The Music of Erich Zann - subtle, enigmatic, philosophic, among the finest tales penned by author H. P. Lovecraft, a well crafted work of literature that must be read with care in order to extract that special Lovecraft nectar contained therein.
The tale is short; ever single sentence counts. As enticement for you to set twenty minutes aside to read (or listen to an audio book available on You Tube), I'll offer seven Erich Zann snapshots - each of my comments linked to a direct quote:
"But that I cannot find the place again is both singular and perplexing; for it was within a half-hour’s walk of the university and was distinguished by peculiarities which could hardly be forgotten by anyone who had been there. I have never met a person who has seen the Rue d’Auseil." --------- Our narrator is a student studying metaphysics at the local university. The story unfolds as he reflects back on the very strange happenings in and around where he took up residence - in an upper story flat along the Rue d'Auseil.
"The houses were tall, peaked-roofed, incredibly old, and crazily leaning backward, forward, and sidewise. Occasionally an opposite pair, both leaning forward, almost met across the street like an arch." --------- Where do we draw the line between realism and the fantastic? The buildings as described bring to mind the impossible geometry and architecture depicted by artist M.C. Escher. If the student perceived, truly perceived the preposterous bends in the houses, he would be alerted that something most definitely is off, a law of nature violated. Seen in this way, the music of Erich Zann would be an extension of the street's freakishness.
"Thereafter I heard Zann every night, and although he kept me awake, I was haunted by the weirdness of his music. Knowing little of the art myself, I was yet certain that none of his harmonies had any relation to music I had heard before; and concluded that he was a composer of highly original genius. The longer I listened, the more I was fascinated, until after a week I resolved to make the old man’s acquaintance."---------- Weirdness of the music. First off, a viol is a renaissance instrument with frets like a guitar and strings like a violin or viola or cello. However, with a viol, the musician holds the bow in an underhanded position. Here’s a musician playing bass viol – notice the viol itself held by the inner legs (no cello peg), hand position on the bow and the guitar-like frets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7S07... The viol also comes in different sizes - here's the smaller treble viol: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqxlf... and here's a viol consort: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_E87...
Upon hearing the music of Erich Zann, the student desires to not only meet the old man but receive an invitation to come up to his attic room to watch him play.
“He was a small, lean, bent person, with shabby clothes, blue eyes, grotesque, satyr-like face, and nearly bald head” ---------- In classic H.P. Lovecraft fashion, Erich Zann’s presence mirrors the oddness and quirkiness of the street and his music. As we read further we can infer Zann’s grotesque, satyr-like face just might be the influence, at least in part, of a mysterious force pressing in on him.
“He did not employ the music-rack, but offering no choice and playing from memory, enchanted me for over an hour with strains I had never heard before; strains which must have been of his own devising. To describe their exact nature is impossible for one unversed in music. They were a kind of fugue, with recurrent passages of the most captivating quality, but to me were notable for the absence of any of the weird notes I had overheard from my room below on other occasions.” ----------- That is strange – the music of Erich Zann is different depending on where a listener is positioned in relationship to the musician. Is this a similar phenomenon to the pitch of a train’s whistle changing as the train moves down the track? But Erich Zann always plays his music in the same room. The mystery deepens.
“As he did this he further demonstrated his eccentricity by casting a startled glance toward the lone curtained window, as if fearful of some intruder.” --------- Ah, the student is given a glimpse of what truly might be happening – an unseen something, a not-easily defined force could be working in opposition to Erich Zann and his music.
“He was trying to make a noise; to ward something off or drown something out—what, I could not imagine, awesome though I felt it must be. The playing grew fantastic, delirious, and hysterical, yet kept to the last the qualities of supreme genius which I knew this strange old man possessed. . . . At this juncture the shutter began to rattle in a howling night-wind which had sprung up outside as if in answer to the mad playing within. Zann’s screaming viol now outdid itself, emitting sounds I had never thought a viol could emit.”--------- What's happening? Is this the power of a black hole-like fourth dimension pressing down on both the music and Erich Zann? Is Erich Zann’s playing keeping some diabolical force at bay, hampering its influence, preventing it from overtaking our vulnerable three-dimensional world?
A concluding observation: How clear is the student's perception? Is he predisposed to distorting what he sees and hears? Does he take great abnormalities and reduce them to fit within his manageable, limited categories? Think of his reaction to those M.C. Escher-like distortions. Are we, in turn, much like the student in reducing our world? Reflect on this question as you read an excerpt from a novel, Robert Sheckley's Mindswap, where the same question is examined:
'However, under the continued and unremitting impact of the unknown, even the analogizing faculty can become distorted. Unable to handle the flood of data by the normal process of conceptual analogizing, the subject becomes victim to perceptual analogizing. This state is what we call "metaphoric deformation". The process is also known as "Panzaism". Does that make it clear?'
'No,' Marvin said. 'Why is it called "Panzaism"?'
'The concept is self-explanatory,' Blanders said. 'Don Quijote thinks the windmill is a giant, whereas Panza thinks the giant is a windmill. Quijotism may be defined as the perception of everyday things as rare entities. The reverse of that is Panzaism, which is the perception of rare entities as everyday things.'
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