Books featuring music in plotline

[EPluribusUnus]

I am looking for books that feature music as an intrinsic element of the plot. Eg: The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, An Equal Music, etc...

Any you would recommend? :)

[Ghuyuran]

Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus is heavy in musical jargon and details concerning classical music, which all eluded me since I know almost nothing in the matter. I would venture that someone who is proficient in musical theory would enjoy the book even more. It is the story of a composer and the narrator really takes the time to explain some of that composer's ideas, symphonies and other experimentations.

[wessexgirl]

I haven't read it, but what about Nick Hornby's High Fidelity?

[JamesRhodes]

After Dark by Haruki Murakami.

[mal4mac]

War & Peace has some great music scenes - for instance, the key seduction sub-plot begins in the Opera House. Natasha (the heroine) is a singer of near-professional standard, and that keeps cropping up throughout the novel. There's also a superb 'perfect day' chapter, which starts with Natasha and her brother hunting, and, eventually, they end up back at their crazy old uncles for an evening of wild singing and balalaika playing.

Jane Austen's Emma also has scenes of music making - including a funny one where Emma realises that she can't compete with the musical talents of the new femme fatal.

In both these novels music isn't "everywhere", but it is an intrinsic part of the plot - or provides an exhilarating backdrop - e.g., the seduction might have taken place somewhere else than the opera, but the way Tolstoy illustrates the social gathering and interactions around the Opera is a real tour de force.

[Wilde woman]

Murakami's Norwegian Wood is based off the eponymous Beatles song.

There are a number of memorable Beethoven passages in A Clockwork Orange.

And I read a book years ago about a young piano prodigy growing up called Body and Soul by Frank Conroy.

Edit: How could I forget? Phantom of the Opera by Leroux!

[Whifflingpin]

Anthony Burgess' Napoleon Symphony

[stlukesguild]

Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata features a husband who becomes obsessed... certain that his wife must be cheating on him... after all she must have been as emotionally/sexually moved by the music (Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata) as he.
Alejo Carpentier's Baroque Concerto features a meeting of Vivaldi, Handel, and Scarlatti with cameos by Wagner and Stravinsky.
I would second Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus

[Emil Miller]

And, of course, let's not forget that César Franck's Violin Sonata in A major, is really Vinteuil's imaginary work in Proust's Remembrance of Things Past.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

For something contemporary, the Kingdom of Thorn and Bone series by Gregory Keyes features a main character who is a composer who also can use music as a weapon of sorts. Well, not so much a weapon, but the music can be used like spells. He was my favorite character, and it was a part of the story that made it really unique.

This may be a bit different than a lot of what has been listed since the composer and music really do play a direct role in the story. It seems like many of the stories listed are narratives that just happen to have music in them.

[Drkshadow03]

Great Jones Street by Don Delillo