TIG: When music is part of a story

[Irene]

The first thought that popped into my head was the 80's music in Ready Player One. The description of Wade waking up to Wham's "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" had me laughing out loud as I was listening to that audio book.

However, I'm thinking that you're looking for a more thoughtful response. So...a book that moved me, in good part because of the music and dancing, was Memoirs of a Geisha.

I'm curious to see what other titles are mentioned here.

[Walrus]

I listened to Rush - Moving Pictures over and over when I was creating a Board Game based on the book Brave New World (not the Album/Song of the same name) for a High School English project.

[Irene]

Not to go off on a Rush tangent, but they are amazing. Several years ago when I was teaching Fahrenheit 451, I used "The Trees" as an example of symbolism to introduce allegory. Then the students read Plato's "Allegory of the Cave." Then we analyzed the allusions to Plato in the Bradbury novel.

Numerous students loved the song, were hooked for the lesson, and made some phenomenal connections between the song, the allegory and the novel.

Love Rush! Plus, they have the best example of alliteration that students always remember: "And the magic music makes your morning mood."

[Walrus]

+Irene, that's great!

[Erick]

Haha, I like the Rush tangent!

When there are songs in a story, do you find yourself trying to sing them out? I always try to work out what it sounds like in my mind, but maybe I don't have a good enough ear for music, because I usually find that I can't work out a good tune or else it sounds really simplistic. It does make the bus ride more interesting (for me, maybe not anyone that has to listen to me)!

[Sam]

Erick, I try to sound it out sometimes. But you bring up an interesting point.

Though I wouldn't accuse it of ruining my imagination's version of it, the audiobook version of Kay's A Song for Arbonne has the music sung a capella by the reader (Euan Mortan, who apparently sings and acts on the stage for a living). That book uses in-world music and poetry to underscore emotions and incite (some) of the forward motion in the plot and adding in the emotion behind the words through the actual singing just punctuates those portions so much more clearly in my mind. To the point that I once started mapping out where all the song passages started, though I never finished.

[Erick]

I'd be interested in hearing an audio version and comparing it to what I hear in my head; the audio for Tigana doesn't do the same, does it?

And somewhat unrelated to fantasy, but there's a comic series through Image called Phonogram, by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie. I only read the first volume, but the premise is that music is used as a form of magic by Phonomancers that create mix tapes to entrance people and tap into mystical connections with other times and Britannia herself and such. Its pretty fun, and the creators integrate a lot of their musical influences, like the first volume is dedicated to Britpop. Might be up your alley!