Since my new series, the Cressa Carraway Musical Mysteries,
features a composer and keyboardist, you might think that music plays a large
part in the book. And you’d be right! In fact, Cressa, like me, lives her life
with background music. Like Cressa, Bach’s
Jesu,
Joy of Man’s Desiring is always looping in my head unless something else
has taken over. In fact, many of the happenings in the book recall different
pieces to her.
A fellow author, also published by Barking Rain Press, is
Ricky Bush (
http://www.barkingrainpress.org/ricky-bush/),
a blues musician and fan. He put his plaulist on his blog and inspired me to
create one for my novel. I had once thought it would be cool to include a CD of
the pieces with the purchase of a book. That turned out to be not feasible,
however. It’s true that the copyright on most classical music has run out (or
was composed before the process was invented). However, the recordings of the
pieces belong to the groups who have performed them, or to the labels that
produced the albums. I decided it would be much simpler to merely provide links
to performances.
Below is a list I put together that links the pieces with a
snippet of the text in my novel that refers to the composition. I tried to use
versions that don’t include advertising at the beginning, but in a few cases I
thought the performance worth the hassle of sitting through the ad, or couldn’t
find another suitable one.
These are the links to online
performances of all the pieces mentioned in EINE KLEINE MURDER (unless I missed
one--in which case, let me know!). If you’d like to get an idea of the mood
suggested by them, you can just listen to a few measures. But if you have the
time, they’re all worth hearing in their entirety.
(If you’d like to sample the
first 4 chapters, you can sign up to do that here:
1 Chapter 1
“Moussorgsky’s ominous Night on Bald Mountain”
London Symphony conducted by
Leopold Stokowski
2 Chapter 2
“the merry strings of the
beginning movement of Mozart’s, Eine
Kleine Nachtmusik,”
New Trinity Baroque, playing on
instruments from Mozart’s time, called “period instruments”
3 Chapter 2
Debussy’s
La Mer
“As I
stroked through the dark lake she had grown up with, hoping to see her soon,
the
ripples of Debussy’s La Mer accompanied me in my mind.”
London
Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev conducting
4 Chapter 3
Officially,
this is a movement from Piano Sonata Op.35 No.2, played by Arturo Benedetti
Michelangeli.
Here’s
a snatch of an orchestra version, performers not given.
5 Chapter 6
“Gounod’s
comic Funeral March of the Marionettes, the
song Alfred Hitchcock used as the theme song of his television show.”
The TV
theme music starts at 45 seconds
I can’t
determine who is performing this recording.
6 Chapter 8
“the sad, sweet
ballad, ‘Scarborough Fair,’ set in the ancient Dorian mode, with its allusions
to the medieval Black Death”
Old English
ballad performed by Simon and Garfunkel
7
Chapter 10
“It was so homey
at the Harmons’ home. Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring by Bach was
even returning
to me.”
Again, the
performers are not given.
8 Chapter 13
“I could hear
the frantic rhythm of Leroy Anderson’s Plink, Plank,Plunk as the knife
hit the wood.”
Arthur Fiedler
conducting the Boson Pops
Lugano's junior
mandolin orchestra (Ticino, Switzerland) conducted by Nicola Bühler, arranged by
Mauro Pacchin
9
Chapter 16
“Richard
Strauss’ Thus Spake Zarathustra, the
piece that was used for the opening of the move 2001: A Space Odyssey”
The beginning
gives me chills no matter how many times I hear it. You have to turn the volume
up a bit at first, but not for long.
Symphonieorchester
des Bayerischen Rundfunks, conducted by Mariss Jansons
10 Chapter 17
“a popular
melody stuck in my head. Not that popular, actually, but very catchy. And very
stuck. The Chicken Dance. Now,
how did that get there?”
I can’t resist
posting this hilarious version, from the Lawrence Welk Show, performed on accordion,
which is so appropriate. Be careful, you might end up like Cressa with this ear
worm implanted.
11 Chapter 19
“The theme from Jaws
kept rhythm with my wildly thumping heart.”
I’ve tried to
avoid links with ads, but this one is the composer himself, John Williams,
conducting the Boston Pops, and you can skip the ad fairly quickly.
12 Chapter 23
“The Song of the
Volga Boatmen,” the version I had played in grade school, the one we always
sang “Yo Ho Heave Ho” to, thrummed with the waves of pain in my head.
The famous
Russian Army Chorus, Leonid Kharitonov as soloist. This is in Russian, with
shots of the Volga River. If you click the little “cc” at the bottom right of
the screen, you can get the English subtitles.
13 Chapter 43
“The ethereal
part of Rossini’s “William Tell Overture,” the part with flutes and trills”
This link also
has an ad, but another short one. The very beginning might tell you why I think
cello is the most beautiful sounding instrument. The part I refer to is at
5:20. The part you’re probably familiar with is at 7:48. Hi ho, Silver! Away!
Gioachino
Rossini conducting the Neponset Valley Philharmonic Orchestra
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