Describing music in writing

[Mouse]

One of my characters is really into her classical music and in particular, Mozart.

Now, I've got a scene where she's listening to the requiem but how do I describe it for people who don't know what it sounds like?

What are the very first instruments played? (I want to say violin, trombone and horn but I know nothing about music so don't know if that's right!)

This isn't all of it, it's just the beginning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsyPhvrEzPU

It is accurate to write something like: The first movement of Mozart's Requiem, Introitus, started with...

Or is that completely wrong?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

http://deskarati.com/2011/10/10/mozarts-requiem/

any good? J.

 

[Mouse]

Not really... I've read all that on Wiki. Thanks though! Tis difficult.

 

[SciFrac]

With music, I try to describe what the characters feel. Use more poetic prose. Doesn't hurt to say what instruments are playing, but it helps to transcend the factual and bring us into the feelings you're trying to achieve.

Something like, "A chorus of violin swelled into warm blankets, raptured the audience, and lulled them with a gentle, babbling brook of piano."

Or something. Maybe that's too cheesy, but you get the idea.

 

[Mouse]

This is the trouble because I am not poetic at all. I'm a 'say it how it is' writer. She's listening to it on the CD player, so I can't write too much ambience stuff like you'd get in a theatre.

I've got this: The first movement of Mozart's Requiem, Introitus, pushed quietly through the speakers, the violins and horns gentle at first until the choir kicked in and the music lifted. She closed her eyes and let the music take her.

Which sucks, really.

 

[Abernovo]

Mouse, it does not suck. Perhaps it's not finished, or needs a little polishing, but it's got the gist of what you're trying to say.
Simply taking your words and fiddling slightly, I came up with this -


She put Mozart's Requiem on. The first movement, Introitus, pushed quietly through the speakers; violin and horn gentle to begin with, until the choir broke in and the music lifted. She closed her eyes and let the music take her.


I can't watch Youtube, as my connection's not fast enough and this is a piece sadly lacking from my collection, so I can't help you with what instruments are playing at that point, but you're getting over the feelings. Not poetic? Hmmph!

 

[Mouse]

That's so much better than mine. I'm just going to nick it! Thanks, Aber.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Hi Mouse,

I would not get too hung up on this, either, as Abernovo has said, yours does not suck at all!

To my ears, the instruments accompanying the violins sound like oboes and/or clarinets. I'd use a phrase that evokes the feeling of the refrain and link it to the instruments. Something about sombre strings/Cellos/violins seting a processional tone, melancholy oboes etc.

In jazz there is a bass movement style called 'a walking bass' (think of the bass line in the Frasier sitcom music). It is a straightforward 4, sometimes with a skip beat or swing. The strings in your piece sound like a slowed down version of this principle, so to that suggests processional to me. Oboes always sound mournful and melancholy as their notes tend to be sustained or drawn out like a long sigh.

Hope that helps a bit

pH

 

[Mouse]

Yeah it does. Thanks, Phyrebrat! I want the whole 'melancholy' thing to come across but couldn't think of the right word. Ta.

 

[Abernovo]

Nick away, Mouse. And it is what you wrote. I only did a small edit, which you would have done anyway. Sometimes we're most overcritical of our own work.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Now, I've got a scene where she's listening to the requiem but how do I describe it for people who don't know what it sounds like?

What are the very first instruments played? (I want to say violin, trombone and horn but I know nothing about music so don't know if that's right!)

I would just try and describe the character experience - specifically how her mood is affected by the music.

Sounds like strings and woodwinds, but hard to name specific instruments.

 

[Ursa major]

If you really want to see the orchestration - though I agree that you should concentrate on your listener's experience - try looking for the (orchestral) score on somewhere like amazon. You might then be able to take a peek at the opening pages of the score, and so determine exact which instruments are playing and when.

 

[The Judge]

Mouse, if she's really into classical music then it isn't only the piece itself which will be important, it's the name of the orchestra and the conductor and soloists -- so someone who is interested may have several different versions of the same piece. For Mozart there's an additional semi-problem as she might have it on both original instruments and on modern instruments, which would give a different feel to it. So if you want it really authentic there would be an element of choosing which version to play to fit in with her mood. Assuming we can avoid that and just start with the music, however...

I don't think she'd think to herself "The first movement, the Introitus" since she'd know it so well, so it would just be "The Introitus" -- your readers might not know what it is, but tough!

Um... the Introitus isn't actually gentle! The opening is played quietly, which is a different matter. It's a range of low shifting unsettling chords in the minor key, which gets louder and more dramatic, more powerful, when the brass comes in, and then the timpani, which is before the voices. And it isn't only melancholy, to my mind, there's an element of menace there, and a sense of foreboding.

As for the instruments: the opening bar is bassoon, second violins, viola and cello; in the second bar they are joined by the first violins and what is noted in the score as a basset horn, which is actually a kind of clarinet. The trombones come in on the seventh bar, half a bar ahead of the clarino (trumpet and horn, I think) and the timpani (the big drums), and then the first of the voices in the eighth bar (bass starting and tenor, alto and soprano coming in at half-bar intervals in that order).

If you want anything more particular, let me know.


NB My other half likes Solti playing Mozart -- Solti always wins...

 

[Ursa major]

I don't think I've heard the Solti version. I have the 1986 Karajan one, with the Wiener Philharmoniker and the Wiener Singverein.

I think unsettling is the right adjective for the opening bars.

