List of composers in literature
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This list includes fictional representations of real (named) composers and musicians, and fictional characters under other names that are generally agreed to be based on a specific composer, or sometimes a composite of several. It doesn't include biographies, unless fictionalized.
- Esther Meynell: The Little Chronicle of Magdalena Bach (1925)[1]
- Marc Moskovitz: The Eyes of Bach (2024)
- James Runcie: The Great Passion (2022)[2]
- Rebecca West: Harriet Hume (1929) (The title character is based on Harriet Cohen, the Bax character is named Arnold Condorex)[3]
- Jonathan Wylie: Magister (1997)
- Andrew Crumey: Beethoven's Assassins (2023)
- Jessica Duchan: Immortal (2020)[4]
- Sanford Friedman: Conversations with Beethoven (1980s, published in 2014)[5]
- Paul Griffiths: Mr Beethoven (2020)[6]
- Esther Meynell: Grave Fairytale (1931) (as Melchior)[7]
- Patricia Morrisroe: The Woman in the Moonlight (2020)
- Ken Russell: Beethoven Confidential (2007)
- Elizabeth Sara Sheppard: Rumour: A Novel (1858) (as Rodomant)[8]
- John Suchet: The Last Master (1997–99) (fictional biography in three volumes)
- Dorothy Baker: Young Man With a Horn (1938)
- George Willis: Three Musicians Trilogy (1943, 1945, 1947) (also Eddy Duchin and Frankie Trumbauer)
- Elizabeth Sara Sheppard: Charles Auchester (1853) (as Starwood Burney)[8]
- Christine Balint: Ophelia's Fan: A Novel (2005)
- Anthony Burgess: Mozart & the Wolf Gang (1991)[5]
- Jude Morgan: Symphony (2006)[9]
- Elizabeth Sara Sheppard: Charles Auchester (1853) (as Florimond Anastasa)[10]
- (self-portrait, Lord FitzCricket in Far From the Madding War, 1941)
- Nancy Mitford: The Pursuit of Love (1945) (as Lord Merlin)[11]
- Osbert Sitwell: 'The Love Bird' from Dumb Animal and Other Stories (1930) (as Sir Robert Mainwroth)[10]
- P.K. Adams: The Greenest Branch (2018) and The Column of Burning Spices (2019)
- Mary Sharratt: Illuminations (2012)[5]
- F. Scott Fitzgerald: Tender is The Night (1934) (as Tommy Barban)[12]
- Boman Desai: Trio: A Novel Biography of the Schumanns and Brahms (2011)
- J. D. Landis: Longing (2000)
- Louise Marley: The Brahms Deception (2010)
- Ken Russell: Brahms Gets Laid (2007)
- Kristen Wolf: Escapement (2018)
- Ian McEwan: Amsterdam (1998) (Clive Linley, correspondencies with Britten)[13]
- George Borrow: Lavengro (1851) (as editor of the "Universal Review")[10]
- Elizabeth Berg: Dream Lover (2015)
- Nancy Burkhalter: The Education of Delhomme: Chopin, Sand, and La France (2020)
- Jean Echenoz: Lac (1995, translated as Chopin's Move for the US edition, 2004)
- George Sand: Lucrezia Floriani (1846)[14]
- Nell Stevens: Briefly, a Delicious Life (2022)[15]
- Leon Thornber: Bitter Glory. A Novel of the Life of Chopin (1937)
- William Gerhardie: Pending Heaven (1930) (as Helen Sapphire)[3]
- D H Lawrence: Kangaroo (1923) (as Harriet)[16]
- Rebecca West: Harriet Hume (1929)[16]
- Elizabeth Sara Sheppard: Charles Auchester (1853) (as St Michel)[10]
