Several weeks ago the local alternative newspaper Seven Days ran two articles in the same issue that, despite their lack of explicit connection, nevertheless seemed to betray an intimate association.
The first article concerned an eccentric local composer named David Gunn. The second was a review of the book Sudden Noises from Inanimate Objects by the now local writer Christopher Miller, though I have since learned that he was not local when he authored the text.
My suspicion was that Miller had actually used Gunn as inspiration for his novel, and quite a wonderful novel it was, I might add.
I wrote up an article, intending to publish it in the Seven Days letters section, but it turned out to be far too long for inclusion. As I was feeling much too lazy to edit it down to a shorter length, I simply sent it to Christopher Miller and called it a day.
Included herein is the complete text of the article. I have also appended a short postscript which lays to rest the question posed in the text.
The original review and interview with the author can be viewed on the Seven Days website: Composition Book by Margot Harrison
I was unable to locate the article about Gunn on the Seven Days website, but it appears to be on the Rutland Herald website as well: Fun with music
It should be noted again, since the article was originally written for a local audience, that both Gunn and Miller are residents of Vermont, and this is what fueled my theory.
Gunning Down Silber by Roderick Russell
Reading Seven Days each week is always a great delight for me, so much so that I sometimes jump the gun and prematurely pick up a copy that I, only two paragraphs into a delightful article, suddenly realize I have already read.
So I wasn’t entirely surprised this week while reading Volume 10, Number 9 to experience an intense feeling of deja vu while deeply ensconced in the Musical Mayhem story about VT composer David Gunn.
I double checked the date, ran through my mental checklist of what I had read and where, and concluded that this was in fact the first time I had read the article. So why the deja vu? After much searching, I realized that I was reading a real-life account of a fictional character featured in a novel that I had only last month completed.
Sudden Noises from Inanimate Objects is a delightfully ridiculous novel about the fictional composer Simon Silber, a review of which also coincidentally appeared further on in the same issue of Seven Days. I need not describe it here, for Margot Harrison did a great job reviewing it for the paper and also included a short interview with the author. And for a truly accurate picture of the novel, all one need do is read the Musical Mayhem article, inflate and exaggerate as any good storyteller would, and you’ve got a novel on your hands.
So the question becomes, though the author Miller never once mentions Gunn in any place that I have found, nor does Gunn mention Miller, do they in fact know each other? Could Miller have found inspiration for his brilliant first novel in an eccentric character from Barre, VT?
It seems hard to believe that the shortest composition in the novel, entitled Crows, was not influenced by Gunn’s own shortest composition, 50 Birds. And though it doesn’t take a comic genius to create composition titles such as Help Me Rondo and Transcendental Medication, both by Gunn, orVariation in a Minor and “Babbage” Permutations by Miller (okay, perhaps the latter two are genius) and to discover similarities between them, the parallels between the fictional character Silber and the very real character Gunn remain too numerous to overlook.
Both composers are highly concerned with meticulous and exacting recreation of their music. Granted, it could be argued that many composers are concerned with the representation of their artistic ideals, but Miller himself writes into his novel that Silber composes only for the solo piano “because he didn’t trust anyone else to interpret his works.” Compare that to Gunn’s admission that, though he is proud that the VYO was able to present his Incandescendence at the Flynn, they did so “32 percent faster than I had written it.” Not twice as fast, not simply “faster”, but precisely 32 percent. Perhaps there’s some hidden reference to the number of Goldberg Variations1 or the year of Glenn Gould’s birth that I’m missing there, but being so exacting deserves to be called “pulling a Silber”.
With both composers being characterized overwhelmingly by the “various states of oblivion” in which they live and their concern for meticulous recreation of their musical ideas, along with other countless similarities, one can only assume that Miller used Gunn as a basis for his novel.
Mind you, I am certain that Gunn is a great man with wonderful ideas. Any fictional representation of him is naturally, as any good caricature will, going to creatively inflate the circumstances. It just so happens that in some caricatures, the comically large nose really isn?t that different from the original. If anything, the article in Seven Days and the similarities I’ve discovered have encouraged me to explore this real-life character more. I only wonder if in fact Gunn was Miller’s muse on this project.
In any event, the novel is fantastic and an absolute hoot, especially for cynical-minded music lovers, and I highly recommend it to everyone. Kudos to Miller on a wonderful first novel.
1. In true Silber fashion, I should note that technically there are only 30 variations in the Goldbergs, but that the Aria is typically played once at the beginning and once at the end, leaving us with 32 separate selections.
POSTSCRIPT
Mr. Miller was kind enough to give me a wonderful little response to my article which put to rest any debate about Gunn’s possible inspirational role in the creation of the book. I hope that Mr. Miller doesn’t mind if I briefly quote him below:
Any resemblance between Silber and Gunn is just further proof that it’s impossible to satirize modern music because the reality is wackier than anything I could dream up.
Miller also commented that he was living in St. Louis at the time of the writing, and had actually never heard of Gunn.
Thank you for settling the argument Christopher. Keep putting pen to paper and cranking out those delightful words!