Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... Xylophone Fragmentsby Mark Woodward
None Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. An intelligent mystery that revolves around the classical world. I loved the references to not only some of the great composers but to some of their actual pieces. It is also refreshing to read a mystery based on discovering the identity of the thief as opposed to the murderer. I did struggle a bit in the beginning to get into the story and weed out just who is who however I liked the aloof sleuth and overall enjoyed the book. ( ) no reviews | add a review
Night flight, Minneapolis to New York, February 1973. High above Lake Huron on a cold and moonless night, Johannes Immergluck looks out at the cloud cover below. The brilliant winter sky casts enough light to illuminate its roiling white surface, as a gloom recently banished from his mind returns full force. The gloom of a job he cannot shake. Somewhere below a tide washes away the last sandy traces of one of the most deservedly neglected composers who ever lived, and Immergluck feels as if he has been hired to go out and find the Lost Chord. How do you steal a composer? he thinks. More to the point: Why would anyone want to?" Xylophone Fragments is a fast-paced literary mystery that inhabits the world of classical music. A nameless detective who specializes in musical matters chases around the world, investigating why all traces of a deservedly neglected Baroque composer are disappearing right under the noses of musicians and musicologists. The intrigue enmeshes a beautiful concert pianist, a washed up Vermont composer, an aging artists' agent and his jaded associate, an owlish musicologist, and a host of other memorable characters. This uncommonly thoughtful work touches on the realities of concert life, the quandaries facing those who would compose and perform concert music, and some of the ineffable mysteries that attend the creation of great music. Told with great wit and a sometimes cynical humor, Xylophone Fragments will appeal both to those who like to sink their teeth into a puzzle that doesn't necessarily revolve around a dead body, those who like their mysteries to deal with more than "who?" and "why?" - and those who know and love classical music and the people who compose and perform it. No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNonePopular coversNone
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |