Musical fiction
It has been said that music is the art of thinking with sounds. But is it possible to capture the sound of music in prose? In Twelve Bar Blues Patrick Neate is inspred by jazz's syncopated rhythms and he structures his novel by pulling different narrative strands together around a central theme. Similarly Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man takes the rhythms of music and presents a prose that embodies jazz and explores the literary possibilities of musical rhythmn. James Fenton’s The Love Bomb and Other Musical Pieces is a book which consists of three dramatic pieces, all commissioned to be performed with music: two libretti and the text of an oratorio. Christopher Miller's Simon Silber: Works for Solo Piano gives us a fictional biography of a musician as told through liner notes acocompanying a selection of the man's music.
suggested reading Twelve Bar Blues The Invisible Man Simon Silber: Works for Solo Piano The Love Bomb and Other Musical Pieces
Author interviews
