Ever since I read Glenn Kurtz’s Practicing: A Musician’s Return to Music, I’ve wanted to write something in-depth about music. I loved his booked even though it felt unfinished to me. And when I scribbled out some notes I called, The Rules for Time Travel, I found I needed to fit my newly devised rules by researching stories about history’s tier-two and three characters.
One such character was Hans Rott, a Viennese composer who wrote a symphony at age 18, went insane, and then—before he could find his place among the pantheon of great classical composers—died of tuberculosis. The score for his symphony would lie forgotten on a library shelf for one hundred years before a Cincinnati-based conductor decided to dust it off and give it a shot.
I’ve read books or seen films in which classical music appears as though the writer had given only a passing thought to research. You’d think all of classical music could be boiled down into a simple choice of whether Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and The Four Seasons. As part of my time travel Hans Rott historical romance, my retelling deep-dives into classical music in a way that musicians and lovers of classical music might recognize themselves.
Overview
When disillusioned art student Angela Bimmel joins a local community orchestra to play the lowly triangle, she finds herself communicating with long-dead Viennese composer, Hans Rott.
As each rehearsal draws her nearer to the elusive composer, Angela soon learns that her triangle is only part of a conjuring combination that makes time travel possible. In order to fully make the jump so she can speak with Hans, she must discover them all. And like the tragic Hans Rott, finding all of them means digging deeply into what she fears the most.
Symphony in E – the book – is a romp through classical music as each character — whether a second violin player in a community orchestra or the mighty Johannes Brahms — is accompanied by distinct and timeless masterworks from the orchestral repertoire.