List of composers in literature
Appearance
This list includes fictional representations of real (named) composers and musicians, and fictional characters under other names that are generally agreed to be based on a specific composer, or sometimes a composite of several.
- Esther Meynell: The Little Chronicle of Magdalena Bach (1925)[1]
- James Runcie: The Great Passion (2022)[2]
- Rebecca West: Harriet Hume (1929) (The title character based on Harriet Cohen)[3]
- Andrew Crumey: Beethoven's Assassins (2023)
- Jessica Duchan: Immortal (2020)[4]
- Sanford Friedman: Conversations with Beethoven (1980s, published in 2014)[5]
- Paul Griffiths: Mr Beethoven (2020)[6]
- Esther Meynell: Grave Fairytale (1931) (as Melchior)[7]
- Elizabeth Sara Sheppard: Rumour: A Novel (1858) (as Rodomant)[8]
- John Suchet: The Last Master (1997–99) (fictional biography in three volumes)
- Dorothy Baker: Young Man With a Horn (1938)
- Elizabeth Sara Sheppard: Charles Auchester (1853) (as Starwood Burney)[8]
- Anthony Burgess: Mozart & the Wolf Gang (1991)[5]
- Jude Morgan: Symphony (2006)[9]
- Elizabeth Sara Sheppard: Charles Auchester (1853) (as Florimond Anastasa)[10]
- Nancy Mitford: The Pursuit of Love (1945) (as Lord Merlin)[11]
- Osbert Sitwell: 'The Love Bird' from Dumb Animal and Other Stories (1930) (as Sir Robert Mainwroth)[10]
- Mary Sharratt: Illuminations (2012)[5]
- F. Scott Fitzgerald: Tender is The Night (1934) (as Tommy Barban)[12]
- Ian McEwan: Amsterdam (1998) (Clive Linley, correspondencies with Britten)[13]
- George Borrow: Lavengro (1851) (as editor of the "Universal Review")[10]
- George Sand: Lucrezia Floriani (1846)[14]
- Nell Stevens: Briefly, a Delicious Life (2022)[15]
- William Gerhardie: Pending Heaven (1930) (as Helen Sapphire)[3]
- D H Lawrence: Kangeroo (1923) (as Harriet)[16]
- Rebecca West: Harriet Hume (1929)[16]
- Elizabeth Sara Sheppard: Charles Auchester (1853) (as St Michel)[10]
- Charles Brackett: Entirely Surrounded (1934) (as Nick Farraday)[10]
- Beverley Nichols: Death to Slow Music (as Nigel Fleet)[10]
- David Pownall: Facade (radio play, 2002)
- Nigel Balchin: Darkness Falls From the Air (1942) (as the poet Stephen Ryle)[17]
- Pierre La Mure: Clair de lune (1962)[18]
- Marcel Proust: À la recherche du temps perdu (1913-27) (aspects of Vinteuil, see also Franck and Saint-Saëns)[19]
- E. M. Forster: Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905) (as Philip Herriton)[19]
- Rosemary Tonks: The Bloater (1968) (as Jenny)[20]
- George Moore: Evelyn Innes (1898) (as the father of Evelyn)[21]
- Keith Alldritt: Elgar on the Journey to Hanley: A Novel (1979)
- Anthony Burgess: Mozart & the Wolf Gang (1991)[5]
- James Hamilton-Paterson: Gerontius (1989)[5]
- David Pownall: Elgar’s Rondo (1993)[22]
- David Pownall: Elgar’s Third (1994)[22]
- Marcel Proust: À la recherche du temps perdu (1913-27) (aspects of Vinteuil, see also Debussy and Saint-Saëns)
- Anthony Burgess: Mozart & the Wolf Gang (1991)[5]
- Mitchell James Kaplan. Rhapsody (2021)[23]
- George Kaufman and Moss Hart: Merrily We Roll Along (1934) (as Sam Frankl)[19]
- David Pownall: Music to Murder By (1976)[22]
- George Moore: A Mummer's Wife (1885) (as Montgomery)[10]
- Inez Baranay: Pagan (1990)
- Louis Nowra: The Devil is a Woman (2004)
- Christopher Miller: Sudden Noises from Inanimate Objects: A Novel in Liner Notes (2004)[24]
- H.D.: Bid Me to Live (1960) (as Vane)[25]
- Aldous Huxley: Antic Hay (1923) (as the critic Mercaptan)
- D.H.Lawrence: Aaron's Rod (1922) (as Cyril Scott)[10]
- D.H.Lawrence: Kangaroo (1923) (as James Sharpe)[10]
- Anthony Powell: Casanova's Chinese Restaurant (Maclintick and Gossege as a composite)[26]
- Willa Cather: The Professor's House (as the professor's son-in-law, Louie Marsellus)[27]
- Nick Drake: All the Angels: Handel and the First Messiah (2015)
- Hermann Hesse: The Glass Bead Game (1943) (as model for Joculator Basiliensis ("the player from Basel").
