New character in my brain!
Jan. 5th, 2011 12:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperToday my muse decided that it has a mad, mad desire to write an Instrumental Duel with the Fey story–starring a tuba player.
Because here’s the thing, y’all. You pick up a novel where the lead character is a musician, that musician is probably going to be playing one of a set of “sexy” instruments. This isn’t just a fantasy novel thing, though god knows fantasy has its share of fiddle players and guitarists and flautists and harpists–mystery and romance are guilty of this, too! (And yes, I say this fully cognizant of the fact that I’ve got four, count ‘em, four musicians in Faerie Blood–a violinist and a bouzouki player as the lead characters, as well as a guitarist and a whistle player in the supporting cast.)
But you know what you don’t get? Books that show love to the less sexy instruments, and do so in a non-comedic fashion. Anybody out there EVER read a serious story about an accordion player? How about the French horn? And I say right now that I will hand over a free copy of Faerie Blood to anybody who can find me a serious novel about a tuba player. Until that happens, I am totally going to write one.
And this will be a serious, actual fantasy novel in which the tuba player gets to save the day. I don’t know yet what the plot will be, other than that I wish to screw around with the Instrumental Duel With the Fey trope–only this time, the guy that’s going to be bringing it is going to bringing it with a tuba.
Once I decided I was going to do this, this guy immediately started taking shape in my brain. Tonight’s writing-related thing was opening a character file about him, to jot down all the thoughts bouncing around about him.
I know this much: his name is Oscar Beck, he is a prototypical gawky nerd type, and the one thing in life he is awesome at is that he can pull music out of a tuba to make an audience weep. He reads like a crazy reading thing as well because music and books are way less scary than interacting with actual people, and so he’s a big, big fan of Lord Peter Wimsey, as an example of a hero who is a) awesomely brilliant, b) a musician, and c) not handsome in the slightest, yet possessed of thermonuclear charisma! He would rather die than admit it to anybody as well, but he has totally nicknamed his tuba the Horn of Helm Hammerhand, because he is an utter Tolkien geek and he loves him some Battle of Helm’s Deep.
Oscar, it’s delightful to meet you. And boy, are YOU going to be surprised when you find out that girl in the last chair of the oboe section is way, WAY more unusual than she seems. Not to mention that you and the Horn are going to have to save the city. And possibly the world.
Props to 
kathrynttechnoshaman
Mirrored from angelakorrati.com.
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Date: 2011-01-05 09:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-05 03:21 pm (UTC)I'm actually waffling on what instrument that girl in question plays, but I wanted something also less "glamorous", something that'd be a supporting instrument in the orchestra and back there doing an awesome job while not necessarily getting all the accolades of oh, say, the lead violin. English horn works! A fellow brass player would be a point in common. ;)
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Date: 2011-01-05 07:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-05 08:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-07 02:21 am (UTC)Also, double-reed players are pretty much required to have sharp knives to fabricate said reeds, so if steel is going to be a problem, you might want to go with the viola or something. ;-)
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Date: 2011-01-07 03:37 am (UTC)That character is still totally up in the air, and has more wiggle room. Although I gotta say the English horn sounds pretty awesome all by itself, just by the name alone. I may have to find proper recordings of it, too!
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Date: 2011-01-05 01:10 pm (UTC)don't let the reputation fool you. the tuba rocks. (as do the rest of the horns and woodwinds. eric sort of specialized in clarinet for me.)
for non-classical examples check out our house band (not one i'm in), "emperor norton's stationary marching band". full of the tuba goodness!
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Date: 2011-01-05 03:18 pm (UTC)Thanks for the recommendation! :)
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Date: 2011-01-05 03:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-05 03:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-05 02:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-05 03:24 pm (UTC)And I'm with you on being sick of the dark and gritty fetish in current urban fantasy. Which is why I tend to aim for lighter-hearted albeit still serious fantasy, closer to oh, say, the likes of Tanya Huff. :)
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Date: 2011-01-05 03:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-05 03:23 pm (UTC)(And in contrast to how the tuba section, when I was in middle school band myself, actually had sousaphones.)
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Date: 2011-01-05 03:42 pm (UTC)I do have a short poem that mentions a guy playing tuba. But I will admit that some mockery happens there. I suspect the busker who played Flight of the Valkyres slowly on tuba in front of the UW Bookstore on University Way was before your time. I'm pretty sure I saw him more than once.
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Date: 2011-01-05 07:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-05 09:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-05 11:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-05 11:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-06 04:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-05 08:13 pm (UTC)(Because as any Great Big Sea fan will tell you, Irish bouzoukis are ABSOLUTELY sexy!)
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Date: 2011-01-05 07:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-05 08:12 pm (UTC)Since this character is a classical musician talking to an actual classical tuba player could be very useful. :)
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Date: 2011-01-05 10:43 pm (UTC)I spent a lot of today rethinking the media one of my artist characters worked in.
