not been able to find this book however, so if
anyone has a copy that they'd like to sell (or lend me
even) - let me know! I also believe Brian has recently
completed a sequel to "The Busker" - I think it's called
"To answer the Peacock", but I'm not sure.

Cheers

Henrik

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Joe Offer
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 03:52 PM

I'd say that's a good assessment of Angela's Ashes, Henrik. I think the book takes you through the whole spectrum of emotions. Some parts are uproariously funny, but there is an underlying current of misery through the whole book. I'm hoping for a happy ending. Don't tell me...
It's nonfiction, but it reads like a novel.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Alice
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 05:23 PM

"Under the Greenwood Tree, or The Mellstock Quire" by Thomas Hardy

I quoted parts of this in a discussion regarding The Mason's Apron, but I couldn't find it in a forum search. I'm sure it was part of thread creep, so it didn't relate to the thread title.

From the introduction:"The village musicians of the 'Mellstock Quire', whose fortunes are central to the book, are prototypes of the Wessex rustics characterized in the later novels..."

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 05:29 PM

Henrik: I found the Busker at bookfinder.com for $3.30 here

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Peter T.
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 05:47 PM

Doktor Faustus by Thomas Mann, is all about music, and is wonderful, but it is HEAVY!!!!!
Non-fiction, but Maynard Solomon's psychobiography of Beethoven is compelling -- and the final unravelling of the "Immortal Beloved" mystery is worthy of a good detective story.
H.C. Robbbins-Landon's, 1789, Mozart's Last Year, is heartbreaking, but beautifully written.
Any of Peter Guralnick's books, including the 2 volume biography of Elvis, especially volume 1, Last Train to Memphis, are well worth reading. I couldn't put them down (the ultimate accolade).
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: bseed(charleskratz)
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 07:00 PM

In Point Counterpoint by Aldous Huxley, music: particularly fugue, is ever-present and an organizing principle. My wife is reading An Equal Music by Vikram Seth: I'm waiting for her to finish it before I start. She says classical music is a dominating presence in it. --seed

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Art Thieme
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 07:44 PM

Any of science-fiction writer Manley Wade Wellman's novels made up of his various stories about the fellow only called "John" who teavels through the Appalachians with a guitar strung with silver strings to protect him from the evil and supernatural creatures and spirits, ghosts and witches, warlocks and spells from folklore and folksongs---especially the big ballads. Just great!!

Art

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 07:56 PM

Art, that reminds me...any of Charles de Lint's books, many of which take place in Ottawa where he lives, have fantasy, magic and music as their main elements. One that I esp. like is "Into the Green".

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: CarlZen
Date: 01 Aug 99 - 12:16 AM

This is turning into a fine booklist. Thanks and keep 'em coming.

And, Peter, - - Isn't Faustus the German version of Robert Johnson's "Crossroads"?

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Doctor John
Date: 01 Aug 99 - 10:37 AM

Chet, I'd call the two WG books more faction than fiction. Although not novels the biographies of Woody and Lead Belly are worth reading. As is "Woody Cisco and Me" by Jimmy Longhi - gives you insight into the character of these two legends. I've just got the biography of Moe Asch which looks good but I haven't stated it yet. "Adventures of a Ballad Hunter" by John Lomax I read at school: must try a get another copy. Dr John

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: BK
Date: 01 Aug 99 - 10:48 AM

Kat - I'm a big Scarborough fan & was not aware of these books; In her godmother series she deals a lot w/music (& many other things, sometimes very serious) - even mentions Finbar Fury. I'd highly reccomend those books. I've REALLY liked everything I've read by her so far. (the latest Godmother - forget the name - starts a little slow but winds up great; haven't read "Healer's War" yet - thought it might strike a little too close to home)

Evern noticed? - a lot of phoakies are fond of Sci-Fi; ?any connection?

Cheers, BK

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Peter T.
Date: 01 Aug 99 - 11:32 AM

CarlZen, absolutely.
Anyone else here a fan of Anne McCaffrey? I got hooked on the Dragonsinger books, which are so completely out of my usual range of interests. I was given them to read at a cottage one summer by a friend's teenage girl who had just graduated from Black Stallion books! They are complete fantasy trash!!!!!!
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Skivee
Date: 01 Aug 99 - 02:11 PM

CarlZen has started a great thread here. As he said, his Accordion Crimes opinion is his own and he's welcome to it. IMHO Ms. Proulx's use of music has been one of the elements that make the depressing threads that run through her novels bearable. There's a great series of personal stories that run out of the accordion playing of Quoyle's Sig-o in The Shipping News. There's a wonderfully drawn guitar player in Heartsongs. Music is the pulse of her novels. Her stories are grim, but they are funny, ironic uplifting, subtle, obvious, insightful. They work on so many levels at once, that I can't get enough. I just love the way she crafts sentences. The first 100 pages or so of The Shipping News was some of the most difficult reading I've done in many years, but I'm sure glad I pushed through. Skivee

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Aug 99 - 03:31 PM

BK, the Healer's War is really excellent, but of course, could be too close to home for anyone who might've been in Vietnam. I've never read a Scarborough book I didn't like!

