Musical instruments associated with famous characters in literature and history ?

[caddy_caddy]

Hi guys ,
There are some musical instruments which have been associated with famous characters and have become part pf the collective consciousness of nations and cultures
Jacob / Daooud Mazameer
orpheus's Lyre
wWe have Zuriab and his oriental violin
Romeo's Violin
I know of a Greek goddess who used to play the violin but can't remember her name

could you help me plz with some names and their instruments ?

[JuniperWoolf]

Holmes is known for his violin playing. But hang on, when did Romeo play the violin?

[JBI]

Gu Qin with most Chinese literati.

[caddy_caddy]

hhhh under the balcony of Juliette . It's not in the play but it has become part of the romantic attribute of any lover .
Here guys do this hhhh. Whenever we hear music under the balcony everyone says " That's Romeo".:)

[Snowqueen]

According to famous Punjabi folklore a man named Ranjha used to play flute (Bansuri) for his beloved Heer.

[caddy_caddy]

I remembered Robinhood
Didn't he have a trumpet ?

[Calidore]

hhhh under the balcony of Juliette . It's not in the play but it has become part of the romantic attribute of any lover .
Here guys do this hhhh. Whenever we hear music under the balcony everyone says " That's Romeo".:)

Never heard that one before, and if it's not in the play, it can hardly count, can it?

[caddy_caddy]

Never heard that one before, and if it's not in the play, it can hardly count, can it?

Maybe in the American culture it won't go this way . But I am interessed in how these characters and instruments are used in the collective consciousness of poeple too. Their significance is very important to me . In the Arab culture it goes this way and everyone understands it this way . I'm using it in Arabic poetry and should use it as Arab think of it .

[Lokasenna]

Coleridge's The Aeolian Harp is one of his finest poems - does that count? Oh, and Dryden's Ode on Saint Cecilia's Day, which is one of my favourite poems, imagines the universe as a musical composition - it's very beautiful.

[kiki1982]

Yes, definitely Holmes.

I haven't heard of Romeo, either. Isn't it just the idea that Romeo stands talking to Juliet below her balcony that's rather the picture people get, instead of the playing?
I do'nt think violins were widely know at that time yet, even (not in Shakespeare's time and certainly not in Romeo's).

Angel Clare in Hardy's Tess plays either the lyre or the harp. Can't remember which, but I've always thought that was a wink at Greek mythology.

[Ecurb]

Roland had his horn Oliphant. Marianne Dashwood played the piano, as did Jane Fairfax and (with less skill) Emma Woodhouse and Elizabeht Bennet. Mary Crawford played the harp. Orpheus played the Lyre, as did Apollo. The Prince in "The Little Man as Big as Your Thumb with the Mustaches Seven Miles Long" played a magic harp, that played by itself and forced its listeners to dance.

[Whifflingpin]

King Alfred the Great played a harp or lyre - he went into the camp of his enemy, Guthrum, disguised as a minstrel.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin played something or other.

[caddy_caddy]

Oh yeh the Aeolian harp , thxxxxx

and I am mistaken I mean the guitar not the violin ,

it's an aspect of chivalry

[maxphisher]

Not necessarily tied to certain characters, but Joyce's Ulysses makes use of the Aeolian Harp, the piano, and more specifically, the human voice. In regard to the latter, Bob Dolan is a bass baritone, Molly Bloom is a soprano, and Blazes Boylan is allegedly a tenor. Interestingly, Joyce himself was a bronze medal winner in the 1904 Feis Ceoil.

[mal4mac]

Einstein played the violin.

Schopenhauer played the flute.

Nero fiddled while Rome burned.

Nikolaus I, Prince Esterházy of Hungary, Haydn's sponsor, played the Cello, and the Baryton.

Feynman played the bongos

Now there's a quintet!

Robin Hood with a trumpet? I never heard of that... Alan-a-Dale was a minstrel with a lute...

[AuntShecky]

St. Cecilia's emblem is a harp (perhaps as a way to assimillate Christian symbols into the pre-existing Roman culture with its specialized gods and goddesses.)

