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I’m a music lover. Not an expert by any means, but after many years of listening to, and enjoying a lot of different kinds of music, something dawned on me the other day. A novel is a lot like a symphony.
Really. Bear with me, and enjoy the following Youtube video as you read on.
A novel has to have a theme. So does a symphony. Listen to Beethoven’s Fifth and hum along. Dah-dah-dah DA! Dah-dah-dah DA! If you listen to the entire symphony, you’ll see that this theme repeats throughout the whole piece, sometimes exactly the same, sometimes with variations. You’re still humming it after you’ve left the concert, right? A novel is the same. The theme comes at the reader throughout the entire book, sometimes in a subtle way, and sometimes it’s spelled out. And you still feel it resonating long ater you’ve read the last page.
A symphony is three-dimensional, just as a novel should be. There are all kinds of different instruments, playing in harmony or possibly countering the main melody. A novel has its main theme and characters, but there are subplots and secondary characters as well. And they all need to work together to form a cohesive whole that’s interesting and engaging and challenging to the listener or reader.
A complex musical piece will draw you in and carry you along until you reach a peak, then ease you back down. It pulls you up again, to a climax, just as a good book will do. There are twists and turns in each that keep you rivited in your seat as you wait for the next note, or the next page. Finally, they will both let you down to a satisfying finale, where all the threads come together in a way that makes sense to the ears, the heart, and the mind.
What do you think? Am I right? Are there any other kinds of arts that compare to each other this way?
Filed in: Jaunty Post
May 29th
2009
9:52 am
kristan higgins Said:
A very nice metaphor, Margo!
There’s nothing like a book that stays with you. I love when I look back at a story and see how the pieces fit together so perfectly. Which brings me to my own, much lamer metaphor…a puzzle. For me, writing a book is like putting together one of those agonizing three-dimensional puzzles…you know everything fits together somehow, but you have to turn the pieces over and over and look at the structure from all angles.
Then again, maybe I’ve been doing too many Lego models with my son…
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May 29th
2009
10:05 am
RobynDeHart Said:
Great metaphor, Margo! I’ve always felt that paintings sort of mimic novels, or at least the writing of them. That being said, I’ve barely painted anything in my life. But I know they often start with a sketch and then slowly layer in the details and shading, carefully selecting their color palette.
Kristan, I like your puzzle analogy, today, in particular, that rings true for me.
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May 29th
2009
3:13 pm
Shirley Karr Said:
I’ve sometimes likened a short story or a short novel to a charcoal sketch, whereas the long books I write are more like sofa-sized oil paintings — more layers and details that a sketch just can’t accommodate. A good sketch artist tells a complete story very efficiently. I’m not an efficient writer.
Someone recently pointed out to me the parallels between novels and poetry. Just as with music, words have a rhythym. Read them out loud, and the wrong word or phrasing will be just as jarring as a wrong note in a symphony.
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May 29th
2009
9:39 pm
Emily McKay Said:
What a great analogy Margo. I really envy composers sometimes, because their medium seems to convey emotion so much better than ours. When I listen to a really great piece of music, I find myself wishing I could do that. We tell stories, but they deliver a shot of emotion straight into the heart.
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