- Charles Brackett: Entirely Surrounded (1934) (as Nick Farraday)[10]
- George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart: The Man Who Came to Dinner (play, as Beverley Carlton)
- Beverley Nichols: Death to Slow Music (as Nigel Fleet)[10]
- David Pownall: Facade (radio play, 2002)
- Keith Winter: Impassioned Pygmies (1936)
- Nigel Balchin: Darkness Falls From the Air (1942) (as the poet Stephen Ryle)[17]
- Anthony Burgess: '1889 and the Devil's Mode', short story in The Devil's Mode (1989)
- Pierre La Mure: Clair de lune (1962)[18]
- Marcel Proust: À la recherche du temps perdu (1913-27) (aspects of Vinteuil, see also Franck and Saint-Saëns)[19]
- C F Keary: The Journalist (1898) (as Sophus Jonsen)[19]
- David Mitchell. Cloud Atlas (2004) (as Vyvyan Ayers, with Robert Frobisher as Eric Fenby)
- Ken Russell: Delius: A Moment with Venus (2007)
- E. M. Forster: Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905) (as Philip Herriton)[19]
- Rosemary Tonks: The Bloater (1968) (as Jenny)[20]
- George Moore: Evelyn Innes (1898) (as the father of Evelyn)[21]
- Sarah Quigley: The Conductor (2012)[22]
- Keith Alldritt: Elgar on the Journey to Hanley: A Novel (1979)
- Anthony Burgess: Mozart & the Wolf Gang (1991)[5]
- James Hamilton-Paterson: Gerontius (1989)[5]
- James Miles: The Worcester Enigma (short story, 1988)
- David Pownall: Elgar’s Rondo (1993) and Elgar's Third (1994)[23]
- Ken Russell: Elgar: the Erotic Variations (2007)
- Ronald Harwood: Cesar and Augusta (1978)
- Marcel Proust: À la recherche du temps perdu (1913-27) (aspects of Vinteuil, see also Debussy and Saint-Saëns)
- Anthony Burgess: Mozart & the Wolf Gang (1991)[5]
- Steve Exeter. Debussy's Slippers (2019)
- Laura Frankos: Broadway Revival (2022)
- Mitchell James Kaplan. Rhapsody (2021)[24]
- George Kaufman and Moss Hart: Merrily We Roll Along (1934) (as Sam Frankl)[19]
- Michel Breitman: Le Témoin de poussière (1985)
- Joel Epstein: The Curse of Gesualdo: Music, Murder and Madness (2020)
- Fran Kempton: The Devil's Tune: a Tale of Music, Murder and Revenge (2018)
- David Pownall: Music to Murder By (1976)[23]
- Erika Rummel: The Road to Gesualdo (2020)
- George Moore: A Mummer's Wife (1885) (as Montgomery)[10]
- Inez Baranay: Pagan (1990)
- Louis Nowra: The Devil is a Woman (2004)
- Thomas Bernhard: The Loser (1983)
- Christopher Miller: Sudden Noises from Inanimate Objects: A Novel in Liner Notes (2004)[25]
- H.D.: Bid Me to Live (1960) (as Vane)[26]
- Aldous Huxley: Antic Hay (1923) (as the critic Mercaptan)
- D. H.Lawrence: Aaron's Rod (1922) (as Cyril Scott)[10]
- D. H.Lawrence: Kangaroo (1923) (as James Sharpe)[10]
- Anthony Powell: Casanova's Chinese Restaurant (Maclintick and Gossege as a composite)[27]
- Willa Cather: The Professor's House (as the professor's son-in-law, Louie Marsellus)[28]
- Nick Drake: All the Angels: Handel and the First Messiah (2015)
- Hermann Hesse: The Glass Bead Game (1943) (as model for Joculator Basiliensis ("the player from Basel").
