One equal music

   

     The title of this post is from John Donne (you can read the rest of the passage here) and it came to me this morning when I was thinking about recent discussions on the subject of our response to books. For example, Lindsay wrote the other day that one never reads the same book twice, that is, one's perspective is individual but changes according to mood, experience, sensitivity, thus a familiar book may elicit a reaction or appreciation quite different from that of earlier readings.   

      I would agree with him, of course, and I'd go on to suggest that how a book 'resonates' can in some instances almost be pre-determined. That's a very broad statement, but if you liken books to music, the importance of interpretation becomes clear. A piece of music may not 'work' if transcribed for an instrument other than that for which it was written (the converse is true, too, of course) and even a change of key to accommodate a different voice may produce an effect - and a response in the audience - quite other than originally intended.

     Where books are concerned, we the readers are the interpreters, and as Lindsay says, "you and I never read the same book": we read it differently because we are different people and this explains our varying reactions. Our recent book group reading of They came like swallows, for instance, seemed to display this. Generally speaking, the men found it lacking in subtlety and unduly sentimental, the women found it delicate, touching and perfectly judged. I would suggest that is because it's a piece which - using the musical analogy - cannot be transposed or transcribed : the sensibility of the reader - the pitch and tone of the 'instrument', if you like - has to be right for it. You would not take a late Beethoven piano sonata, say, and score it for a full orchestra, and nor can Maxwell be 'heard correctly' by someone reading him without the sensitive and intuitive touch of a John Lill playing that Beethoven. Thus the book appealed more to the female emotional range than to the male.

    I hope all that makes sense and is worth thinking about, but to continue the theme, can anyone recommend novels about music or with a musical setting? Going back to today's title there's Vikram Seth's An Equal Music which I want to re-read soon, and Conrad Williams's The Concert Pianist which Dovegreyreader tells me I'd like. Any more?

Comments

[Peter the Flautist]

Dark Puss thinks you have a statistically biassed sample on which to base your comment about the male/female gender difference regarding "They Came Like Swallows". It of course does not mean that you are wrong, but I'd say "not proven". I will turn my attention to your final question and see if I can come up with anything (but probably not 1/10 as much as your other readers).

[Karol Sokol]

I love music and reading, and I especially love books that deal with musical themes. The masterpiece in this category is Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus, one of the greatest novels ever written. I also loved The Soloist by Mark Salzman and The Rosendorf Quartet by Nathan Shaham (an Israeli writer). The latter 2 titles may be out of print, so you would have to borrow them from a library, but they both are worth tracking down. I have been reading your blog for the past several months, and find it to be one of the few that I return to again and again. Your comments are thoughtful and intelligent, and your photos of flowers are marvelous. I came to your site initially because of your knitting entries, but I have stayed because of your musings on books, reading and life.

[Lisa]

I couldn't agree with you more regarding the fact that we all indeed read a 'different' book though we hold the same edition in our hands. We're all different people with different emotions, personalities and life experience with which to receive and interpret said book. I don't do a great deal of re-reading, but I have no doubt that I would have a different reaction, even if subtle, to many of the books I've read. I'm not a music person, so I'm afraid I don't have anything to offer you in the way of a suggestion. But, I'm sure there'll be no shortage of wonderful offerings from everyone else.

[Nancy]

Here's a few I really enjoyed:

The Pianist http://www.amazon.com/Pianist-Extraordinary-Survival-Warsaw-1939-1945/dp/B0009X1MIW/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205244572&sr=1-1

The Piano Tuner http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Tuner-Novel-Daniel-Mason/dp/1400030382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205244628&sr=1-2

Piano Lessons http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Lessons-Music-Love-Adventures/dp/0385318219/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205244711&sr=1-2

Funny how they're all about the piano...hmmm

[Nan]

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. I love this book. And the movie is great as well.

[Barbara]

Nan mentioned High Fidelity. I spent most of my reading time shouting 'Grow up!' at the main character but my daughter loves the book to bits, so it may be a generation thing. I *did* love his book 31 Songs, which is not a novel.
I enjoyed Peter Ackroyd's English Music but struggled with Music and Silence, by Rose Tremain. Rebecca West's The Fountain Overflows is an old favourite and one I loved as a child is Kitty Barne's She Shall Have Music.

[Barbara MacLeod]

Grace Notes by Bernard MacLaverty, Vintage, London 1998, 256pp, £5.99, ISBN 0099778017.

[adele geras]

I haven't read it, but I love Rose Tremain and can't think why not! MUSIC AND SILENCE....

[Barbara]

Adele, I do usually like Rose Tremain, it was just that one I couldn't get on with.

[lindsay]

One of the greatest novels of all - and yes, I mean that - is Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus (1947) about the composer Adrian Leverkuhn and the terrible price he pays for his genius. Musically, it is based on Schoenberg's 12 note tonality, but it also emcompasses the cultural decay of Germany under Hitler and some astonishing writing about personal relationships and familial bonds. It is the one truly musical novel in my experience (and Mann an under-read novelist) giving you a musical experience without sound or without technical knowledge on the reader's part. I cannot recommend it too highly.

[Ros]

Well, proving your point, I should just like to say that I read and loved 'Music and Silence'.

[Rhys]

I enjoyed An Equal Music ....a lot! I have also read Grace Notes which I enjoyed not so much. Now that you know so many people in the Manchester area (me for instance and les deux Geras grrrrrrr)you may read A E M slightly differently taking a livelier interest in the Henry Watson section of the Central Reference Library which makes an appearance in the novel!

[sherry]

How about Doctor Faustus for the reading group?

[Margaret Powling]

Scottish novelist Eileen Ramsay's romantic novel, Rainbow's End has a musical theme (pardon the pun!) ... about a female conductor (and that's orchestral conductor.) Also, Mary Sheepshanks (who now writes under the name of Mary Nickson) wrote Facing the Music (about a young flautist). Then there's Joanna Trollope's The Choir (which became a TV drama). Also Marika Cobbold's Frozen Music. Also Angela Huth's Easy Silence. Just a few for you to consider ...

[Carolyn Carpenter]

A novella by Leo Tolstoy, The Kreutzer Sonata, has a musical theme. An etext version is available at

http://www.geocities.com/cmcarpenter28/Works/kreutzer.txt

[Angela Young]

I highly recommend MUSIC and SILENCE by Rose Tremain; it resonated deeply with me - although I see that it didn't with others here.

But my guess is that the pitch and tone of your instrument will accord with Tremain's pitch and tone.

[tara]

"one never reads the same book twice"

This really resonated with me. I've just finished a book that I first read about 10 years ago and have found my reaction to it has changed.

In regards to books with music as a theme, there is a novel called Triangle by Katharine Weber that I thought of. The basis of the story is the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in NYC around the turn of the century which was a great tragedy.

[GeraniumCat]

For sheer fun reading, music figures quite largely in Elizabeth Pewsey's Mountjoy novels (starting with Children of Chance, where the main character is a luthier). They don't seem to be widely known, but I find them very amusing.

[Fiberjoy]

Madeleine L'Engle's novel A Severed Wasp first springs to mind, the protagonist is a classical pianist.

Geography, experience, relationships all play a role in how a book affects each individual. Just the maturity of years will cast a book in a different light upon re-reading, are new facets of depth revealed? That is one reason I return to some beloved books.