Paul Auster and the function of music in Music of chance
...nificance of every single one. However I will provide some essentials and analyse them thoroughly. A perfect example to prove the above mentioned thesis is when " the doorbell chimes with the opening notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony" (p.68). Here we can speak doubtless of a hint toward coming events: Beethoven's Fifth and especially the here mentioned opening, which Beethoven himself likened to "fate knocking at the door" , anticipate the decisive moments that will take place in the house. Also, Beethoven's music provokes an association of something sinister, tragic and mysterious amongst the readers. Apart from these allusions, music is, for example, used to describe the inner sadness of Nashe when Jack Pozzi disappears. Jim listens to "requiem masses by Mozart and Verdi, with the volume at full blast" (p.179). Verdi's Requiem is one of the most theatrical of 19th century requiems, with big, dramatic arias, requiring big, dramatic voices, and choruses, heroic trumpets, and a deafening bass drum4.The "Requiem" was Mozart's final work, composed in his very last days of life during a form of rheumatic fever. We can witness "furious passages of pain and sadness" . Additionally, one could mention the string quartet Nashe listens to while driving the car into the tragic accident. He is very relaxed and comfortable and feels "absolute control" (p.216). This perfect balance and total relaxation is, once more, represented in the music: The three quartets that could suit to the information are all very smooth and maintain a high grade of harmony and relaxation. A second and far more abstract role of music in (any) novel is the corresponding of the texture to an already existing composition set in serious music. That is to say that the story can be separated into passages which, for example, correspond to an exposition, a reprise, a leitmotiv etc. Referring to this theory, a novel can become a coherent "piece of music" and hence be analysed as such. If we take into consideration that even the title "Music of chance" (which I am going to deal with at a later stage) is a specific style of music, we could easily assume that this novel corresponds to such a musical set. However, it is very hard to prove this thesis, because there is no such thing as a definite composition set. Nevertheless we can say that there certainly are some devices which remind us of a musical composition. These devices are: 1)The observation that Auster stresses in "Music of chance" one central topic which he treats throughout the novel (= the leitmotiv): In my opinion, this is the individual search for freedom. 2)This topic remains, but since there is a change of attitude that Nashe goes through, we can say that this topic "varies". An example for this change of attitude can be found in Nashe's changing opinion concerning the freedom of movement (page 8, "... itching for more time behind the wheel" compared to page 58 where it says, "he felt (...) that his days on the road had come to an end"). In musical terms we could thus speak of a "variation". A different approach to the importance of music in this novel is to analyse the specific role music plays in Jim Nashe's characters life. Nashe is a musically interested person. He was brought up with music and his mother bought him a piano at the age of thirteen. His specific bonds to music come to light when he sells his record collection and his Baldwin piano: "he felt like a man who had finally found the courage to put a bullet through his head" (p.10). After Jack Pozzi has disappeared, Jim feels so lonely that he asks Calvin Murks to buy him a keyboard. It is in these lonely situations that he searches inner peace and calmness by playing old pieces he learnt when he was a boy. Amongst these pieces and etudes he plays, there is one with outstanding significance not only for Nashe's character but for the whole novel: The "Mysterious Barricades" by Pierre Couperin, a piece that "seems to enter the world of metaphor where meanings are no longer ambiguous" Besides the simple fact, that "Mysterious Barricades...