Dorothy Smith asked: >I'm currently reading the short stories of Wallace Stegner--better fiction >writing than I've encountered for some time. Does anyone know the rather >long story, "A Field Guide to the Western Birds"? Excellent use of one art >(literature) to illuminate another (music)--never an easy thing to do. Sorry, I don't know this work. Have you come across the novels of Anthony Burgess? He is perhaps most famous for A Clockwork Orange which has musical references to Beethoven, and the film has a soundtrack to match. Although I haven't done much novel reading for years, I was fond of his writing style, and was aware that he had studied music and written some works (though I haven't heard any). One novel of his is called Napoleon Symphony, and is laid out in 4 movements just like Beethoven's Eroica, complete with other musical references and metaphors, e.g. the funeral march movement. Another novel of his had a character with the initials MF and it contained some wordplay on these initials including the obvious "mezzo-forte". Jim Paterson [log in to unmask]