BOOKS - MUSIC

Musical notes

Music reaches across to people, leaping barriers of language. Set to rhythm, it sets feet tapping and tugs heartstrings. Providing a ready canvas to writers, artists and illustrators, music has become multi-faceted. Dancewithshadows.com tunes in to the sound of music in literature.

MANALI ROHINESH

30 July 2004

“Ladies and gentlemen, lead your partners to the dance floor for our next song.” These eternal words, on cue, for a night to remember. Gifted, lilting voices singing beautifully put-together lyrics. They crystallise a moment in time – a birthday, an anniversary and of course, a wedding reception. Many of us cherish a song that symbolises a precious moment, when time stopped briefly and magic was in the air. 
Down the ages, notes of music have been put on paper. Now books have been written, eulogising musicians, their compositions and their talent. A whole genre of fiction has music as its focus, where entire plots are built around this theme. What is it about music that is getting creative juices going into overdrive? The tempo of a fast-paced thriller set to the sound of music. There are some books which should accompany you on those leisure trips and here is a selection of a classic, some contemporary greats and a quirky tribute 
to the Beatles.

 There are also numerous other biographies and celebrity tells-all kind of books out there, which would be too many to list. But do make a beginning with the right combination of offbeat, historical and modern fiction and then move onto more intricate writing. After all as Shakespeare said: “If music be the food of love, play on.” 

Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux