First Officer's Log No 14: The Music of the Page

Music is a constant for me, when I read, write, knit, or even play a computer game. I like to have music in the background, something to keep me grounded in reality even as I drift in and out of it. There is something about good music, a good story in a song, that draws the attention of the reader. Sometimes, a song hits you in a way that you start to associate with a novel, or a character from a novel. I imagine that the same thing happens with musicians - sometimes, they read a novel and they subsequently write music that relates to that novel or a character in it.

The musician Ben Nichols released an album entitled The Last Pale Light in the West, an unofficial soundtrack to Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. Nichols' album is seven songs, each relating to a character or theme from the novel, from the teasing and intimidating "Kid", to the playfully uncaring "Davey Brown", to the final track, the ominous instrumental simply called "The Judge". The album plays with a blues and country style, but still strikes at the heart of the novel, a dark, blood-filled western that explores what makes men good or evil.

For me, music can filter in and out, and tell a whole new story. Some musicians that I've become quite fond of tell full on stories with their lyrics, such as Loreena McKennitt, and the Decemberists. These are long songs, some clocking in at 12 minutes, but they tell a full story, beginning, middle, end. McKennitt plays with imagery and epic poetry, sometimes adapting classical poetry as lyrics, such as her rendition of Alfred Noyes' "The Highwayman" or her song "The English Ladye and the Knight", adapted from Sir Walter Scott's It was an English Ladye Bright. McKennitt's voice is suited to her songs, a high, clear voice that tells the story as easily as the minstrels of medieval lore.

The Decemberists adapt old stories as songs, retelling folk tales ("The Crane Wife") or original tales of adventure ad madness ("The Mariner's Revenge Song"). In their album The Hazards of Love, there is a full story of love, loss, madness and revenge. Two young people fall in love, but there is a catch, and so they have to make a choice between happiness together or misery apart. To compare it to a certain pair of star-cross'd lovers isn't inaccurate, but I rather like Hazards more.

Telling stories with music isn't a new thing; it's an old, old past time. Telling stories around campfires, in old castle hallways, in great halls of strongholds, it might be a fantasy idea, but it's a great atmosphere. When we look at classic songs, classic poetry, old tales, we can hear music, we can imagine the people who first wrote and performed for others. There are always stories to hear, new ones to imagine and old ones to retell, and I think that musicians who explore those old tales in the modern era offer something new to those who might not otherwise find the stories.

A good story has a lot of elements, passion, drama, humor, strong characters, and an involved plot. A good song has the same things. So it's no surprise when a novel and a song owe their existence to a common source, a ballad or a folktale, told a long time ago. It's a comforting thought, to imagine that the stories people told so long ago are remembered now, and hopefully they'll appear again, in years to come, for new audiences to find.

Until next week, fellow biblio (and musico) philes.