I remember finding it odd, and perhaps unconvincing, that Alex’s musical obsession in A Clockwork Orange was Ludwig Van and not some modern popular music. Burgess wrote his novel just a bit before The Beatles, so he didn’t have their music available as a model, but perhaps an Elvis figure would have worked.
In many respects, the novel is full of the anxieties of the late 50s, over everything from communism to juvenile delinquency (when’s the last time you heard that term?). Whereas Alex’s love of Beethoven probably reflects Burgess’s youthful experience of music pre-WWII and his thwarted ambitions to be a composer.
Cribbing from Wikipedia, I find this quote of his after first hearing a Debussy flute solo as a boy: “psychedelic moment ... a recognition of verbally inexpressible spiritual realities.”
That’s still the way we talk about music that’s considered great. For example, a couple days ago in a NYTimes guest essay, Ian Leslie (The Ruffian substack) wrote: “Beatles songs still speak to us so directly because they are vehicles for the transmission of feelings too powerful for normal speech.”
I think it's meant to show that Alex has some deeper nobility, and he's not like the other hoodlums. It's kind of a Save the Cat moment for him. I've never read the novel though, only seen the film!
Yes, it's just very hard to write anything accurate about music! And yet it feels like there's some need to do it, some need to assure people that yes there really is something here, underneath all the hype. And yet parodoxically our words only add another layer of hype
It might be interesting to discuss here novels where music is an important element and see how it’s handled, how the music is described, and how it affects the characters. A Clockwork Orange might be a good place to start.
I seem to recall that music is the connection that Leonard Bast and the Schlegel sisters have in Howards End. And DeLillo tackled what it’s like to be a rock star in Great Jones Street.
Or perhaps a look at novelists who do and don’t have music in their novels. Faulkner? Can’t recall anything. But I’m pretty sure Eudora Welty wrote a short story that tried to capture the experience of jazz in a nightclub. And I’m sure someone like Thomas Mann touched on symphonies and the like, but again I’m drawing a blank. Is there music up on the magic mountain?
I really appreciate your perspective on things! I have not always loved classical music but as an adult I kinda forced it on myself. I prefer the faster paced pieces, like Ride of the Valkyrie. (Wagner was also a massive anti semite). I saw Swan Lake a few years ago and now think Tchaikovsky invented music. I go to the ballet often and Swan Lake has the best, most memorable music of any I've seen. I also love Beethoven; whenever I hear a new piece and love it - it's always Beethoven. I like Mozart's The Magic Flute - he composed lots of splendid music.
I havent been to the symphony yet (they play a lot of music to famous movies which I find trite) but there is some regular music I'm eager to listen to soon. I love cellos and violins the most and actively search for music on Spotify!
I only listen to music to daydream, not feel feelings so my repertoire is pretty concentrated. I need my music to do some lifting! Heh.
I'm surprised more people don't openly like the opera or symphony when they grew up on Looney Tunes who played a lot of it and introduced an entire generation to it! Though I remember seeing a girl talking about her favorite Vivaldi and I found her pretentious. In retrospect, I was probably projecting. She wasn't an expert, just musing. And having now listened to Vivaldi, I like Winter best.
That's true! Those looney tunes did us such a service by giving us this pre-familiarity with this music. Thanks for the recommendations!
Yes, I've never actually met a classical music person at a regular party, but maybe now that I am one, they will come out of the wild and we can be snobs together
Yes my mother in law won't even allow classical music as background music at all! Like when we are in the car with her it needs to be dead silent (she hates popular music too). She can only listen to classical music when she has sat down for that express purpose.
I remember finding it odd, and perhaps unconvincing, that Alex’s musical obsession in A Clockwork Orange was Ludwig Van and not some modern popular music. Burgess wrote his novel just a bit before The Beatles, so he didn’t have their music available as a model, but perhaps an Elvis figure would have worked.
In many respects, the novel is full of the anxieties of the late 50s, over everything from communism to juvenile delinquency (when’s the last time you heard that term?). Whereas Alex’s love of Beethoven probably reflects Burgess’s youthful experience of music pre-WWII and his thwarted ambitions to be a composer.
Cribbing from Wikipedia, I find this quote of his after first hearing a Debussy flute solo as a boy: “psychedelic moment ... a recognition of verbally inexpressible spiritual realities.”
That’s still the way we talk about music that’s considered great. For example, a couple days ago in a NYTimes guest essay, Ian Leslie (The Ruffian substack) wrote: “Beatles songs still speak to us so directly because they are vehicles for the transmission of feelings too powerful for normal speech.”
I think it's meant to show that Alex has some deeper nobility, and he's not like the other hoodlums. It's kind of a Save the Cat moment for him. I've never read the novel though, only seen the film!
Yes, it's just very hard to write anything accurate about music! And yet it feels like there's some need to do it, some need to assure people that yes there really is something here, underneath all the hype. And yet parodoxically our words only add another layer of hype
It might be interesting to discuss here novels where music is an important element and see how it’s handled, how the music is described, and how it affects the characters. A Clockwork Orange might be a good place to start.
I seem to recall that music is the connection that Leonard Bast and the Schlegel sisters have in Howards End. And DeLillo tackled what it’s like to be a rock star in Great Jones Street.
Or perhaps a look at novelists who do and don’t have music in their novels. Faulkner? Can’t recall anything. But I’m pretty sure Eudora Welty wrote a short story that tried to capture the experience of jazz in a nightclub. And I’m sure someone like Thomas Mann touched on symphonies and the like, but again I’m drawing a blank. Is there music up on the magic mountain?
I think it's more Dr Faustus, Manns Faust, where Leverkuhn is a composer
I really appreciate your perspective on things! I have not always loved classical music but as an adult I kinda forced it on myself. I prefer the faster paced pieces, like Ride of the Valkyrie. (Wagner was also a massive anti semite). I saw Swan Lake a few years ago and now think Tchaikovsky invented music. I go to the ballet often and Swan Lake has the best, most memorable music of any I've seen. I also love Beethoven; whenever I hear a new piece and love it - it's always Beethoven. I like Mozart's The Magic Flute - he composed lots of splendid music.
I havent been to the symphony yet (they play a lot of music to famous movies which I find trite) but there is some regular music I'm eager to listen to soon. I love cellos and violins the most and actively search for music on Spotify!
I only listen to music to daydream, not feel feelings so my repertoire is pretty concentrated. I need my music to do some lifting! Heh.
I'm surprised more people don't openly like the opera or symphony when they grew up on Looney Tunes who played a lot of it and introduced an entire generation to it! Though I remember seeing a girl talking about her favorite Vivaldi and I found her pretentious. In retrospect, I was probably projecting. She wasn't an expert, just musing. And having now listened to Vivaldi, I like Winter best.
So yay classical music!
That's true! Those looney tunes did us such a service by giving us this pre-familiarity with this music. Thanks for the recommendations!
Yes, I've never actually met a classical music person at a regular party, but maybe now that I am one, they will come out of the wild and we can be snobs together
Yes my mother in law won't even allow classical music as background music at all! Like when we are in the car with her it needs to be dead silent (she hates popular music too). She can only listen to classical music when she has sat down for that express purpose.