The use of Music in Stories

[MLyons]

Hello all.

As a matter of pure curiosity:

I'm wondering if it's even possible to effectively use music in a story. Obviously different music has different meanings to everyone, and making reference to specific songs is a dangerous proposition at best. I'm wondering if there aren't other approaches that might be more effective and sophisticated than this--and still get across similar feelings and reactions that a well placed piece of music mgiht be able to convey in a movie or play. Can you do this in writing? Is it even possible? Is it even worth trying?

Have any of you come across stories on Lit that, in your opinion make effective use of music as an emotional stimulant?

I would also request that we save discussions of copyright violations for another thread. I'm not asking about quoting lyrics, I'm asking about the legitimacy of using music as a device in literature?

Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[dr_mabeuse]

This is something I feel rather strongly about. Music shouldn’t be used in stories, unless it’s a piece that’s so well known that it’s just like cultural background music.

When you talk about the someone playing the Vapid’s “Fuck Me Deadly” as background music to a scene, you’re (1) dating your story, (2) alienating all the people who have no idea what this music sounds like, (3) assuming that other people have the same associataions with the music athat you do (they almost certainly don't), and (4) taking a terribly lazy way out of trying to establish a mood by letting soemone else's work do it for you. It just doesn’t work.

The only thing worse than having music in a story is having a sexy dancing scene in a story. Slow dancing is okay, but I have yet to see a description of modern dancing that is anything but laughable. It just doesn’t translate into words and the dancers some out looking like goons.

---dr.M.

 

[CharleyH]

I don't know Dr. M, I both agree and disagree. Describing someone actually dancing is a daunting task at the best of times, but I do believe, like you, that a slow, sexy dance can be articulated.

Music can set a mood or tone, and a simple description will give a reader a sense of a piece of music, example, "A slow, sad lullaby," or "the thrashing pound of . . .whatever." The song itself, because it is in a story, has significance to a character, perhaps not the same significance it has to me, but certainly it's there because of either it's symbology, or because the purpose is to date. Sometimes, it's the particular lyrics that have significance, and so including a line or two, well, why not.

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

The one thing that both Elvis Costello and Frank Zappa have in common, is that they are both credited with the same quote: "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture."

With that in mind, one writes about music, dancing and architecture with the utmost trepidation.

 

[Xelebes]

Avoid naming specific tunes but just subtly describe the general sound of it, like "a soft sax bellowing" or "clashing guitars". Keep it generic but allude to what makes the music so pertinent to the story.

 

[gauchecritic]

I've read quite a few stories (RL books) that have tried to describe music and I've still to find a succesful one. I'd say that the only reason the authors at Lit can succesfully describe sex is because everyone (including virgins) have a common base from which to work, the same isn't true about music.

When I read a passage on Lit. that tries to evoke the sense of smell of sex, that too has never worked for me, neither has taste come to think of it.

The major problem here is that we are using words which, for all their vast variety are very limited when it comes to describing emotive senses.

Lots of PMs contain phrases like "I could see them there", "I felt what she was feeling", "I could imagine the scene", "You paint a vivid picture" or describe how a certain passage made them feel.

So it seems to me that words are limited to transmitting pictures and feelings (thoughts) rather than specific senses, other than imagined sight.

On the taste thing, I managed to create (or fall upon) a quite successful scene involving eating breakfast. I think the success wasn't because the readers could taste what I described but could empathise with the 'feelings' engendered in the characters in that scene. Essentially I managed to transmit the sight and feelings about taste rather than taste per se.

So:

"As the violins shrilled their cadence, striving towards the climax of the movement, the pulse in my throat betrayed a similar crescendo beating its own tattoo in accompaniment, as his fingers played virtuoso on my outer lips"

Doesn't describe the music but the feelings music arouses or accompanies. A kind of pathetic fallacy for strings.

Gauche

"As his fingers played virtuoso on my outer lips."??????? WTF?

 

[dr_mabeuse]

The one thing that both Elvis Costello and Frank Zappa have in common, is that they are both credited with the same quote: "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture."

With that in mind, one writes about music, dancing and architecture with the utmost trepidation.

Far as I know that quote is originally from Thelonious Sphere Monk, the great modern cubist of jazz. Knowing Monk, that's like something he would say.

(BTW, Monk was famous for getting up during other people's solos and dancing by his piano bench. He would stand there and sway like a great, shaggy bear, hearing things no one else has ever heard.)

---Zoot

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

IMHO,

Using the titles of songs in a story is a lot like using dialect, unless you're another Frank McCourt (Angela's Ashes) it should done sparingly, with great care, and as others have said, the song better be damn near universally recognizable. Most of the time you're better off using generic tags such as, "elevator music" "a slow, romantic ballad" "loud rock" "something classical" "show tunes" "Lawrence Welk crap."

This applies to both written and spoken stories. For some reason, very few recorded books have ever used music well. A rare exception was Stephen King's "Hearts of Atlantis."

Rumple Foreskin