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From: freeman@spar.UUCP (Jay Freeman)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Science Fiction in Music
Message-ID: <391@spar.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 11-Jul-85 17:56:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: spar.391
Posted: Thu Jul 11 17:56:18 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Jul-85 11:47:03 EDT
References: <2655@topaz.ARPA>
Reply-To: freeman@max.UUCP (Jay Freeman)
Organization: Schlumberger Palo Alto Research, CA
Lines: 30

[ The line-eater is an intergalactic plot!! ]

In article <2655@topaz.ARPA> Alan%DCT.AC.UK%DUNDEE.AC.UK@ucl-cs.ARPA writes:

>I've been following SF-LOVERS for about 9 months now and I've seen
>many forms of SF discussed with the exception of one which I find
>surprising. Nobody ever seems to talk about music, either its SF
>content or the influences it may have had on some piece of SF writing.

Hear, hear!!

>I could give a few examples of both. How about [...]

And let us not forget the Moody Blues:  "To Our Children's Children's
Children" is a fine album, and it seems to me to have been the result of a
deliberate attempt to write score and libretto for Olaf Stapledon's deep
(and slightly ponderous) novel, _The_Star_Maker_.  (Has anyone heard for sure?)
The opening cut from the album is also an outstanding attempt to capture on
media the auditory sensations of a major launch vehicle ascent (Saturn V
or Proton).

>What does everyone else think ? There seems no reason to
>me why words and music are less valid as Sci-Fi than words
>and paper or words and acting.

I concur.  And as an attempt to come up with a gap-bridging
conversation-starter, can anyone think of interesting examples of written SF
in which music played a dominant theme?  One such might be Melinda
Snodgrass's Star Trek novel, _The_Tears_of_the_Singers_.
-- 
Jay Reynolds Freeman (Schlumberger Palo Alto Research)(canonical disclaimer)