I've heard that the godmother series is really good. Will get them soon and get started. Anybody who likes Scarborough would like Chas. de Lint, whom I mentioned above.

This is a great thread!

kat

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Llanfair
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 03:13 PM

Yes, PeterT, i love Anne McCaffrey's books, and I can't put one down 'till it's finished. o n the musical theme, what about "The Ship Who Sang". I cried at the end!!! Hwyl, Bron.

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: jon a
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 06:35 PM

More Anne McCaffrey; The crystal singers, Killashandra & Crystal Line are good,

also Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough:- powers that be series, well worth a read IMO.

Jon

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: darkriver
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 08:42 PM

I too found Angela's Ashes, while grim in places, to be musical. And I thought that Accordion Crimes and Corelli's Mandolin were as spellbinding as a good song. --Not to mention beautifully written.

I thought that Brendan Behan's prison memoir, Borstal Boy, was very musical. Many of the songs mentioned in the Naughty Kids' Songs threads appear in the book. The use of many dialects of the British Isles makes for music as well.

Anthony Burgess (may he rest in peace) wrote Napoleon Symphony, a longish novel in which he tried (as much as possible in a long prose work) to apply the structure Beethoven's Eroica symphony to the Napoleon story--down to repeated phrases as motifs. Sounds dry, but it works as a novel. Very funny too.

I also thought that Burgess' A Clockwork Orange was very musical--again because of the sounds and rhythms of his invented teen slang, Nadsat.

doug

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: darkriver
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 08:43 PM

What the hey? I could swear I put in that end-italic tag after 'Ashes'!

Oh well. Sorry.

doug

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Mike Regenstreif
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 08:50 PM

Chet mentioned: "These also are not exactly about music, but I think Woody Guthrie's two novels, Bound for Glory and Seeds of Man, are two of the best works of fiction I've read. Read them."

While I agree that both are great books worth reading, "Bound for Glory," is an autobiography, not a novel.

Of course, fact and fiction often mix in autobiography (not that I'm saying that's the case here).

Mike Regenstreif

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Philippa
Date: 03 Aug 99 - 09:49 AM

Quoted from http://www.folkworld.de/10/e/murray.html :
In 1993, Neil Murray wrote a novel called 'Sing for me Countryman'. This semi-autobiographical story follows a young white man as he heads for the outback, searching for himself and a sense of connection with his country. He feels that the key to his puzzle can be unlocked by the Aboriginal people. Through the formation of a musical group he explores black and white relationships, and finally achieves a remarkable bonding which transcends all racial divides. Cathy Bell reports.: in Folkworld, mostly on Neil Murray's band Warumpi

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Peter T.
Date: 03 Aug 99 - 10:01 AM

Reminds me of Bruce Chatwin's Songlines which is a good read, but is completely inaccurate about songlines. Might get you interested in the real story, however.
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: marion
Date: 03 Aug 99 - 03:52 PM

Here's a thread I started awhile back, asking what literary works/scenes people have found to be inspiring musically:

Music in literature

I'll refresh it as well.

Love, Marion

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: marion
Date: 03 Aug 99 - 03:53 PM

sorry, I'll try that link again:

Music in literature

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Susan of DT
Date: 03 Aug 99 - 09:08 PM

Michener had several ballads in The Drifters. A lot of fantasy novels include bards. Besides Anne McCaffrey, Mercedes Lackey has a series on Free Bards (I prefer her other books), Morgan Llewellyn has a book titled Bard, and Tom Dietz often has music plying a role in some of his VERY strange books.

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Philippa
Date: 04 Aug 99 - 08:21 AM

I just finished reading a novel set in Rathlin Island (off the north coast of Ireland), "Truth in the Night" by Michael McLaverty. Like the McGuinness and Behan books mentioned in this thread, the McLaverty novel isn't ABOUT music, but songs and tunes and dances and instruments are frequently mentioned as a feature in island life. (McLaverty mentions a couple of poems and books and a Shakespeare play as well) There were a few verses quoted in the novel. Here's two I'm not familiar with:
Come, my love, and let us roam
Through the towns and across the foam.
East and west we'll travel together,
Bracelets and silver and fine new leather -
Oh - roh - oh roh -oh - roo
I'm the man to buckle your shoe.

