Thursday, May 11, 2006
A number of intriguing question are posed ...
... at BookBlog in this post: Bel Canto/Beautiful Song . One question is this: Can one write effectively about music? Another: Is opera "so powerful it can conquer language and cultural divides?" I think the answer to the latter is definitely yes. I think the answer to the former is yes, too, but I would have search for examples. Off the top of my head, I think of J.B. Priestley in Particular Pleasures. I would also cite Browning's "A Toccata of Galuppi's." Elio, also, in Four Quartets.
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Three of my favorite novels include very good writing about music (and they're books that have a lot in common in other respects as well): Rebecca West, THE FOUNTAIN OVERFLOWS; James Baldwin, JUST ABOVE MY HEAD; and Richard Powers, THE TIME OF OUR SINGING.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I've seen attributed to Laurie Anderson, I think was Frank Zappa who said, "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture." I used to think about that, back in the old days when I was actually able to do modern dance, with or without music. (Never had a great body, but with some styles of modern, you don't need one.)
ReplyDeleteBut yes, I do think it is possible to write well, and beautifully, about music. I'm biased, though, beause i have a degree in music composition and I've been reading and wirting about music (including a brief career as a reviewer) for most of my life. So, I'll only list a couple of highlights:
First on my list is John Cage, whose collected writings, many of them directly about music, are always challenging, fresh, and thought-provoking.
In a weird way, H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Music of Erich Zann," in which a man plays violin with feverish intensity every night to keep the demons at bay, is one of the most memorable pieces of writing about music I've ever read. The description of the music in the story is truly amazing.
George Sand's writing about Chopin composing on Majorca when they were there one stormy year is very memorable.
Octavio Paz' poetry and criticism gets into avant-garde music fairly often—he has a book about Duchamp and at least one poem about Cage—and his writing is as lucid as ever here.
Richard Kostelanetz writes very well about modern avant-garde music.
Those are just off the top of my head. I'd have to dig into my library for more.