- Otto Stoessl': Sonnenmelodie (1923)
- Franz Werfel: Verdi. Roman der Oper (1924) (as Matthias Fischboeck)
- Ronald Harwood: Cesar and Augusta (1978)
- Elizabeth Sara Sheppard: Charles Auchester (1853) (as Charles Auchester)[8]
- Elizabeth Sara Sheppard: Charles Auchester (1853) (as Lenhart Davy)[10]
- C F Keary: The Journalist (1898) (as Hauch)[29]
- Stevie Smith: Novel on Yellow Paper (1936) (as Herman)[30]
- Elizabeth Sara Sheppard: Charles Auchester (1853) (as Charles Auchester)[10]
- David Pownall: Master Class (1982)[23]
- Anthony Powell: Casanova's Chinese Restaurant (as Moreland)[31]
- David Pownall: Facade (radio play, 2002)
- Robert Graves: Wife to Mr Milton (1942)
- Bernice Rubens: Madame Sousatzka (1962)[32]
- Daniel Stern: Nélida (1846)[33]
- Honoré de Balzac: Béatrix (1839) (as Gennaro Conti)
- Susanne Dunlap: Liszt's Kiss (2007)
- George Eliot: Daniel Deronda (1876) (aspects of Julius Klesmer, see also Rubenstein)[34]
- Julian Livingston: The Anonymous North American Tour of Franz Liszt (1999)
- Sarah Rayne: Music Macabre (2019)
- John Spurling: A Book of Liszts: Variations on the Theme of Franz Liszt (2011)
- Henry Reed: The Private Life of Hilda Tablet (1954) (as Tablet)[35]
- Joseph Horowitz: The Marriage: The Mahlers in New York (2023)
- Max Phillips: The Artist’s Wife (2001)[36]
- James Reidel: Manon's World (2020)
- Mary Sharratt: Ecstasy (2018)[37]
- Willa Cather: The Song of the Lark (1915)
- Ronald Harwood: Mahler’s Conversion (2001)[38]
- Joseph Horowitz: The Marriage: The Mahlers in New York (2023
- Walter Kappacher: Mahlers Heimkehr (2014)
- Thomas Mann: Death in Venice (aspects of the author Aschenbach)[39]
- Frank Tallis: Death and the Maiden (2010)
- Stefan Zweig: The Return of Gustav Mahler (1915), semi-fictional essay[40]
Florence Ashton Marshall (and her sister, the clarinettist Frances Marshall)
- Bertha Thomas: The Violin Player (1880)[41]
- Peter Härtling: Liebste Fenchel (2011)
- Myla Lichtman-Fields: Felix and Fanny (play, 2011)
- Elizabeth Sara Sheppard: Charles Auchester (1853) (as Maria Cerinthea)[10]
- Rosemarie Bodenheimer: Mendelssohn & Co: a Fictive Memoir (2018)
- Anthony Burgess: Mozart & the Wolf Gang (1991)[5]
- Pierre La Mure: Beyond Desire (1955)[42]
- George Sampson: A Day with Mendelssohn (1910)
- Elizabeth Sara Sheppard: Charles Auchester (1853) (as Seraphael)[8]
- Sonia Orchard: The Virtuoso (2009)[43]
- Anthony Burgess: Mozart & the Wolf Gang (1991)[5]
- Rita Charbonnier: The Death of Mozart (2006)
- Stephanie Cowell: Marrying Mozart (2004)
- Eduard Mörike: Mozart's Journey to Prague (1856)
- Alexander Pushkin: Mozart and Salieri (1830)
- Matt Rees: Mozart's Last Aria (2011)
- Peter Shaffer: Amadeus (1979)
- Julian Barnes: 'Harmony', from the short story collection Pulse (2011)
- Brian O'Doherty: The Strange Case of Mademoiselle P (1992)
- Michèle Halberstadt. The Pianist in the Dark (2011)
- Jean Thuillier: Franz Anton Mesmer ou L'extase Magnétique (1988)
- Alissa Walser: Mesmerized (2012)
- George Bernard Shaw: Love Among the Artists (1881) (as Owen Jack)[8]
- Carl Ginsburg: Medicine Journeys: Ten Stories (Center Press, 1983) (as Mrs Todd Ashby)[44]
- Julian Barnes: The Noise of Time (2016)[5]
- Anthony Burgess: Mozart & the Wolf Gang (1991)[5]
- David Pownall: Master Class (1982)[23]
- Arnold Bennett: The Lion's Share (1916) {as Roussel)[19]
- Jean Echenoz: Ravel: a Novel (2009, translated 2011)
- Steve Exeter. Debussy's Slippers (2019)