The Flowing Bowl

No nor anyone it may control
Keep me from the flowing bowl.
When I'm single, single I'm free
Love, love, love will never conquer me

also a couple of titles: "The Prodigal's Return" ( a version of the Wild Rover?); I have a notion he mentions a song called "Raheny Pilgrim" or something like that, but I can't find the reference now and I mistrust my memory.

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels -AUTOCORRECTION
From: Philippa
Date: 04 Aug 99 - 10:05 AM

I meant McCOURT; Frank McGuinness is a playwright

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: steve t
Date: 04 Aug 99 - 10:26 AM

I loved "Songmaster" by Orson Scott Card. It's sci-fantasy. The last part, about the former "songbird" as an old man will live forever in mind.

Kim Stanley Robinson wrote The Memory of Whiteness. Science-fiction. Mathematical music is the theme. Not as fun, but quite interesting.

A note for people interested in DeLint. He had nine? unpublished novels when he got Moonheart published. Most of the unpublished novels then got published. Some are crap. Choose carefully.

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Aug 99 - 11:53 PM

Phillipa, that Flowing Bowl reminds me of a slightly different version we used to sing, that went like:

Landlord fill the flowing bowl
Until it doth run over
REPEAT
For tonight we'll merry be
DITTO
DITTO
Tomorrow we'll be sober/single.

Stevet: which deLint do you not like? I haven't read all of them, but really enjoyed all that I have.

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Philippa
Date: 05 Aug 99 - 02:56 AM

aye, Kat, I've heard it that way also.

Subject: RE: 'Musical' literature and film
From: Philippa
Date: 05 Sep 99 - 01:47 PM

What about novels, plays and films that are based directly on songs - and vice versa. I heard that Woody Guthrie composed "Tom Joad" after seeing the film based on the Steinbeck novel "Grapes of Wrath". And that the melodramatic ballad "Gill Morice", which is in the DT database, was staged as a play (I'd like more details).

I have more knowledge of songs in Irish and Scottish Gaelic: Ailein Duinn (in the DT) was the basis of a radio play and I think it was on the live stage also. A' Bhean Eudach (one women drowns another woman because of jealousy) and Caoinneadh Art Uí Laoghaire (widow's lament) inspired short films. An Mhaighdean Mhara was retold as a novelette by Cliodhna Cussen and is the subject of a play and arts exhibition to be staged this month by school children in Conamara.

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 05 Sep 99 - 11:07 PM

Not a novel; but Fiona MacLeod's collection of short stories "Under the Dark Star" is certainly worth looking at: especially "The Dan-Nan-Ron" (Dance of the Seals).

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Frank Hamilton
Date: 06 Sep 99 - 10:32 AM

Do plays count? "Dark of The Moon" by Rerney and Richardson was the first off-Broadway production at Circle-In-The-Square directed by Jowe Quintero. It's about withcraft, Appalachian folklore and features some of the traditional ballads and folksongs in the show.

Frank Hamilton

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Frank Hamilton
Date: 06 Sep 99 - 08:14 PM

That is Berney and Richardson, Jose Quintero and witch craft although it was done with craft, too. Sorry about the typos.

Frank

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Jen
Date: 06 Sep 99 - 09:05 PM

Oh, yes, DeLint is good. (Moonheart wasn't his first book, btw, at least I don't think it was. He wrote under another name also, like Dean Koontz.)

The Songkiller books are out of print, but you can probably find them online somewhere. I read the first one and half the second, and never did get to find out what happened.

Another suggestion, and only a suggestion, would be Knight of Ghosts and Shadows by Mercedes Lackey and someone else (can't remember the other person's name right offhand.) There is a series, and they were cute.

War for the Oaks by Emma Bull (magic and music there, I read mostly fantasy, good book!)

And Manly Wade Wellman--well, I have all but one of the Silver John books, and reread them at least twice a year. I love those books. Still find duplicate copies occasionally, too.

I'm sure I'll think of more, so I'll post them when I think of them.

Just got back from the RenFaire and I'm tiiiirrrrrreeeedddddddd

Jen

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: GutBucketeer
Date: 07 Sep 99 - 12:44 AM

I really loved some of DeLint's descriptions of the magic of music in Into the Green, Moonheart, and his other novels and short stories. It seems his more recent writings have become darker. It's a pity.

Ellen Guon collaborated with Mercedes Lackey to write "Knight of Ghosts and Shadows" and "Summoned to Tourney". She published a prequel called Bedlam Boyz on the same subject.

Mercedes Lackey also wrote the Bardic Voices and Bardic Choices books. Great stuff which includes The Lark and the Wren, Teh Robin and The Kestrel, A Cast of Corbies, and at least one more.

L.E. Modesitt is in the middle of putting out a new series about an opera singer who gets transferred to another universe where music is Magic. There are two so far, the Soprano Sorceress, and the Spellsong War. The first one was great, the second started to become more formulaic towards the end.