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Date: 2011-01-05 11:15 pm (UTC)And sounds like you've done some productive work today as well, so go you!
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Date: 2011-01-06 06:34 am (UTC)Nicky was all about the bright colours, so I figured he'd make the switch from oils to acrylics when the paints became easily available. His early stuff would have been watercolour, though, because that was when he and his sister were homeless more often than not.
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Date: 2011-01-06 06:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-06 12:51 am (UTC)*we hear Three Blind Mice being played (badly) on a clarinet only to stop midway*
E: Uhhhh, Mrs. Badcrumble, is this a sexy tune? Cause I wanna play sexy tunes!
Mrs. B: Of course it's a sexy tune! It's a very sexy tune! My late husband and I used to make love to it.
E: Oh. *resumes playing badly, then pauses once more* Exactly when did you orgasm during this tune?
Mrs. B: All over! It was multiple!!
As for the girl playing the oboe, make sure she compares it to trying to play a weasel. >;) Maybe she is a weasel? A were-weasel!!
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Date: 2011-01-06 02:04 am (UTC)And now I have a mad urge to have Oscar have known a kid named Eddie who played clarinet in middle school!
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Date: 2011-01-06 02:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-06 02:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-06 07:36 am (UTC)And I'm looking for Vaughn now on iTunes. :)
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Date: 2011-01-06 07:38 am (UTC)She threw me this link! Thanks for chiming in though and absolutely keep 'em coming.
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Date: 2011-01-06 08:43 am (UTC)Or at least to *a* world. Do you know yet if this will be an independent story, or if it will take place in one of your existing universes? As you say, the musician density in Faerie Blood is already quite high. Add one more, and you know that if Hollywood ever makes a film of it, they'll just go for a musical. (Starts to imagine the cast going into arias.)
BTW, are you familiar with Tubby the Tuba? I remember a cartoon that was repeatedly shown on Norwegian TV during my childhood in the 70s, but I can't find it again -- at least not that version. If I had, you can bet that I'd have sent it to you as a birthday present.
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Date: 2011-01-07 08:02 am (UTC)I've been thinking about whether this is a Faerie Blood universe story, and I'm not sure yet. It's possible it might be, in which case Oscar's likely love interest--that aforementioned girl who possibly plays the English horn--will be the local Warder. But much will depend upon the nature of the challenge he needs to overcome, and whether its needs will be compatible with what I know about the FB universe.
Tubby the Tuba sounds like I ought to know what it is; I think I may have heard of it somewhere before. But it's not sounding familiar offhand. :)
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Date: 2011-01-09 04:22 pm (UTC)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06v56aUCQZE
I see that there are several versions, including an audio version narrated by Danny Kaye, so I kinda think that a tuba playing nerd ought to be familiar with it. There is also a web page, http://www.tubbythetuba.com/, but I don't like the way Tubby is drawn there, fully clothed as a little kid.
Sadly, the Norwegian version, "Tubaen Toby," seems to have dropped into obscurity. It doesn't have its own IMDB or Wikipedia entry, and is only mentioned in the Norwegian Wikipedia entry for animator Anna Tystad Aronsen.
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Date: 2011-01-06 11:27 am (UTC)"Snow Angels (http://www.amazon.com/Snow-Angels-Stewart-ONan/dp/0385475748)" by Stewart O'Nan, was made into a movie in which the protagonist, Arthur, is a tuba player in the high school band (see review of the movie here (http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/snowangels.html), where they mention the tuba playing). Unfortunately I can't find anything that says Arthur plays the tuba in the book too, but since the movie is based off the book it seems likely.
This review (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3713570.Oom_Pah_) of "Oom-Pah!" by William Crane made me think I had found the perfect example, but the amazon page (http://www.amazon.com/Oom-Pah-William-Crane/dp/0689308043) for the book says they are sousaphone players, sigh. Really cheap book though!
"The Line (http://www.amazon.com/Line-Olga-Grushin/dp/039915616X)" by Olga Grushin is a serious novel about a tuba player, waiting in line with his family for a ticket to a Stravinsky concert. Check out this review (http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/04/entertainment/la-ca-olga-grushin4-2010apr04/2) that says in the first line how the main character is a tuba player! Unfortunately, this review (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/26/AR2010032601990.html) does point out that the protagonist wanted to be a violin player and was forced by the state to play tuba, so it might not quite fit as a real "tuba player" as in someone who likes playing tuba rather than a person who just happens to play the tuba.
Clearly, I am a sucker for time-wasting activities when I should go to bed, lol.
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Date: 2011-01-06 03:24 pm (UTC)As promised, you can have a copy of the Faerie Blood ebook! PDF and EPUB are immediately handy.
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Date: 2011-01-06 06:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-07 08:02 am (UTC)