1. Pam Halter says:

    Music has a physical effect on our brains, that’s why it’s so powerful. Terry Brooks wrote a novel called Wishsong of Shannara. Fabulous mixture of song and magic. It’s an older novel, but I like his older books better than his newer ones.

    • Oh, I’ll have to look that one up. Thanks for sharing. I hadn’t heard of it before.

       

      • Pam Halter says:

        Definitely – it’s worth the read. Keep in mind it’s older, so he’s not writing with all the “trends” of today. But it’s still a great book. My favorite is the one before Wishsong: The Elfstones of Shannara. This book made me want to write fantasy. And the one before that is The Sword of Shannara. It’s pretty loaded with narrative and moves really slow, but it’s an interesting concept. You can read Elfstones without having to have read Sword. But I think you’ll appreciate Wishsong better if you read Elfstones first.

  2. Brent King says:

    Great article Gillian! I love what Peter Kreeft says about music in The Philosophy of Tolkien:

    “Music is not ornamented poetry, and poetry is not ornamented prose. Poetry is fallen music, and prose is fallen poetry.”

    He elaborates that poetry is “music made speakable.” Of course, anyone who has read Tolkien’s epic tale knows what Dr. Kreeft is talking about. One of my fondest memories is of my oldest son, who spoke and read early, reading The Lord of the Rings to us. It, indeed, was like a song!

     

    • That is a lovely way of looking at music, poetry, and prose. Whenever I’m in the editing process, I have to read my sentences out loud, and I will rework and rewrite until they have just the right “lyrical” quality and sound that I’m looking for. And I love when I can tell that other writers have done the same!

      I am not a huge poetry reader, but I do love Tolkien’s poems, and every now and then, I have the urge to search out and read some epic ballad.

  3. Hannah says:

    Indeed, indeed! Music apart of magic is a concept that has greatly appealed to me as of late. I was quite delighted when Orphan’s Song included it so beautifully!

    It’s so fascinating that both Tolkien and Lewis created their worlds from singing. You awakened my inner geek quoting that bit from the song battle between Felagund and Sauron. That’s one of my favorite parts ever.

    I was all ready to point out The Wingfeather Saga as another music series, but you beat me to it! Goldstone Wood also has powerful music, especially the Song of the Spheres. But I can’t think of any others at the moment…

    • Yes, I love the battle between Felagund and Sauron and essentially the entire tale of Beren and Luthien, not to mention the rest of the Silmarillion. It’s a scene I would both love and hate to see in movie form, because it would be amazing to see someone try to envision it and terrible because they would probably not envision it the same way I do.

      Thanks for mentioning the Tales of Goldstone Woods! Those are amazing and I do love the concept of the Song of the Spheres.

       

  4. Joanna says:

    I just read “Cart and Cwidder,” by Diana Wynne Jones, which also features music as magic, but only when the magic harp-thing is played by one who is both speaking the truth with his music, and doing so confidently in the knowledge that it is the truth that he’s singing.

  5. notleia says:

    I skip over the songs in Tolkien. I’m the sort of music listener who pays more attention to the tones than the words, so written lyrics are just poetry to me, and I’m not much of a poetry person.

    So, to me the sort of story that makes music integral to it is not the sort that should be written. It should be a musical, an opera, a movie, an anime.

    Take this scene from Evangelion, despite that awful, awful dub. You couldn’t get on paper that horror-tinged affect the Hallelujah Chorus gives:

    https://youtu.be/weK5m6Jn0zY

  6. I love this. Great article, Gillian. Music has a magically quality about it, so why not turn it into something that can accomplish magical things?

    I’ve always loved the concept. As a matter of fact, I was working on a fantasy series where music (not just singing, but all types of music) was the foundation for magic.

    • “Music has a magically quality about it, so why not turn it into something that can accomplish magical things?”

      With you a hundred percent. It’s a concept I’ve always enjoyed as well, so I think that sounds like fascinating groundwork for a story.

What do you think?