| Title | : | Seven Touches of Music: A Mosaic Novel |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1933083042 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781933083049 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 155 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2001 |
Seven Touches of Music: A Mosaic Novel Reviews
-
Seven Touches of Music by Zoran Živković is an example of what the Serbian author refers to as one of his "mosaic novels" - that is, a handful of individual chapters that might appear to share only a common overarching theme, in this case, the theme of an older, solitary man or woman beholding the power of music, but, in its concluding chapter, via the storyteller's art, the novel is brought together as a cohesive, unifying whole.
Seen in one way, with its beautifully crafted, emotionally charged, understated, minimalist prose, Seven Touches of Music can be likened to Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata’s Snow Country, Thousand Cranes or House of the Sleeping Beauties. Yet from another angle, Zoran Živković’s short novel is a metaphysical fantasy in the spirit of Jorge Luis Borges. Quite the delectable combination. But so much for generalizations. Since in this novella the music's the thing, let's turn to each chapter:
1. The Whisper
Dr. Martin is a teacher of five autistic students - Ana, Sofia, Alex, Maria, Philip - all rather docile and ranging in age from six to eleven. He has spent his days watching the children sitting at their low desks in silence, expressing themselves as they draw or scribble on the blank paper provided. Although the drawing program does not call for music, an idea occurs to Dr. Martin: play selections of classical music for the children in order to observe if the music influences their drawing in any way.
His first choice is Frédéric Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21. The music plays and the students sit at their desks as silent as ever, filling the paper. No change, not even one iota of difference. But then it happens: Dr. Martin detects an unusual focus and intensity from Philip. He takes long, quick strides to Philip’s desk to scrutinize the contents of the boy's paper. Dr. Martin is taken aback – what he sees is nothing short of miraculous, an impossible event speaking to the deep mystical connection between music, mathematics and the underlying structure of nature.
Dr. Martin now faces a series decision: make Philip's creation public or spare the boy further testing or intrusive examination that might cause him pain and suffering. I truly love the way in which Zoran Živković ends his sweet, sweet tale.
2. The Fire
Switching from music’s soft touch to one that’s harsh in the extreme, in Zoran Živković’s second chapter we follow the plight of a librarian by the name of Mrs. Martha who wakes from a frightful dream where tall, dark figures wearing dark brown hooded robes and carrying musical instruments entered a temple and began playing. “There was something deranged about the sounds. She couldn’t determine exactly what it was, but she was overcome by a strange certainty that something in addition to music was issuing from the instruments of those hooded figures who had magically passed into the doorless temple.” Particularly disturbing for a librarian since the fire within the temple consumed many books.
However, Mrs. Martha witnesses an even more disconcerting occurrence: the following morning when at work, sitting at her computer in the library, it appears some demonic force has taken over her computer screen: there they are, those hooded musicians playing in an ancient library, probably the famous library at Alexandria. And again – fire! “She watched in despair as the fiery orgy gobbled up the scrolls one after the other, reducing their invaluable contents to nothingness. Accompanied by the deranged music, the fire quickly gained momentum and finally occupied the screen completely.”
And if this isn't freakish enough, the next thing that happens shakes Mrs. Martha as she has never been shaken before. I dare not say another word; rather, let me conclude by noting Zoran Živković adds yet another tantalizing touch: the name of Mrs. Martha’s husband is Constantine.
3. The Cat
Mr. Oliver is an introverted widower. His dearly departed wife, Mrs. Katerina, entrusted him with the care of her beloved cat, her snow white Oscar. She also left Mr. Oliver the memory of her frequenting second hand shops and bringing home all sorts of second hand items.
Gradually, following his deceased wife's lead, Mr. Oliver also pays visits to second hand shops. On one such visit he's cajoled into buying an old music box in need of repair. With much repeated tinkering, Mr. Oliver finally gets the music box working, working well enough that he's magically transported back in time to a period in his life that could have been but never was. What the old widower discovers watching this fantastical scene taking place in his dining room prompts him to develop a closer, more tender relationship with Oscar. Ah, the intoxicating and, in this case, the soft, sweet power of music.