- Otto Stoessl ': Sonnenmelodie (1923)
- Franz Werfel: Verdi. Roman der Oper (1924) (as Matthias Fischboeck)
- Elizabeth Sara Sheppard: Charles Auchester (1853) (as Charles Auchester)[8]
- Elizabeth Sara Sheppard: Charles Auchester (1853) (as Lenhart Davy)[10]
- C F Keary: The Journalist (1898) (as Hauch)[28]
- Stevie Smith: Novel on Yellow Paper (1936) (as Herman)[29]
- Elizabeth Sara Sheppard: Charles Auchester (1853) (as Charles Auchester)[10]
- David Pownall: Master Class (1982)[22]
- Anthony Powell: Casanova's Chinese Restaurant (as Moreland)[30]
- David Pownall: Facade (radio play, 2002)
- Robert Graves: Wife to Mr Milton (1942)
- Bernice Rubens: Madame Sousatzka (1962)[31]
- Daniel Stern: Nélida (1846)[32]
- Susanne Dunlap: Liszt's Kiss (2007)
- George Eliot: Daniel Deronda (1876) (aspects of Julius Klesmer, see also Rubenstein)[33]
- Henry Reed: The Private Life of Hilda Tablet (1954) (as Tablet)[34]
- Ronald Harwood: Mahler’s Conversion (2001)[37]
- Thomas Mann: Death in Venice (aspects of the author Aschenbach)[38]
- Stefan Zweig: The Return of Gustav Mahler (1915), semi-fictional essay[39]
Florence Ashton Marshall (and her sister, the clarinettist Frances Marshall)
- Bertha Thomas: The Violin Player (1880)[40]
- Peter Härtling: Liebste Fenchel (2011)
- Elizabeth Sara Sheppard: Charles Auchester (1853) (as Maria Cerinthea)[10]
- Anthony Burgess: Mozart & the Wolf Gang (1991)[5]
- Pierre La Mure: Beyond Desire (1955)[41]
- Elizabeth Sara Sheppard: Charles Auchester (1853) (as Seraphael)[8]
- Sonia Orchard: The Virtuosso (2009)[42]
- Anthony Burgess: Mozart & the Wolf Gang (1991)[5]
- Stephanie Cowell: Marrying Mozart (2004)
- Alexander Pushkin: Mozart and Salieri (1830)
- Peter Shaffer: Amadeus (1979)
- George Bernard Shaw: Love Among the Artists (1881) (as Owen Jack)[8]
- Carl Ginsburg: Medicine Journeys: Ten Stories (Center Press, 1983) (as Mrs Todd Ashby)[43]
- Arnold Bennett: The Lion's Share (1916) {as Roussel)[19]
- Anthony Burgess: Mozart & the Wolf Gang (1991)[5]
- Bernice Rubens: Madame Souzatzka (1962) (as Manek)[44]
- George Eliot: Daniel Deronda (1876) (aspects of Julius Klesmer, see also Liszt)[19]
- Marcel Proust: À la recherche du temps perdu (1913-27) (aspects of Vinteuil, see also Debussy and Franck)
- Alexander Pushkin: Mozart and Salieri (1830)
- Peter Shaffer: Amadeus (1979)
- Edmund Crispen: Holy Disorders (1945) (as Geoffrey Vintner)[45]
- Caitlin Horrocks: Vexations (2019)[46]
- Thomas Mann: Doctor Faustus (1947) (aspects of Adrian Leverkühn, see also Wolf)[47]
- Peter Härtling: Schubert: A Novel (1995)
- Gaëlle Josse: Un été à quatre mains
- Janice Galloway: Clara (2004)[48]
- Elisabeth Kyle: Duet: The Story of Robert and Clara Schumann (1968)
- J. D. Landis: Longing (2000)[49]
- Jessica Duchen: Ghost Variations (2016)[50]
- Elisabeth Kyle: Duet: The Story of Robert and Clara Schumann (1968)
- Peter Härtling: Schumanns Schatten (1996)
- Julian Barnes: The Noise of Time (2016)[5]
- David Pownall: Master Class (1982)[22]
- Sarah Quigley: The Conductor (2012)[51]
- William T. Vollmann: Europe Central (2005)[52]
- Simon Boswell: The Seven Symphonies: A Finnish Murder Mystery (2005)[53]
