Music in the Words: Musical Form and Counterpoint in the Twentieth-Century Novel

Alan Shockley is Assistant Professor of Composition and Theory in the Cole Conservatory of Music, at California State University, Long Beach. He has published articles and reviews on contemporary music as well as on James Joyce, Anthony Burgess, and other authors. He delights in writing for chamber ensembles, electronics, and the human voice.

• Contents: Introduction; A fugue and a sonata; Sound and shape: Ulysses' sirens' songs; Anthony Burgess' Eroica; The Wake and its music; This is a chapter if I and David Markson say so: This is Not a Novel; William Gaddis' player piano; Going the whole hog; Bibliography; Index.

'With Music in the Words, Alan Shockley brings the ecumenical sensibility of a highly literate composer to the analysis of modern literary works that emulate musical forms and techniques. Much pondered passages by Joyce are given bracing new performances, while lesser-known experimental works are generously ushered back onto the stage, where they sound like never before. By examining the ways in which literature "aspires to the condition of music," Shockley recalibrates and enriches our reception of both art forms.' Scott Burnham, Professor of Music, Princeton University, USA 'The relationship between music and modern prose fiction has long been one that deserved closer attention. In this book, Alan Shockley has succeeded in presenting a fascinating examination of this relationship, in accessible yet scholarly language. This study is a major and original contribution to the field, eclectic in its scope, and rigorous in its analysis.' Rob Spence, Associate Head, Department of English and History, Edge Hill University, UK 'Alan Shockley‘s book is an extraordinarily informed and engaging study of musical form in literature, a study that moves well beyond the usual exploration of the thematic or metaphorical relevance of the bits of music alluded to or quoted within a literary work, engaging the actual musical techniques (such as counterpoint) and structures (such as sonata or fugue) that novelists employ to create their verbal narratives. Shockley‘s extended discussion of the musicality of the Sirens episode of Joyce‘s Ulysses is a tour de force that will become required reading for Ulysses scholars.' Charles Rossman, Professor of English, University of Texas at Austin, USA '... [an] exciting new study... Shockley's book is a significant contribution to a burgeoning field, a valuable book for Joyce and Burgess scholars, and a tribute to Ashgate's series on the relationship between text and music over the last two societies.' Ars Lyrica