The Music of Erich Zann
I really like this story. It plays on a
lot of things I like about Lovecraftian fiction, like secret knowledge and
unseen creatures. But as an amateur musician, I love the central idea in this
story, that music, like a well developed language, can take on a power force,
and even keep evil at bay. I think almost anyone can relate to the idea that
music can move and influence us.
Lovecraft quite liked this story,
feeling it didn't suffer from giving away too much, as he felt many of his
other stories did. And it was fairly successful, even being published in a
number of collections during HPL's lifetime. Nine years after it was first
published it was even put in Dashiell Hammett's famous Creeps by Night collection.
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| Illustration by Jeff Powers © 2013 |
The story follows a young student, down
on his luck who is forced to move to a strange part of an unknown French city
and finds himself taking up residence with a mute German who stays up at all
hours playing the strangest music on an old viol (often depicted as a violin in
adaptations of this story, but according to Lovecraft's letters he is in fact
referring to a specific kind of cello).
Location is once again an interesting
element of this story. The city is not mentioned by name, but we know it is probably
a large city in France, and quite possibly Paris, though its mere mention of
the French language, French streets and a large river could just as easily have
the story taking place in old New Orleans (something that makes a pretty cool
idea from someone who lives in that city). What we do know is the name of the
fictional street upon which the student found his residence, though it is also
a place he cannot seem to remember how to find again. This place has fallen out
of place and time and is lost even to scholars of the old Parisian streets. Interestingly
enough, the street is named Rue d'Auseil. Now auseil is not a real French word, but may have come from
Lovecraft's repurposing of au seuil
which means 'at the threshold'. This may hint at the house sitting upon the
threshold between ours and other dimensions. Further evidence for this comes
from the mysterious description of the window in the German man, Erich Zann's,
room, which he says looks out into the abyss.
This story is wonderfully mysterious,
leaving so much to the imagination and answering none of the questions it
brings up. Gone is the Lovecraft motif of the final paragraph that reveals all.
In fact the guys over at HPPodcraft, toss around the idea that this is actually
Lovecraft writing the story of Erich Zann's manuscript, but then throwing it
away in favor of the atmospheric and mysterious story of the old German's
neighbor. But with this story, some scholars have said, we get the first true
Lovecraftian story. Now I have said that there are elements of what we consider
Lovecraftian in many of the stories covered so far. Lovecraft, in his letters
had even stated that he was prone to imitation and homage. Almost all the
stories we have seen have been all or in part inspired by either Poe or
Dunsany, but in this work we see all those elements and styles being pushed
aside, letting the true form of Lovecraft out. And it will be stories of this
flavor that we will experience numerous times in Lovecraft's more famous works
like Pickman's Model.
If you want to read this chilling tale of
mystery, you can check out the full text here: HPL's The Music of Erich Zann
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