 

[anivid]

I have a little peep here J
If she’s a connoisseur of music, she’ll be putting something on which is a match to her p.t. mood – so, if feeling sincere (as in knowing she has a big, heavy work in front of her, which cannot be taken lightly), that’ll be the requiem - which she knows will hit her and take her further on to the grandeur of her purpose.
Me thinks you should forget about naming the instruments – if the author don’t know anything about music, her audience probably is just as indifferent J

 

[Ursa major]

One has to be careful when suggesting which music is best for which mood for a given individual.

When I'm sad, I find sad (classical) music cheers me up. It may just be a quirk of mine, but perhaps it's a case - I'd like to think so - of measuring my unhappiness against that portrayed, which is usually of a more universal nature, and finding it wanting and wasteful. (It may also be that the catharsis inherent in the music carries one over one's own.)

 

[Mouse]

Mouse, if she's really into classical music then it isn't only the piece itself which will be important, it's the name of the orchestra and the conductor and soloists -- so someone who is interested may have several different versions of the same piece. For Mozart there's an additional semi-problem as she might have it on both original instruments and on modern instruments, which would give a different feel to it. So if you want it really authentic there would be an element of choosing which version to play to fit in with her mood. Assuming we can avoid that and just start with the music, however...

I don't think she'd think to herself "The first movement, the Introitus" since she'd know it so well, so it would just be "The Introitus" -- your readers might not know what it is, but tough!

Um... the Introitus isn't actually gentle! The opening is played quietly, which is a different matter. It's a range of low shifting unsettling chords in the minor key, which gets louder and more dramatic, more powerful, when the brass comes in, and then the timpani, which is before the voices. And it isn't only melancholy, to my mind, there's an element of menace there, and a sense of foreboding.

As for the instruments: the opening bar is bassoon, second violins, viola and cello; in the second bar they are joined by the first violins and what is noted in the score as a basset horn, which is actually a kind of clarinet. The trombones come in on the seventh bar, half a bar ahead of the clarino (trumpet and horn, I think) and the timpani (the big drums), and then the first of the voices in the eighth bar (bass starting and tenor, alto and soprano coming in at half-bar intervals in that order).

If you want anything more particular, let me know.


NB My other half likes Solti playing Mozart -- Solti always wins...

You're a star as usual, TJ! I have the same character listening to Mozart's Lacrimosa in an earlier scene (a sex scene actually!!) and didn't refer to it as the whatever-it-is movement that time, or say it was part of the Requiem, but she named it in dialogue so she just said Mozart's Lacrimosa.

I need to think about whether 'the first movement' would be mentioned here or not. It's because she's just put the CD in and is sort of thinking more than she would because she's in a bad place at the mo so she's almost over-thinking. (As am I, probably!)

Gentle is probably the wrong word. I'm terrible with words! I reckon I'll change that to unsettling. It'll fit the scene better too.

I have her listening to Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique also in an earlier part of the story because I really like the story of Berlioz... it fitted the character nicely. But I didn't describe the music in that case because she was listening to it in headphones, which she soon took off.

I have a little peep here J
If she’s a connoisseur of music, she’ll be putting something on which is a match to her p.t. mood – so, if feeling sincere (as in knowing she has a big, heavy work in front of her, which cannot be taken lightly), that’ll be the requiem - which she knows will hit her and take her further on to the grandeur of her purpose.
Me thinks you should forget about naming the instruments – if the author don’t know anything about music, her audience probably is just as indifferent J

She's an ex-pop star, but she's one of those ones who does actually know about music and if she'd had the choice, probably would've done a different style of music to pop. So she'd know the instruments, even if I don't! Which is a pain.

If you really want to see the orchestration - though I agree that you should concentrate on your listener's experience - try looking for the (orchestral) score on somewhere like amazon. You might then be able to take a peek at the opening pages of the score, and so determine exact which instruments are playing and when.

I didn't think of that! Ta.

Thanks guys!

 

[anivid]

One has to be careful when suggesting which music is best for which mood for a given individual.

Exactly, that's a part of the character's character, so to speak

When I'm sad, I find sad (classical) music cheers me up. It may just be a quirk of mine, but perhaps it's a case - I'd like to think so - of measuring my unhappiness against that portrayed, which is usually of a more universal nature, and finding it wanting and wasteful. (It may also be that the catharsis inherent in the music carries one over one's own.)

Yeah, it can make one's own little unhappiness grand - it can express your weltschmerz (if having difficulties expressing it yourself it can take you to another place, it can lift, or drop you - it can do so many things.
She instinctively knows what she needs - and that's what she'll turn to
If she's as the rest of us, she's using music as a mood director/changer
By mentioning the piece of music, some will know exactly what mood she's in - but in a narrative I still think the mood should be described first - if it's not a direct consequence of what was coming before - that is

 

[The Judge]

I don't think I've heard the Solti version. I have the 1986 Karajan one, with the Wiener Philharmoniker and the Wiener Singverein.

My other half says if you want to hear it in a different light, get the John Eliot Gardiner version with the English Baroque Soloists (original instruments) and the Monteverdi Choir. (NB outstanding soloists: Barbara Bonney, Anne Sofie von Otter, Hans Peter Blochwitz and Willard White.)

 

[anivid]

"if the author don’t know anything about music, her audience probably is just as indifferent"

Mouse , with "the author", I mean YOU - your audience is attracted to YOU, and if you suddenly begin to lecture about musical theories & instrumentation - it's not a given it'll sit well with them