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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.168.160.222
Posted on Saturday, September 05, 2009 - 03:57 pm:   

What's your favourite fiction about music or music-based in some way?

My latest real-time review is about a music fiction anthology where I describe one of the stories as a 'mosh pit of words':-

http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/extended_play.htm
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Steve Jensen (Stevej)
Username: Stevej

Registered: 07-2009
Posted From: 82.0.77.233
Posted on Saturday, September 05, 2009 - 04:08 pm:   

Amadeus, Miloš Forman's film of Peter Schaffer's play.
Peerless.
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Steve Jensen (Stevej)
Username: Stevej

Registered: 07-2009
Posted From: 82.0.77.233
Posted on Saturday, September 05, 2009 - 04:09 pm:   

The above reply proves that I don't read posts very carefully. Doh!
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Stephen Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.4.18.104
Posted on Saturday, September 05, 2009 - 04:11 pm:   

'The Music Of Erich Zahn' by H.P. Lovecraft is the first one that springs to mind.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.168.160.222
Posted on Sunday, September 06, 2009 - 09:44 am:   

The fifth chapter of 'Howard's End' by EM Forster.
http://www.online-literature.com/forster/howards_end/5/
Only Connect.
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Stu (Stu)
Username: Stu

Registered: 04-2008
Posted From: 86.29.183.11
Posted on Sunday, September 06, 2009 - 10:12 am:   

Tubby the Tuba.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.26.90.161
Posted on Sunday, September 06, 2009 - 10:28 am:   

Ramsey's story about the choirboy - the name escapes me at the moment, tho.

Prepare for Joel's list . . .
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.26.90.161
Posted on Sunday, September 06, 2009 - 10:30 am:   

Des: "It is generally acknowledged that Beethoven's fifth symphony is the most remarkable sound ever to have touched men's ears..."

That one? I'm paraphrasing.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.110.142.76
Posted on Sunday, September 06, 2009 - 10:48 am:   

'The Rhythm of the Rats' by Eric Frank Russell
'Fluke' aka 'Die, Maestro, Die!' by Theodore Sturgeon
'Black Man With a Horn' by T.E.D. Klein
'Paulie Charmed the Sleeping Woman' by Harlan Ellison
'Black Country' by Charles Beaumont
'Snodgrass' by Ian R. MacLeod
'Did They Get You to Trade' by Karl Edward Wagner
YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN by Dorothy Baker
THE ARMAGEDDON RAG by George R.R. Martin
SAXOPHONE DREAMS by Nicholas Royle

...all unmissable. Most of the above are about jazz, and are therefore linked to Beat literature to some extent (though the Baker novel precedes it).
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.168.160.222
Posted on Sunday, September 06, 2009 - 10:49 am:   

"It will be generally admitted that Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is the most sublime noise that has ever penetrated into the ear of man."

Close, Gary. Very impressive.
The whole chapter is worth (re.)reading and is shown in full at link above.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.168.160.222
Posted on Sunday, September 06, 2009 - 10:51 am:   

Joel, have you read 'The Last Song' by Andrew Humphrey? It mentions a novel called 'From Blue to Black' by a certain Joel Lane.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.26.90.161
Posted on Sunday, September 06, 2009 - 11:00 am:   

One of my favourite books, Des.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.168.160.222
Posted on Sunday, September 06, 2009 - 11:03 am:   

And mine.
Only Connect.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.26.90.161
Posted on Sunday, September 06, 2009 - 11:05 am:   

The prose and the passion . . .
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Stu (Stu)
Username: Stu

Registered: 04-2008
Posted From: 86.29.183.11
Posted on Sunday, September 06, 2009 - 11:47 am:   

The chapters in THE RESTAURANT AT THE END OF THE UNIVERSE leading up to the rock concert where the music is so loud that it causes hundreds of miles of planetary crust to flip up in the air like a pancake.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Scriptbook: Once More With Feeling by Joss Whedon. Everyone in Sunnydale starts expressing their innermost feelings through song and dance.

Green Lantern: Mosaic #7. 'Ghost Dance' by Gerard Jones. An alien race appears that broadcasts strange rhythms which compel people to commit murder. Eventually Green Lantern realises that the aliens can only communicate through music and uses song lyrics to explain to them that they need to modify their rhythms and melodies so that they don't provoke homicidal tendencies everytime they try to have a chat with someone.

'The Hyper-Histrionic Headbang' by Alan Moore. A heavy metal band uses a huge spiralling canyon on a planet's surface as the grooves of a record then travel through time to use various historical events -- the first detonation of an atomic bomb, the eruption of Vesuvius etc -- as their percussion section.

