Musical Manuscripts

I have never been accused of musical prowess, in fact my daughter, when she was two, used to cover my mouth when I sang, so my skill is limited. Even my knowledge is limited. I have a friend Leanne who is a violist and bibliophile, and occasionally delights in a book she’s found with musical references or clues—me? They would fly completely over my head, wasted on my ignorance of classical music.

That is NOT to say I don’t like or enjoy music—I love it. It just isn’t something that is easily filed in my brain. HOWEVER, I think for writing books there are some fabulous uses of musical references.

Character

In A Field of Darkness, which I reviewed a couple weeks ago, there is a dive bar with a juke box which is used really nicely to contrast the world views of Madeline, the heroine, and Kenny, the dive bar owner who is a friend, though of a different generation (an ex-military man). They bicker about what he has on it, and without ever having to give huge amounts of background, we can easily see deep differences in these people that give us clues who they are.

I think musical preferences can relay very quickly some important information about who a character is, how and where they were raised, what they value… Classical music junkies are likely to be either elite or classically educated. Country music listeners can be believed to hold certain wholesome (if slightly red-necked) beliefs, or else come from a town (or state) where everybody knows everybody’s business. Pop music. Rap. Heavy metal. Punk rock. All of it says something about the listener.

Setting

The mood of a jazz bar is definitively different from the mood of a hard rock club or a country bar—the kind of trouble a person might find is very different, too. A reference to what is playing in the background shortens the description you need to include by pages.

Timing

Pop cultural music can set your story in an era, without having to identify a date. There is a danger to this if you want your book to be less time bound—choosing bands with better longevity might help, but with LEGACY, I am setting the story in the early 80s in Portland, and my cues are musical (Quarterflash, Portland’s one-hit wonder, was big at the time), and that Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard is still called Union Avenue. I needed that timing because I wanted it before the Iron Curtain fell, but I chose the clues I did, so as not to be heavy handed.

Mood

I think my favorite use of music in literature (and movies) is Pavlovian. Creepy scene, accompanied by a certain music… repeat… and by time three, the music alone is enough to make us shiver. Think of The Shining. There reaches a point where Jack hears the music coming from the bar and we all KNOW it is not the empty bar he will find. The music is calling him to his madness.

I’d love to hear how others have included music in their work, or about works you’ve read where it really added (or detracted) from the story.