- Anthony Burgess: Mozart & the Wolf Gang (1991)[5]
- Bernice Rubens: Madame Souzatzka (1962) (as Manek)[45]
- George Eliot: Daniel Deronda (1876) (aspects of Julius Klesmer, see also Liszt)[19]
- Marcel Proust: À la recherche du temps perdu (1913-27) (aspects of Vinteuil, see also Debussy and Franck)
- Alexander Pushkin: Mozart and Salieri (1830)
- Peter Shaffer: Amadeus (1979)
- Edmund Crispen: Holy Disorders (1945) (as Geoffrey Vintner)[46]
- Anthony Burgess: 'Murder to Music', short story in The Devil's Mode (1989)
- Caitlin Horrocks: Vexations (2019)[47]
- Thomas Mann: Doctor Faustus (1947) (aspects of Adrian Leverkühn, see also Wolf)[48]
- Peter Härtling: Schubert: A Novel (1995)
- Gaëlle Josse: Un été à quatre mains
- Boman Desai: Trio: A Novel Biography of the Schumanns and Brahms (2011)
- Janice Galloway: Clara (2004)[49]
- Dieter Kühn: Familientreffen (play, 1988)
- Elisabeth Kyle: Duet: The Story of Robert and Clara Schumann (1968)
- J. D. Landis: Longing (2000)[50]
- Werner Quednau: Clara Schumann (1955)
- Kristen Wolf: Escapement (2018)
- Boman Desai: Trio: A Novel Biography of the Schumanns and Brahms (2011)
- Jessica Duchen: Ghost Variations (2016)[51]
- Peter Härtling: Schumanns Schatten (1996)
- Elisabeth Kyle: Duet: The Story of Robert and Clara Schumann (1968)
- J. D. Landis: Longing (2000)
- Kristen Wolf: Escapement (2018)
- Julian Barnes: The Noise of Time (2016)[5]
- David Pownall: Master Class (1982)[23]
- Sarah Quigley: The Conductor (2012)[22]
- William T. Vollmann: Europe Central (2005)[52]
- Simon Boswell: The Seven Symphonies: A Finnish Murder Mystery (2005)[53]
- Caroline J Sinclair: My Music, My Drinking & Me (2015) (fictionalised memoir)[54]
- E. F. Benson: Dodo (1893) (as Edith Staines)[8]
- Christopher Miller: Sudden Noises from Inanimate Objects: A Novel in Liner Notes (2004)[55]
- Chris Greenhalgh: Coco and Igor (2002)
- Russell Hoban. My Tango with Barbara Strozzi (2007) (as modern day Bertha Strunk)[5]
- Mitchell James Kaplan. Rhapsody (2021)[24]
- Franz Werfel. Verdi: Roman der Oper (1923) (as Matthias Fischboeck)
- Alexander Chee: The Queen of the Night (2016)
- Joie Davidow: An Unofficial Marriage (2021)
- Harriet Constable: The Instrumentalist (2024)
- Barbara Quick: Vivaldi's Virgins (2007)[5]
- Gabriele D'Annunzio: The Flame (1900)
- Anthony Burgess: Mozart & the Wolf Gang (1991)[5]
- Vernon Lee: A Wicked Voice (short story, 1880)
- Friedrich Nietzsche: Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883-5) (as the sorcerer)
- Franz Werfel: Verdi: Roman der Oper (1924) (under his own name and also as Matthias Fischboeck)
- Lord Berners: Count Omega (1941) (as Emmanuel Smith)[57]
- David Pownall: Facade (radio play, 2002)
- Frank Baker: The Birds (1936) (as Paul Weaver)
- Ralph Bates: Dead End of the Sky (1937) (as Robert Durand)[58]
- Robertson Davies: A Mixture of Frailties (1958) (as Giles Revelstoke)[59]
- Aldous Huxley: Antic Hay (1923) (as Coleman)[60]
- D. H. Lawrence: Women in Love (1921) (as Julius Halliday)[60]
- Anthony Powell: Casanova's Chinese Restaurant (1960) (aspects of Maclintick)
- David Pownall: Music to Murder By (1976)[23]
- Jean Rhys: Till September Petronella (short story, 1930s) (as Julian Oakes)[61]
- Osbert Sitwell: Those Were the Days (1938) (as Roy Hartle)
- Thomas Mann: Doctor Faustus (1947) (aspects of Adrian Leverkühn, see also Schoenberg)[62]
- Elizabeth Sara Sheppard: Charles Auchester (1853) (as Aronach)[10]