On Musical Writing In Nocturnes:Five Stories Of Music And Nightfall

Kazuo Ishiguro is an outstanding contemporary British-Japanese writer who plays an important role in world literature and has been successively awarded important prizes including the Booker Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature.Apart from being a writer,he is also a lyric-writer who used to see himself as a musician and once dreamed of becoming a rock singer before turning to literature.His musical experience is reflected in his multiple literary works with abundant musical elements Among them,Nocturnes:Five Stories of Music and Nightfall stands as the most typical one in terms of musical writing,although it has not been paid enough attention by scholars from the perspective of music yetIshiguro still maintains the habit of playing the guitar and writing lyrics.He also actively applies his experience in music to fiction writing and puts his opinions on the correlation between music and literature into practice.He believes in the unity of music and literature,the commonality between the art forms,and the mutual benefits of the two for each other.These experiences and views furnish the musical writing in Nocturnes with subjective inclination and objective source.In terms of artistic features,the musical writing is chiefly embodied in two aspects.In the case of form,the writing features of the texts of Nocturnes mirror the characteristic of nocturne as a music genre,including polyphonic texture,frequent alternation of modes,and melancholy keynote with a nocturnal setting.In the case of content,a dominant presence of musical elements is achieved by music-related characters,music-catalyzed plots,and music-triggered memories,which adds a musical flavor to the work.Due to the shared musical quality between the form and content inside the work,and between the literary work and the music genre nocturne,an effect of unity is conveyed.In terms of thematic connotations,four pairs of antithetical themes are juxtaposed by music,i.e.,the character's feelings of consolation and alienation,their mental states of dream and disillusionment,their struggles between artistic integrity and material success,and their perspectives between romantic love and utilitarian calculation towards marriage.The ambivalence inside the characters is uncovered and an effect of opposition is deliveredIn conclusion,through the artistic feature presented in terms of the outward manifestation and the thematic meanings expressed in terms of the inward connotations of musical writing,Kazuo Ishiguro carries out his diversified attempt in fiction creation and imparts a unique reading experience to readers.The co-existence of the effect of unity and opposition further discloses the bona fide reality of life,which is always situated in the unity of opposites,and provokes people's rumination on their true aspiration in such-constant paradoxes.