Also, seventeenth century metaphysical poetry used music as an umbrella metaphor -- the hierarchy of the universe as expressed by the "harmony of the spheres."

[Darcy88]

In D.H. Lawrence's novel Aaron's Rod the protagonist is a flautist.

[kiki1982]

Miss Crawford in Mansfield Park plays the harp. I don't know how that reflects on her skewed character...

[Snowqueen]

I think Dorian Gray plays a piano in The Picture of Dorian Gray.

[cacian]

''captain correllis's mandolin''

[cherry_orchard]

E.T.A. Hoffman mostly known for his fairy tales like The Nutcracker was also a composer. He adored music and even wrote an opera "Undine". His books contain a lot of musical passages. And he's got quite an extraordinary character named Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler.

[WyattGwyon]

Two masterpieces of 20thc literature by William Gaddis feature musicians. A character named Stanley in The Recognitions is an organist and composer who is composing a major work for organ throughout the novel. Toward the end he plays it in a European Cathedral—with disastrous consequences. One of the principal characters in JR, Edward Bast, is a composer and pianist who struggles to compose throughout the novel but is continually sidetracked by other concerns.

[cafolini]

Excuse me. Today is Memorial Day. A valorous salute to all those Americans that died for freedom. Today in particular the Memorial of the taking of Iwo Jima is of significance. We honor the men that raised the American flag, and Mr. Rosenthal, the photographer that trusted the men and was there with a camera and took the picture of the event. And since we are here, let's also send our best to Richard Arvine Overton from Austin. He's now 107 and the oldest American Army man alive today. God be with you in this important day.

[astrum]

Excuse me. Today is Memorial Day. A valorous salute to all those Americans that died for freedom. Today in particular the Memorial of the taking of Iwo Jima is of significance. We honor the men that raised the American flag, and Mr. Rosenthal, the photographer that trusted the men and was there with a camera and took the picture of the event. And since we are here, let's also send our best to Richard Arvine Overton from Austin. He's now 107 and the oldest American Army man alive today. God be with you in this important day.


cafolini,

I'm glad to see that Memorial Day means so much to you.

Perhaps you can start another thread in the General Chat section. That seems more fitting.

Thanks :)

[LadyStardust]

Lotte plays the piano in The Sorrows of Young Werther

[togre]

In Patrick O'Brian's naval novels, Aubrey and Maturin play violin and cello, I believe.

King David played the harp.

Roland blew his horn until he was slain.

Boromir (in Lord of the Rings) blew a horn until his death too. (Stretching a bit, I know).

[ennison]

Robbing Hood didn't play a trumpet but a strumpet called Marion.

[SilvanDitties]

I think you mean a lute, caddy, which isn't really associated with Romeo as much as the medieval troubadors.

[hazelk]

Music and Silence by Rose Tremain, I think the main character played the cello. Wonderful novel.

[RetsixArp]

In the Catcher in the Rye, Holden goes to a nightclub to see Ernie, the piano player. Holden doesn't care for Ernie's fancy flourishes nor for that fact that there's a mirror set up on the piano to show off Ernie's face. I read long ago that the Ernie episode was Salinger's account of jazz pianist Oscar Peterson.

[bookowskee]

If I remembered it correctly, the character Alyosha Karamazov plays guitar in Dos' novel, The Brothers Karamazov.

[Eiseabhal]

It would be interesting ( for me alone perhaps) to find how many good writers actually played a musical instrument well or even composed tunes (looney or not). I think Anthony Burgess was a musician but offhand I cannot think of anyone else. I'm sure someone here will know if there were many.

[ZTay]

The sister to the dwarf played clarinet in Vonnegut's "Cats Cradle".

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

He had a bagpipe, purchased from some Scottish soldiers passing through Guernsey, which he played among the rocks on the seashore at nightfall. He made gestures as though he were sowing seeds. What treatment can be expected for a man like that?
^Referring to Gilliatt from Hugo's Toilers of the Sea

[ennison]

"Gestures as though he were sowing seeds"! Trying to imagine what that would look like on a set of bagpipes. I take it they didn't show him how to play them. Yes Burgess was an accomplished musician.