4. The Waiting Room
Poor elderly Miss Adele. She so much dislikes traveling. And now she’s obliged to take the train to visit her younger sister, Mrs. Teresa, who has been taken ill. When Miss Adele sits in the station’s waiting room, wouldn’t you know it, she is forced to listen to a ragged old organ grinder play his hand organ. And Miss Adele has always hated music, always too loud. Then, horror of horrors, the music causes poor Miss Adele to have a series of visions.
Reading The Waiting Room, I was reminded of the author saying in an interview: “Love and Death. These are the pivotal themes of the art of fiction. We write fiction in the first place because this is probably our best way to approach the two major determinants of our lives: our greatest sentiment and our mortality.”
5. The Puzzle
Mr. Adam began painting in his retirement, following a career as a laboratory scientist. As Sunday was for cooking, Monday for cycling, Tuesday for reading at the library, Wednesday for visits to the zoo, Thursday for visits to churches, Friday for going to the movies, so Saturday was the designated day Mr. Adam earmarked for painting in the park.
Mr. Adam follows his routine until something involving music happens when he's in the park. As a consequence, there's a radical change. "He returned home in a dejected mood and sat in the armchair facing the wall covered with paintings. The canvases formed a large square: four paintings in each of four rows. He stayed there for seven full days, only leaving the armchair to take a quick bite or go to the bathroom." As to why such a radical transformation, that's the puzzle.
6. The Violinist
Albert Einstein on his deathbed. Music crosses over into mysticism. "The violin began to build shapes out of sound that slotted perfectly into the empty spaces. Each part represented a distinct revelation: amazingly simple, magnificently complex, wondrously unbelievable, insanely unacceptable." To say more would be to say too much.
7. The Violin-Maker
A famous violin-maker jumps to his death. His assistant, Mr. Umbertini, takes to drinking at the local tavern. Then, one rainy day in late autumn, six people walk in and take their seats at a large table. I suspect you can guess who those six people just might be.
Seven Touches of Music is available as either a stand-alone novel or as part of Impossible Stories 1, both published by Cadmus Press.
Serbian author Zoran Živković, born 1948 -
An Eighth Note Rest
(Un hommage à touches musicales)
Dr. Michael had become irritated with his wife. Elizabeth had gone out again with not a word of notice. It wasn’t her bridge night. The telephone hadn’t been ringing, the usual signal of a crisis with her daughter that demanded her presence. The shops were closed at this late hour. He was understandably concerned. He couldn’t remember her ever being so,... well, so disrespectful as well as disorderly before. Lately she had been mysteriously disappearing during the day; but if nothing else Dr. Michael was a respecter of privacy. She must have developed a new interest, he thought.
As he sat with his evening tea, self-made of course given the circumstances, the front door chimes rang out melodiously, the first four notes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. If one listened carefully, even the initial musical eighth-rest could be detected. The effect on his mood was immediate and familiar. That’s the real reason he had had them installed. They added just that tiny frisson of beauty, a sort of ritual, into an otherwise mundane event. He was proud to add just a little bit of aesthetic pleasure to the world.
Despite the hour Dr. Michael rose optimistically from his evening chair, the high-backed leather one he used for reading (he was a man of strict habits; ‘horses for courses’ was among his favourite aphorisms). Switching on the external lamp, and simultaneously turning the door handle, he pulled vigorously to reveal... well, nothing. There was no one standing in porch, no one on the garden path, and no one down the lane.
There was however an envelope on the mat. He had stepped on it as he craned out the door. It was unaddressed and unsealed. Inside was a single sheet of undistinguished note paper (‘from the local newsagent’ was his immediate thought). As he unfolded the note, his wife’s handwriting shouted at him in bold cursive: I’m off to someplace where they’ve never heard of Beethoven; someplace unpredictable. Elizabeth.