If you like puns there is the SpellSinger series by Alan Dean Foster.

Not in Sci Fi and Fantasy I really liked the Devil's Dream by Lee Smith. It seems to be loosely modelled after the Carter Family. She is a good "southern writer"

JAB

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Roger the skiffler
Date: 01 Oct 99 - 08:46 AM

I read some James Lee Burke on holiday (I'd only known his Dave Robichaux detective novels before), frequent evocations of Woody, Leadbelly etc, his heroes all love slide guitar.
Also Scott Lee, a new name for me, even wove the death of Blind Blake into a very Blake Morrison-ish plot.

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Terry Dawson
Date: 01 Oct 99 - 12:57 PM

My favorite Charles DeLint is "The Little Country", where the protagonist are a piper and a concertina player. Contains wonderful original tunes. I also agree that Wellman's "Silver John" books are a delight.

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: lamarca
Date: 01 Oct 99 - 01:07 PM

Before she started writing the Brother Cadfael novels, the late Ellis Peters (Dame Edith Pargeter) wrote a slew of mysteries about CID Inspector George Felse and his family. My favorite was "Black Is the Color of My True Love's Heart", which takes place at an English folk festival,in which the mystery's plot is that of a Child ballad (I won't spoil it by saying which one). She was a music scholar, so several of her earlier mysteries are from the world of classical music - "Funeral of Figaro" is about the murder of a loathsome tenor; the heroine is a young woman getting her start in opera by playing all the famous transvestite roles, starting with Cherubino..."The Horn of Roland" is another. All fine books.

Madeleine L'Engle wrote two fine adult novels about a concert pianist at different points in her life, "The Small Rain" and "A Severed Wasp", both of which deal strongly with faith and music.

For fantasies, another fine Canadian author is Tanya Huff, who has several novels about bards who can "sing" the powers in the elemental quarters, earth, air, fire, water and spirit.

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: T in Oklahoma (a.k.a. Okiemockbird)
Date: 01 Oct 99 - 01:53 PM

Nice thread.

Besides some of the books already mentioned, I have enjoyed Modesitt's The Soprano Sorceress and The Spellsong War. A sequel, Darksong Rising is theoretically in the works.

Teen fiction with a musical backdrop that I have enjoyed: a novel called Midnight Hour Encores. I have forgotten the author. The protagonist is a cello player.

Okiemockbird (a.k.a. T in Oklahoma)

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: sophocleese
Date: 01 Oct 99 - 02:40 PM

For more teenaged readers there is a trio of books by K.M. Peyton about a young man, Patrick Pennington, with a gift for the piano. I read them years ago.

Patricia McKillip writes beautifully and uses stories and themes from ballads. I've been a fan of hers for years.

I would like to add my voice to lamarca's in recommending Tanya Huff. I just finished her latest, The Quartered Sea, I didn't do anything else until I had read it cover to cover.

I'm sure there's more that I could think of over the next couple of days but those are the ones off the top of my head.

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Rosebrook
Date: 02 Oct 99 - 10:57 AM

With all the mention of series in this thread, I am reminded that the question may come up, "What order are the books in such-and-such series?" and I wanted to share this site:

http://www.kentlibrary.lib.mi.us/whats_next.htm

If you enter the author's last name, it will produce a list of all that author's series works in the order it was meant to be read. You can also search by book title or series title.

I have found it to be a helpful tool, although it is very fussy (my best success is in searching by author, last name only, all capital letters), and the databank has some glaring ommissions.

Though not all of her work is focused on music, I want to mention Gael Baudino as a fantasy author to check out. The author herself is a harp player, and her books are definately fantasy genre with a leaning towards wiccan magic and female empowerment. Her book Gossamer Axe is about a 500 year old Celtic harper who is displaced in the 1980's and becomes a heavy metal guitar player, blending elements of music from ancient Ireland. Either you love it or you hate it. I think she's great for a fast, fun read.

Rose

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Frank Hamilton
Date: 02 Oct 99 - 01:46 PM

Finnegan's Wake.

"Quiet Flows the Don" my Michail Sholokov which contain the lyrics that Pete Seeger used to fashion "Where Have All the Flowers Gone".

Frank Hamilton

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From:
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 10:44 AM

Where did you say you found the music for Borstal Boy? I'm working on a production and stymied on some of these tunes.... ANY help is welcome.

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: SDShad
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 02:23 PM

Then there's R. A. MacAvoy's two books featuring a Zen Buddhist Irish-American fiddler who has a romance with a Chinese dragon in human form--who joins her band on keyboards!--"Tea With the Black Dragon," and "Twisting the Rope (Casadh an T'Sugain)," which takes its title from one of my favorite Bothy Band tunes....

Just the thing who like a little eastern mysticism with their folk.

Chris