Subject
RJ:MUSIC (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITOR'S NOTE: Each week NABOKV-L presents an analysis of one of VN's
fifty short stories drawn from Roy Johnson's book manuscript. They are
presented with the aim of encouraging discussion of VN stories. Address
your responses either to NABOKV-L or to Roy Johnson directly. DBJ
-------------------------------
From: Roy Johnson <Roy@mantex.demon.co.uk>
------------------------------------
This week's story - MUSIC
------------------------------------
In 'Music' (1932) Nabokov brings his own regretted atonality into
play as the background to another variation on the topic of
adultery, and he uses as his narrative strategy the device of
'the expected meeting which does not take place'.
The protagonist Victor arrives late at a piano recital being
given in someone's home. He is more or less tone deaf as far as
the performance is concerned: "any music he did not know ...
could be likened to the patter of a conversation in a strange
tongue" (TD,p.62). Feeling bored he glances round the room and
sees his former wife in the audience. Throughout the remainder
of the recital he relives his short but painful relationship with
her. It is evident that he was besotted, but she lacked
sensitivity and eventually cuckolded him. He has spent the last
two years struggling to forget her, and now feels that he will
have to start all over again. But eventually, his memories and
surging emotions reflected by the music being played, he feels
that he can pardon her: "I'll forgive you everything because some
day we must all die" (p.67). When the recital ends she leaves the
room and he converts what has been painful into a positive
experience: "Victor realised that the music, which before had
seemed a narrow dungeon ... had actually been incredible bliss,
a magic glass dome that had embraced and imprisoned him and her"
(p.68).
The suspicion that this is Nabokov's variation on one of
Tolstoy's most famous stories is confirmed when another guest
(who knows even less about music than Victor) tells him that the
piece just played could have been 'The Kreutzer Sonata'.
Beethoven's composition is actually for *violin* and piano, but
we have no way of knowing if the mistake is the guest's or
Nabokov's own - though the latter seems unlikely.
The narrative moves skilfully between the fictional present and
past in a manner which he was to bring to its highest stage of
development in 'Spring in Fialta' a few years later. Apart from
"How long ago it all seemed!" (p.64) the transitions are barely
perceptible, and into them are woven Victor's hesitant responses
to the music which he likens to his feelings about the woman and
the sexual history of their relationship:
"The music must be drawing to a close. When they come,
those stormy, gasping chords, it usually signifies
that the end is near. Another intriguing word, *end*
... Rend impend ... Thunder rending the sky, dust
clouds of impending doom. With the coming of spring
she became strangely unresponsive" (p.66).
In a sense one might argue that the account of the non-meeting
is a Chekhovian outer narrative - there is a nod to him within
the text: "a pince-nez on a Chekhovian ribbon" (p.63) -
containing the more dramatically passionate Tolstoyan inner
account of the relationship. Certainly Field's biography gives
details of Nabokov's participation in mock trials of Tolstoy's
story which would give credence to such a reading.
Once again, Nabokov subverts the obvious plot device (the meeting
which the reader anticipates does *not* take place) and offers
as closure to the story the more subtle resolution of Victor's
epiphany as he digests his unexpected experience and in doing so
unites the two major elements of the story content - the music
and his previous love. Art and imagination are brought to bear
as antidotes to the sadness and the transience of life.
---------------------------------------------
Next week's story - A DASHING FELLOW
----------------------------------------------
fifty short stories drawn from Roy Johnson's book manuscript. They are
presented with the aim of encouraging discussion of VN stories. Address
your responses either to NABOKV-L or to Roy Johnson directly. DBJ
-------------------------------
From: Roy Johnson <Roy@mantex.demon.co.uk>
------------------------------------
This week's story - MUSIC
------------------------------------
In 'Music' (1932) Nabokov brings his own regretted atonality into
play as the background to another variation on the topic of
adultery, and he uses as his narrative strategy the device of
'the expected meeting which does not take place'.
The protagonist Victor arrives late at a piano recital being
given in someone's home. He is more or less tone deaf as far as
the performance is concerned: "any music he did not know ...
could be likened to the patter of a conversation in a strange
tongue" (TD,p.62). Feeling bored he glances round the room and
sees his former wife in the audience. Throughout the remainder
of the recital he relives his short but painful relationship with
her. It is evident that he was besotted, but she lacked
sensitivity and eventually cuckolded him. He has spent the last
two years struggling to forget her, and now feels that he will
have to start all over again. But eventually, his memories and
surging emotions reflected by the music being played, he feels
that he can pardon her: "I'll forgive you everything because some
day we must all die" (p.67). When the recital ends she leaves the
room and he converts what has been painful into a positive
experience: "Victor realised that the music, which before had
seemed a narrow dungeon ... had actually been incredible bliss,
a magic glass dome that had embraced and imprisoned him and her"
(p.68).
The suspicion that this is Nabokov's variation on one of
Tolstoy's most famous stories is confirmed when another guest
(who knows even less about music than Victor) tells him that the
piece just played could have been 'The Kreutzer Sonata'.
Beethoven's composition is actually for *violin* and piano, but
we have no way of knowing if the mistake is the guest's or
Nabokov's own - though the latter seems unlikely.
The narrative moves skilfully between the fictional present and
past in a manner which he was to bring to its highest stage of
development in 'Spring in Fialta' a few years later. Apart from
"How long ago it all seemed!" (p.64) the transitions are barely
perceptible, and into them are woven Victor's hesitant responses
to the music which he likens to his feelings about the woman and
the sexual history of their relationship:
"The music must be drawing to a close. When they come,
those stormy, gasping chords, it usually signifies
that the end is near. Another intriguing word, *end*
... Rend impend ... Thunder rending the sky, dust
clouds of impending doom. With the coming of spring
she became strangely unresponsive" (p.66).
In a sense one might argue that the account of the non-meeting
is a Chekhovian outer narrative - there is a nod to him within
the text: "a pince-nez on a Chekhovian ribbon" (p.63) -
containing the more dramatically passionate Tolstoyan inner
account of the relationship. Certainly Field's biography gives
details of Nabokov's participation in mock trials of Tolstoy's
story which would give credence to such a reading.
Once again, Nabokov subverts the obvious plot device (the meeting
which the reader anticipates does *not* take place) and offers
as closure to the story the more subtle resolution of Victor's
epiphany as he digests his unexpected experience and in doing so
unites the two major elements of the story content - the music
and his previous love. Art and imagination are brought to bear
as antidotes to the sadness and the transience of life.
---------------------------------------------
Next week's story - A DASHING FELLOW
----------------------------------------------