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This week: Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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"We are the music-makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams."
-Willy Wonka
(Actually Arthur O'Shaughnessy, but Mr. Wonka said it better.) |
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Music
Of all the things that can set a fantasy world apart from our own - two suns, lava pools, a reducing atmosphere, and so on - one of the most often overlooked is music.
Partly, that's because most of us are writers, not musicians. But even the writers who are musicians sometimes fall short in this critical background area (I'm talking to you, Steven Karl Zoltán Brust).
This isn't, of course, limited to fantasy or science fiction. Musical styles change over the years and centuries - and certainly amongst cultures of the same era - and what we find appealing here and now may sound like so much noise not only to your parents, but to someone from another country or time. Music is influenced by culture, climate, and the available instruments. And music can - literally - set the tone for a story.
If you're lucky enough to get your story turned into a movie, perhaps they'll give it a decent soundtrack, like Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen or, well, there's always the classic example of Star Wars. But here, I'm talking about weaving music into a written story - a much more difficult proposition, because your readers can't hear you.
Now, here comes the trick: if you're writing science fiction, you can often get away with using familiar musical genres to embellish the plot, as Anthony Burgess did to sick effect in A Clockwork Orange. In fantasy, sometimes you can drag out your extensive knowledge of medieval or Baroque musical devices and incorporate those into your setting (then there's the movie about Marie Antoinette that featured thoroughly modern pop music - but I digress.)
But what if your world is completely alien - far future, say, or distant past, or somewhere else entirely? How do you distinguish, say, elf or dwarf music from that of humans? How do you weave in a soundtrack if you can't be heard?
Well, you can't just describe the music as "weird." It's probably perfectly normal - to the ear-analogues of sentients from Tau Ceti IV. Fortunately, this is where writing comes in handy.
Consider, first, time. In modern pop music, most songs have a 4:4 or 3:4 beat (or sometimes 2:2, which is really 4:4 on Ritalin). Other beats are rare, so consider throwing in lines about how the measures are five beats long, or some other prime number. People will go crazy trying to imagine 5:13 time. And, of course, there's the idea of music without a rhythm at all, which to me is kind of like having a story without a plot, but to each their own. (Research this first, by the way, if you don't know much about music. There's a fine line between annoying your readers and being clever.)
Second, the scale. In our Western culture, the scale that forms the basis for nearly every piece of music we hear was formulated by Pythagoras in something like 500 BCE. Pythagoras, whom you already know from the Pythagorean Theorem (or at least, I hope you do), was the dude who figured out that harmonious musical notes sounded at frequencies that are simple ratios of each other. (Okay, it may have been his students or colleagues, but it's normally attributed to Pythagoras.) The trick here is: Harmonious to whom? An entirely different scale was developed in Asia, for instance. What would sound harmonious to the natives of Tau Ceti IV? Something that may make an Earther's eardrums explode?
And, not lastly, but figuring this is enough for one newsletter, there's the thing we as writers do have some control over describing: lyrics. Not all music is going to have lyrics, of course, but if it does, it's your chance to wax poetic in a story. Most lyrics that we know of have rhyme and meter, like poetry; how would that change in a fantasy world, for different species or cultures?
Don't overlook music. The thing about Pythagoras' scale that I mentioned? That led to mathematics, which led to Western Civilization. Did I say that culture influences music? It's just as likely that music influences culture.
Rock on! |
Some musical selections for your listening pleasure:
From the Mailbox:
Tempest*BurningMidnightCandle*  : My submission for editor's pick in the fantasy/sci-fi newsletter
JEK : I usually write longer projects than this (none of which ever get finished), but I realized after I added this to a story that it actually works as a short story in itself. Obviously, it would be nice to have it highlighted in the newsletter; I'm fairly sure it satisfies all criteria.
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Last time, in "Fantasy Newsletter (October 28, 2009)" , I tackled a few guidelines I use for selecting Editor's Picks. I guess I wasn't controversial enough (or, more likely, I was too long-winded), because there weren't a lot of comments.
JEK : Incidentally, I noticed that quality didn't make it on that list. This seems odd, but maybe you didn't want to state the obvious.
"Quality," despite what Robert Pirsig might have said in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, is a subjective thing. As I stated, I don't like including items containing too many technical errors; however, when it comes to subject matter, one reader's hot dog is another's filet mignon. And, well, some folks prefer hot dogs anyway. So I try to include a variety of items and let readers judge their quality for themselves.
Satuawany  : Aw, sweet. I realize the list there is your preferences, but it can't be that far off from what other editors look for, ay? I know it's not far off from what members looking for something to read look for. Or, at least, this member.
Submitted Item:
We all have our own preferences and, in my case, odd tastes.  I tend to agree with your article, but my choices for reading are not necessarily the same as my choices for making Editor's Picks.
PatChiu  (commenting on a previous newsletter): I thought the strength of diamonds was due to the bonding of the molecules. Imperfections add to fragility, but artificial diamonds have a lot of promise. I ran across this phrase while investigating the issue "techniques for polishing and planarizing chemically vapor-deposited (CVD) diamond films and substrates". That is very scientific language, but I can imagine a world where magic does the 'vapor depositing'. It would make a great way to imprison princesses.
And we all need new ways to imprison princesses!
Tadpole1  : Thanks for this weeks newsletter, 
And thank YOU for reading and commenting! Until next time, have a happy Thanksgiving (if you're in the US), and...
DREAM ON!!! |
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Fantasy: November 25, 2009 Issue [#3403]
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