In shock, Dr. Michael could only think of one thing to do. He rang his own door bell. Then he rang it again. And again. And again throughout the night. The neighbour discovered him the following morning and called an ambulance. Not many others cared. -
Sete note musicali è un'altra raccolta di racconti di Živković. I suoi scritti sono molto surreali, quasi magici e molto pittoreschi. Ogni racconto comincia in modo assolutamentr normale per poi diventare qualcosa di incredibile mentre la lettura prosegue. Qui ciò che domina i giochi è la musica, che sia classica o una tarantella ciò non conta perchè gli effetti che produce sulle persone che l'ascoltano è inenarrabile. La musica qui origina genialità, un bambino autistico che scrive una sequenza di numeri fondamentali per la fisica o un anziano che scopre i segreti dell'universo sul letto di morte; la musica che genera la creatività artistica di un signore che dipinge freneticamente appena ode i musicisti nel parco, la musica che porta e accompagna i ricordi in una casa ormai silenziosa. Ma la musica è anche annunciatrice di morte, della morte dei propri cari o di un estraneo che si vede per caso nella sala d'attesa di una stazione.
Mi è piaciuto molto il fatto che l'autore faccia incontrare, nell'ultimo racconto, tutti i protagonisti dei racconti precedenti. Entrano nella locanda dove Umbertini, protagonista dell'ultimo racconto, si ubriaca quotidianamente dopo la morte del maestro di liuto, suo mentore. Questi personaggi sembrano sospesi nell'aria, entrano nella locanda ma non prendono nulla da bere, a loro non bada neanche l'oste, solo Umbertini li osserva e come se fossero parte della stessa storia, appena i personaggi se ne vanno anche Umbertini sparisce senza lasciare tracce.
Ovviamente consiglio la lettura. -
Sarò una voce fuori dal coro (il che mi sembra anche appropriato considerando il titolo...) però non mi è piaciuto. Forse una storia su 7 la posso anche salvare ma le altre una noia!! L'ho finito perché mi dispiaceva interromperlo e perché alla fine sono 7 ministorie ma ho fatto proprio fatica. Mi aspettavo decisamente di più, ero partita fomentatissima ma una delusione proprio. Mi dispiace un sacco..
-
i truly believe that the closest thing we can ever have to magic is music, this was a magical journey like no other, experiencing music as an out-of-ordinary concept as it intertwines with the very different yet similar lives of humans.
The Puzzle and The Violinist were brilliantly beautiful, i hold them dear in my heart. -
3,5*
Sete contos, como as sete notas musicais, cuja temática circula em torno da música.
De uma forma ou de outra, todos os contos possuem uma estrutura demasiado idêntica. Mudam as personagens, mudam os cenários mas os mundos paralelos, mencionados na sinopse, e os mundos surreais são em muito parecidos.
Gostei particularmente do primeiro conto "O sussuro", pois é o que se afasta mais da construção narrativa adoptada pelo autor.
O livro "A biblioteca" foi para mim a estreia (e uma agradável surpresa) na leitura de Zoran Zivkovic. No entanto, lendo posteriormente "O último leitor" e "O escritor fantasma", apercebo-me que, apesar da linguagem e escrita cuidadas, os seus livros acabam por ser demasiado decalcados entre si. -
Quando ho letto Sei Biblioteche pensavo che mi avrebbe rapito, ma così non è stato e anzi ne sono rimasta leggermente delusa, quando ho iniziato Sette Note Musicali non mi aspettavo assolutamente nulla di eccezionale e invece sono rimasta deliziata.
Sette racconti delicati, melodici, il cui ritmo catura il lettore e lo avvolge come se leggendo ci fose davvero una musica leggera di sottofondo.
Forse il migliore libro di Zivcovic fino ad ora. -
Primo libro che leggo dell'autore, scritto in modo delicato racconta in sette storie come la musica può farci vivere momenti, emozioni, sensazioni, ispirazioni e anche visioni.
Ogni storia ha un protagonista diverso ma la musica è sempre presente. Un libro che si legge facilmente, le descrizioni sono ben dettagliate - non in modo eccessivo per fortuna.