- Caroline J Sinclair: My Music, My Drinking & Me (2015) (fictionalised memoir)[54]
- E. F. Benson: Dodo (1893) (as Edith Stains)[8]
- Christopher Miller: Sudden Noises from Inanimate Objects: A Novel in Liner Notes (2004)[55]
- Russell Hoban. My Tango with Barbara Strozzi (2007) ((as modern day Bertha Strunk)[5]
- Mitchell James Kaplan. Rhapsody (2021)[23]
- Barbara Quick: Vivaldi's Virgins (2007)[5]
- Lord Berners: Count Omega (1941) (as Emmanuel Smith)[57]
- David Pownall: Facade (radio play, 2002)
- Anthony Burgess: Mozart & the Wolf Gang (1991)[5]
- Frank Baker: The Birds (1936) (as Paul Weaver)
- Ralph Bates: Dead End of the Sky (1937) (as Robert Durand)[58]
- Robertson Davies: A Mixture of Frailties (1958) (as Giles Revelstoke)[59]
- Aldous Huxley: Antic Hay (1923) (as Coleman)[60]
- D. H. Lawrence: Women in Love (1921) (as Julius Halliday)[60]
- Anthony Powell: Casanova's Chinese Restaurant (1960) (aspects of Maclintick)
- David Pownall: Music to Murder By (1976)[22]
- Jean Rhys: Till September Petronella (short story, 1930s) (as Julian Oakes)[61]
- Osbert Sitwell: Those Were the Days (1938) (as Roy Hartle)
- Thomas Mann: Doctor Faustus (1947) (aspects of Adrian Leverkühn, see also Schoenberg)[62]
- Elizabeth Sara Sheppard: Charles Auchester (1853) (as Aronach)[10]
Further reading
[edit]- Amos, William: The Originals: Who's Really Who in Fiction? (1985)
- Rintoul, M.C. Dictionary of Real People and Places in Fiction (2014)
- Rushworth, Jennifer; Scott, Hannah; Ife, Barry Ife (eds.): Song in the Novel (2024)
- Weliver, Phyllis. The Musical Crowd in English Fiction (2006)
- Weliver, Phyllis. Women Musicians in Victorian Fiction, 1860-1900 (2000)
- Art in Fiction website
- List of composers depicted on film
References
[edit]- ^ A. H. Weiler. "Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968)" in The New York Times, April 7, 1969
- ^ Erin Douglass. 'A novel envisions what it would be like to study with Bach', Christian Science Monitor, 29 April 2022
- ^ a b Corymbus: The Music That Time Forgot
- ^ Duchan, Jessica. Immortal at Unbound
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Freya Parr. 'Ten of the best (and worst) novels about composers', BBC Music Magazine, 26 February 2019
- ^ New York Review of Books, 26 October, 2021
- ^ British Musician and Musical News, Vol. 7 no 67, July 1931, p. 153
- ^ a b c d e f Weliver, Phyllis. The Musical Crowd in English Fiction (2006)
- ^ review, Publishers Weekly
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m M.C. Rintoul: Dictionary of Real People and Places in Fiction (2014)
- ^ Amory, Mark. Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric (1999)
- ^ The Letters of Scott Fitzgerald, ed. Andrew Turnbull (1964), p. 570
- ^ Robert E Kohn. 'The Fivesquare "Amsterdam" of Ian McEwan', in Critical Survey, Vol. 16, No. 1 (2004), pp. 89-106
- ^ Diedre Bair. 'Getting even with Chopin', in The New York Times, 11 August 1985, Section 7, p.9
- ^ Pan Macmillian
- ^ a b Fry, Helen. Music & men : the life and loves of Harriet Cohen (2008)
- ^ Collett, Derek (2015). His Own Executioner: The Life of Nigel Balchin. SilverWood. ISBN 978-1-78132-391-5.