The Uncanny X-Men #217. 'Folly's Gambit' by Chris Claremont. Reluctant superhero and former popstar Dazzler (whose powers consist of transforming music into laser beams) considers quitting the X-Men. A night in a Scottish pub singing and dancing to traditional Scottish music cheers her up a bit but then she runs into the unstoppable supervillain Juggernaut. A battle ensues even though Juggernaut is actually a fan of Dazzler's music and would rather just get her autograph before heading off to complete his dastardly plan. Ends with Juggernaut cradling Dazzler's lifeless body, bawling his eyes, distraught that he has killed his favourite singer. (More proof that Joss Whedon wouldn't be half as good at writing the conflicted relationships between his heroes and villains if he hadn't read Claremont's X-Men run.)
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Stephen Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.4.18.104
Posted on Sunday, September 06, 2009 - 02:36 pm:   

Some other music themed short horror stories I've read recently:

'Tcheriapin' (1922) by Sax Rohmer - the old story of the lesser man who murders a musical genius out of jealousy and is haunted by his music from beyond the grave.

'An American Organ' (1968) by Anthony Burgess - a classical composer himself whose theories of language as music were most apparent in 'A Clockwork Orange' - this story has a melody that inpires the player to murder in order to make the mood complete.

'Melody In A Minor Key' (1977) by Mary Williams - standard ghost story in which a dead wife returns in bewilderment to the murderous husband she still loves as a haunting melody only he can hear.

Also I'm about to read 'Tales Of Hoffmann' who in his day was famed for his talent as a composer almost as much as for his writing and whose works inspired many a famous later composer and through Offenbach's opera led to one of Powell & Pressburger's best films.
Bound to be musical content in there I'd have thought...
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Stu (Stu)
Username: Stu

Registered: 04-2008
Posted From: 86.29.178.81
Posted on Sunday, September 06, 2009 - 04:17 pm:   

'Nocturne' by John Connolly. Is the spooky piano music which keeps disturbing the narrator's son during the middle of the night somehow connected to the death of his other son?
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Giancarlo (Giancarlo)
Username: Giancarlo

Registered: 11-2008
Posted From: 85.116.228.3
Posted on Monday, September 07, 2009 - 07:11 am:   

Ramsey's "NEVER TO BE HEARD" to be found in Told by the Dead and Dark Terrors 3. I suppose that's the one about the choirboy reffered to by Gary?
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Giancarlo (Giancarlo)
Username: Giancarlo

Registered: 11-2008
Posted From: 85.116.228.3
Posted on Monday, September 07, 2009 - 07:42 am:   

...I gave a better look, it can be found in Dark Terrors 4, not 3...sorry! In Dark Terrors 3 Ramsey's "The Horror Under Warrendown" can be found instead.
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Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.176.105.47
Posted on Monday, September 07, 2009 - 11:04 am:   

King Rat by China Meiville - even though I hate Drum and Bass it almost made me want to listen to it.
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Stu (Stu)
Username: Stu

Registered: 04-2008
Posted From: 86.29.190.40
Posted on Monday, September 07, 2009 - 11:54 am:   

Green Lantern: Mosaic #14. 'The Sleep of Monsters Produces Reason' by Gerard Jones. The scene where Green Lantern hallucinates playing Irving Berlin's 'He Ain't Got Rhthym' on the piano (backed by other instruments created by his power ring) and improvises the chorus in the style of various jazz pianists -- Teddy Wilson, Bud Powell, Bill Evans and Oscar Peterson.

And although it's not my favourite Douglas Adams novel DIRK GENTLY'S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY deserves a mention for the scenes concerning the creation of music using mathematical formulae (I think -- been a while since I read it) and the scenes concerning Bach.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.21.23.83
Posted on Monday, September 07, 2009 - 02:08 pm:   

"A Little Night Music" by Lucius Shepard

"It Helps If You Sing" and "The Dark Show" by ye Landlord

"Night Shift Sister" by Nicholas Royle
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Matthew Fryer (Matthew_fryer)
Username: Matthew_fryer

Registered: 08-2009
Posted From: 90.202.180.75
Posted on Monday, September 07, 2009 - 08:35 pm:   

I agree about Mieville's "King Rat". He does an excellent job of working the intricacies of the music into the story, regardless of whether drum and bass is your cup of tea.

Also, the Aliens novel/comic spin-off "Music of the Spears" about a renegade musician who wants to capture an alien so he can sample its screams into his biggest and darkest ever composition. It made me want to hear it so much.
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 82.38.75.85
Posted on Monday, September 07, 2009 - 08:44 pm:   

Not sure if you'd class this as fiction about music? Joe Hill's "Heart-Shaped Box"
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Frank (Frank)
Username: Frank

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 213.158.199.80
Posted on Tuesday, September 08, 2009 - 08:55 am:   

What was that Ian Banks book, 'Canal Dreams'? What about Joel's novel?
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.168.160.222
Posted on Tuesday, September 08, 2009 - 09:00 am:   

I've just completed my review of 'Extended Play'.
A fiction world of music and weirdness.
At times a mosh pit of words.
It won the BFS award for best anthology a year or two ago.
http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/extended_play.htm
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.219.8.243
Posted on Tuesday, September 08, 2009 - 02:17 pm:   

My favourite novels about music:

Espedair Street by Ian Banks
From Blue to Black by Joel Lane
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Frank (Frank)
Username: Frank

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 213.158.199.99
Posted on Tuesday, September 08, 2009 - 03:38 pm:   

Ian Banks, Espedair Street, is that what I meant? I dunno?

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