Because
of its ability to evoke unaussprechlichen
thoughts, feelings and memories, music is often an important element in horror
entertainments. It is a central focus in
two stories written in the 1920s and the 1930s by two of the more famous pulp
fiction authors. H.P. Lovecraft
published his beloved The Music of Erich
Zann in the March issue of The
National Amateur, in 1922. This
story was discussed in an earlier post, (see A
Musical Nightmare ), and is generally well known to readers of Lovecraft.
Briefly,
in Lovecraft’s The Music of Erich Zann, an
impoverished student of metaphysics befriends a secretive old musician named
Erich Zann. The man is a very accomplished
player of an instrument that resembles a cello.
He plays his instrument near an open window, overlooking the city. There is an eerie sense that the old man that is
actually playing a duo and not a
solo, and there is a nightmarish end to his last performance.
Robert
E. Howard’s Casonetto’s Last Song is
probably less well known, but shares some similarities with The Music of Erich Zann. One wonders if the earlier story was the
inspiration for Howard’s work. Casonetto’s Last Song was published
posthumously in 1973 in Etchings and
Odysseys #1, but must have been written sometime before 1936, the year that
Howard died.
Although
Erich Zann played live for the narrator of Lovecraft’s story, the late—because recently
executed—Casonetto appears in Howard’s tale only as a gramophone recording of
his last vocal performance. (Disc shaped
records like the one depicted in the story came into vogue by the early 1920s.)
And what a performance! The deceased
opera singer nearly accomplishes a unique form of revenge through the power of
his song.
The
helpful chart below summarizes some of the similarities and differences between
these interesting stories.
|
The
Music of Erich Zann
|
Casonetto’s
Last Song
|
Instrument played
|
Viol
|
Male
operatic voice
|
Musical Composition
|
Unknown
|
Invocation
from the Black Mass
|
Career
|
Cheap
orchestral gigs
|
Renowned
opera singer; high priest of demonic cult
|
Type of performance
|
Live
performance, including duo with a guest musician
|
High
fidelity gramophone recording
|
Intent of musical composition
|
Ward
off entity from another dimension
|
Accompaniment
to sacrifice of human virgins when invoking Satan
|
Effect on audience
|
Cosmic
fear
|
Psychic
re-enactment of a black mass ending in ritual murder
|
“Where are they now?”
|
Erich
Zann died of fright during his last performance, but kept on playing even
while dead.
|
Casanetto
was arrested and executed for human sacrifice. He made an unsuccessful, posthumous attempt
at revenge against his accuser. He is
in Hell now.
|
I have one *serious* suspension-of-disbelief issue with Cassonetto's LAst song;" given how popular he is said to be, many of his recordings would be in private hands, both collectors and ordinary listeners, who would not be inclined to turn over or sell their records just because of a proviso in Cassonetto's will, nor could most of them even be traced. So, while his executor could get back any copies left in stores and warehouses (assuming nobody in *those* places pulls a fast one) many copies of his records would still be out there, and ready for revival in an LP in the 60s! D'C'A'
ReplyDeleteGood point. Even worse, what if Cassonetto's recording was eventually digitalized, and then made available for innumerable downloads on I-tunes? His future listeners would be re-enacting black masses--when they were not disco dancing to hits from the 70s,(an even greater horror).
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