"A threnody"

Last but not least in our cast for Ian McEwan's Hamlet production, Nutshell, we introduce our nameless fetus hero. I've taken the debatable decision to lump him in with his father. The grounds for this decision are simple: the narrator's desire for a connection with his genitor. He perceives the threat represented by his mother Trudy and his uncle Claude and is rightfully worried about having to grow up without a father.

One of the first instances in which our narrator makes a musical analogy is a response to the illegitimate couple's plan to “place” him (Chapter Four). He takes the words and repeats them, an operation which he likens to a DJ's touch on a vinyl, (Chapter Five, p. 43). While our character is in psychological distress, the image is a playful one. To describe the imaginary action, the adverb “scratchily” precedes the verb “sample”. The phrase he plays back for himself is in italics; it comes in two fragments, as there is now an ellipsis. These simple devices convey a sense of hearing an altered musical phrase. The process reveals the words for what they are and helps the hero form a clearer image of what his future might hold.

Every main adult character in the novel sings, hums or whistles at one point. We’ve addressed the musical expressions of Trudy and Claude, but how does John fare in this modest art? And how does it reflect on his situation? The adverb “tunelessly” follows the verb “whistles”, (Chapter Nine, p. 86). The fetus then invokes two Viennese composers in a comparative form to qualify his father’s notes: “more Schoenberg than Schubert, a projection of ease rather than the thing itself.” I would argue that it was probably the alliteration, rather than the musical significance, that drove the author to join these two figures.

Unlike Debussy or Tarrega whose names were associated with Claude, the next trio of composers shines its lights on the past, the future and the creative genius of mankind. Thus, Igor Stravinsky finds himself coupled with Albert Einstein in our narrator's assessment of the 20^th century. They are the “redeeming” forces of modern history. Interestingly, this overview takes the form of an imaginary volume, a prequel to the unwritten “thriller” of the 21^st century, compounding the forces of science, music and literature.

Later on, our narrator recalls the words of his father. A poem should ideally flow out of a poet effortlessly, as “all art aspires to the condition of Mozart's" (Chapter Sixteen, p. 151). The composer's example is a guiding force for creators of all disciplines. Following the comfort of his mother's tuneful whistling in Chapter Seventeen, our narrator projects himself into a rare postpartum vision of peace and harmony. Whose name does he invoke? J. S. Bach. He imagines himself in his wine-tasting, book-reading days, spending time over the German composer's works. Baroque and classical music references bring father and son closer together.

But peace is temporary. John seems to anticipate the chaos when he corrects Trudy's jealous distortion of his protégé's name, Elody. “A threnody”, he explains “is a song for the dead” (Chapter Nine, p. 90). Claude, much to his brother’s distress, then offers Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind” as an example.

McEwan, Ian, Nutshell, Vintage, Penguin, 2017