- ^ Claire de Lune review, Montreal Gazette, 24 November, 1962
- ^ a b c d e f Amos, William. The Originals: Who's Really Who in Fiction (1990)
- ^ Audrey Wollen. 'The Writer Who Burned Her Own Books', in The New Yorker, 3 January, 2023
- ^ Richard Lines. 'George Moore's Evelyn Innes', in The Norwood Review No 174 (2008)
- ^ a b c d e f g The Composer Plays, Oberon (1996)
- ^ a b Rhapsody, by Mitchell James Kaplan
- ^ Alex Ross, The Rest is Noise blog (2004)
- ^ Leo Hamalian (1996). D.H. Lawrence and Nine Women Writers. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-8386-3603-9.
- ^ Spurling, Hilary: Dancing to the Music of Time, Hamish Hamilton, 2017
- ^ 'Willa Cather and the Professor's House', in Western American Literature, Vol. 7, No. 1, A Willa Cather Issue (Spring 1972), pp. 13-24
- ^ Boyle, Andrew J. Delius and Norway (2017), p. 175
- ^ Bluemel, Kristin. George Orwell and the Radical Eccentrics: Intermodernism in Literary London (2004), Chapter 1, p.27-66
- ^ Lloyd, Stephen. Constant Lambert: Beyond The Rio Grande. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2014. ISBN 978-1-84383-898-2
- ^ Allis, Michael. Temporaries and Eternals: The Music Criticism of Aldous Huxley (2013), p. 56
- ^ Nélida, Suny Press
- ^ Walker, Alan. Franz Liszt: The Weimar Years, 1848–1861 (1989), p. 250
- ^ Henry Reed: Hilda Tablet and Others, BBC Books, London, 1971
- ^ Art in Fiction: The Artist's Wife
- ^ Art in Fiction. Ecstacy
- ^ Faber, Mahler's Conversion
- ^ 'Thomas Mann', Mahler Foundation
- ^ Werley, Matthew. Mahler in Context (2020), Chapter 32, 'Influences in Literature'
- ^ Shannon Draucker. Sounding Bodies: Acoustical Science and Musical Erotics in Victorian Literature (2024)
- ^ Beyond Desire review, The Age. 12 December, 1956
- ^ Harper Collins, The Virtuosso
- ^ 'Helen Adie', at Gurdjieff Club
- ^ Flynn, Jessica (4 May 2010). "Tributes paid to piano great Harold Rubens". South Wales Echo. Cardiff. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
- ^ Whittle, David. Bruce Montgomery/Edmund Crispin: A Life in Music and Books (2008)
- ^ Art in Fiction: Vexations
- ^ Jack M Stein. Adrian Leverkühn as a Composer, Germanic Review, Vol. 25 (1950)
- ^ Penguin Books
- ^ Art in Fiction. Longing
- ^ Art in Fiction. Ghost Variations
- ^ Art in Fiction: The Conductor
- ^ Helga Schwalm. 'Imagining Compromised Creativity: Art and Fear in Shostakovich Bio-Fiction', in Slavonica, Volume 25, 2020 - Issue 1
- ^ sevensymphonies.com
- ^ GoodReads
- ^ Alex Ross, The Rest is Noise blog (2004)
- ^ Eyles, Allen (1986). Sherlock Holmes: A Centenary Celebration. Harper & Row. pp. 118-119. ISBN 0-06-015620-1.
- ^ Lloyd, Stephen. William Walton: Muse of Fire (2002)
- ^ Bates, Ralph. Rainbow Fish: Four Short Novels (1937)
- ^ Allis, Michael. 'From Musicology to Novel: Reassessing Robertson Davies's Literary Representation of Peter Warlock', in University of Toronto Quarterly (Winter 2019)
- ^ a b Smith, Barry. Peter Warlock: The Life of Philip Heseltine (1994)
- ^ Angier, Carole. Jean Rhys: Life and Work (1998)
- ^ Stokes, Richard. The Complete Songs of Hugo Wolf: Life, Letters, Lieder (2020)