In
my book Memories of Jake, the first in a series of two about brothers
who served in Vietnam and how they managed to survive it, my character Andrew
Cameron is an artist. Yet music is vital to his very existence. Andrew listens
to music as he paints; it inspires him. Music provides hope, comfort, and
healing throughout his life, through
whatever challenges he must face. Music is also part of the happiness he
experiences.
Music is in every book I write. How could it not be? As a
child, my engineer father, whose avocation was playing the trumpet, frequently
had recordings playing on the stereo in our home. Mostly classical orchestral
music, which he loved and which I came to love as well. Like many young girls,
I studied piano and ballet, learning more musical literature, and I eventually
discovered opera at the age of 14 by listening to a Saturday Metropolitan Opera
broadcast. It was, as I’ve said before, like falling in love, a love that has
lasted a lifetime. Music has never failed me.
I’ve had interesting responses to the
music in my books. One reader’s review referred to my work as “music-centric”
and I really like that description. Another reader, who hadn’t anticipated that
music would permeate the pages, entitled her (one star) Amazon review of Eli’s
Heart: “You should be an opera enthusiastic (sic) to really enjoy this.” Well,
an honest appraisal from her point of view; the book is certainly
full of music.The main characters are two musicians who meet at the age of
sixteen.The young man, a piano prodigy,was born with a defective heart. Yet he
and his love manage to enjoy a fulfilling life which includes his highly successful
career—because of the music that brought them together and filled their lives.
That was my second novel, and I am now at
work on novel number 15. The main character in this latest one is Andrew
Cameron’s daughter Lindsey, who has wanted to be an opera
singer since she was seven. The book begins in 1996, just before she completes
her bachelor of music degree. It is definitely “music-centric,” and there is a
great deal about the world of opera…among other things. (Maybe I should offer
my one-star reviewer a complimentary copy?) Once again, my characters face
challenges, and the music in their lives helps them to meet those challenges.
So if you’ve read ”The Cameron Saga,” and choose to read And This Shall Be
for Music when it’s released, you’ll revisit old friends and follow
Lindsey’s path and that of her close friends and the man she comes to love.
When I write about music, I describe it
from the point of view of the listener or performer, or both. This excerpt is from
the prologue to Memories of Jake. Andrew’s younger brother Jake has been
missing for some years after returning home from Vietnam with retrograde
amnesia, choosing to try to find the man he is now rather than struggle
to recapture who he once was. Older brother Andrew receives a phone call from a
sheriff in North Carolina, which is where Andrew was last seen. Human remains
have been found and since Jake’s is an unresolved missing person case, it’s
necessary to have them tested. Andrew hears back from the sheriff and puts on a
recording to help him deal with this new crisis.
***
Listening to this music always
helped him reconnect with all the good in the universe, and when the second
movement of Brahms’ Requiem started, Andrew
was able to focus on the music and let it wash over him. The repeated timpani
beats seemed to him the broken heartbeat of all humanity; the stately chords
led into the chorus singing softly:
Behold, all flesh is as the grass,
And all the glory of man is as the flower of grass.
For lo, the grass withers,
And the flower fades away.
The orchestra returned, the
chords changed and the powerful forward movement of the music culminated in the
chorus now bursting forth full force with the repeat of the opening phrase and
then dying away softly. But Brahms wasn’t done yet. An a cappella section was like a light playing through the gloom:
Be patient for the coming of the Lord.
See how the farmer waits patiently
To receive the rain.
The entire first section was
repeated. Then came the part Andrew found so powerful he had to remind himself
to breathe. A complete change of mood, the sun bursting forth and completely
destroying the darkness:
But the word of the Lord endures forever …
And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Andrew had been introduced to the Brahms Requiem when he returned to college
after his tour of duty in Vietnam. He had felt lost for a time, unable to shake
the experiences of the war, no matter how hard he tried to forget them. He needed
some way to reconnect with the boy he had been before he left: the boy who
loved art and music and beauty and peace. Brahms’ music helped bring him back;
it spoke to him of hope and a great promise. Death is not the end, it
proclaimed. Not even for his lost brother, no matter what may have happened to
him.
***
The
remains uncovered in North Carolina, Andrew learns, are not Jake’s. Hope
remains alive for his missing brother.
Writing this book was
a wonderful, gripping, emotionally wrenching, yet uplifting journey. It wasn’t
easy to write, and it isn’t easy to read. But many readers have found it well
worth the journey it took them
on. Memories of Jake is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle.
To order:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XXHJ63N/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i3