Sono indecisa se leggere altro dell'autore o meno poiché il libro è carino ma non mi ha fatto impazzire. -
I admit, I got this book because of how it looks. It's all black with a violin and the title/author in glossy black on a matte black cover. The pages are edged in black. I thought, "Wow! This is the coolest looking book I've seen in a long time." So, if you don't read it, at least look at it. :)
It's an intriguing story of music, with seven people's stories intertwining into one. Each chapter gives a very detailed character description. A very different book from what I usually read, but enjoyable nonetheless. -
Seven separate, mesmerizing stories in which music plays a magical role. Sometimes for the better. Sometimes unexplainable.
-
La musica come elemento di rottura, quasi di fastidio, come stimolo all'intuizione, come elemento scatenante per questi sette racconti che non hanno in apparenza alcun elemento in comune se non dei piccoli particolari musicali, una musica di violino che potrebbe essere il piffero di un pifferaio magico. Nell'ultima storia, però, verrà svelato il legame che accomuna le altre sei storie, il fil rouge con la musica perfetta dell'Universo. Sette come le sette note, ma anche come i sette giorni che Dio impiegò a creare l'Universo...
-
Knjiga pisana slično kao "Biblioteka", barem što se tiče onog aspekta da se sve ranije napisano poveže u jednu cjelinu na samom kraju knjige (
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), ali dok je "Biblioteka" nekako zasnovana na tipičnim postmodernističkim postupcima i težnjama ka umrežavanju radi samog umrežavanja ili umrežavanju samo radi izazivanja efekta začuđenosti ili zadivljenosti postupkom (mada je meni i to bilo dovoljno da se oduševim), "Sedam dodira muzike" tome dodaje i promišljanja o samoj suštini i smislu svega, iskazana kroz spoj mogućeg i nevjerovatnog, realno zasnovanog te fantastičnog i čudesnog, gdje je upravo muzika nagovještaj odgovora na pitanja koja se tiču otkrivanja te suštine.
(Tek nakon što sam završila, shvatih da je sve ovo jedna rečenica.) -
Granted, I only read 2 of the 7 stories here (all linked by the theme of surprising encounters with music in the lives of everyday people) but neither of them did anything for me at all.
I'm sure there was more going on in these stories than my surface-level reading found, but his flat prose didn't invoke enough interest on my part to puzzle his meanings out. -
This is a collection of 7 short stories that as "The Library" have a common theme. However, unlike most of Zivkovic's books here the common thread is Music and not books/writing.
In each story, in a Borges' fantatisc-like world, each main character is affected by Music directly or indirectly.
It's a typical book by Zivkovic and a good light read -
I racconti di Zivkovic indagano l’anima di sette persone diverse, unite solo dall’amore per la musica, o dalla sua presenza nelle loro vite. Peccato che questi racconti non siano riusciti ad entusiasmarmi più di tanto
-
Lascia il tempo che trova.
-
Racconti carini, ma alla terza raccolta lo schema compositivo utilizzato da Zivkovic inizia ad apparire ripetitivo.
-
Un libro emozionante e magico. Come nelle "Sei biblioteche", l'autore ci stupisce con le sue storie impossibili.
-
A beautiful short book of vignettes about the magical impact of music, and Živković dramatizes the musical experience in an accessible fashion.
-
Una fatica finire questo libro 😩😩😩
-
These are my favorite flavors of magical realism.
I feel like I am missing something beautiful by being unable to read Živković's writing without translation warp. In this case it is a life-affirming melancholy. -
TTBRMMWTRT. The review used the phrase "heir to Borges" when discussing Zivkovic so I feel a need to test that very weighty judgement myself.
-
I like this book and the different approaches described by the author to music. It is what is called a mosiac novel. Basically, seven short stories that come togther around a central theme.
-
Beautiful, lyrical, and a quick read. Check it out!
-
Why oh Why are his books not really in print? I mean I can get them on amazon used...but not bn. Grrrr.
-
Sete pequenos contos que, de alguma maneira, passam pela música. Eu já não sei o que dizer deste autor, a não ser que adoro a sua maneira de escrever. Mais um livro cinco estrelas.
