He stared up at the needling spires of the chapel. At five o’clock, the tower bells would sound, and the porters would open the college to the public. People would soon come streaming in to wait outside the vestibule for evensong. And he knew that once those big oak doors were open and the voluntary began, he’d have to be far away from here. The sound of the organ was impossible for him to be around; his heart would capsize with the slightest note. So he turned his back on the Front Court and went striding through town, hoping he might see something in the darkening sky that hadn’t been there yesterday.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
A number of texts informed the writing of The Bellwether Revivals, but there are a few works that I am particularly indebted to:
Herbert Crest’s newspaper article on hypnotism is a fictitious reworking of Andi Rierden’s ‘A Hypnotist Taps the Mind’s Power in North Haven’ (New York Times, 12 December 1993). I have embellished upon the facts at the heart of Rierden’s piece to suit the requirements of the novel; in doing so, I have stayed close to the style and structure of her original article to retain a sense of authenticity.
Aspects of Elsa Ronningstam’s book Identifying and Understanding the Narcissistic Personality (Oxford University Press, 2005) helped me to define the limits of Eden’s ‘condition’. Richard Kivy’s Music Alone (Cornell, 1990) and The Corded Shell (Princeton, 1980) are key to my understanding of music aesthetics, though I’m sure Eden would take issue with some of his assertions about Mattheson. I relied on Hans Lenneberg’s translation of Der Vollkomenne Capellmeister, as published in The Journal of Music Theory (1958), when beginning to construct Eden’s musical philosophy.
Finally, Beekman C. Cannon’s comprehensive book Johann Mattheson: Spectator in Music was enormously valuable to my research, and I am grateful to Yale University Press for giving permission to reprint excerpts from it.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would to thank everyone who supported me in the writing of this book, and those who helped bring it to the attention of readers. My agent, Judith Murray at Greene & Heaton, offered sage editorial comments and believed in the novel from the beginning; Grainne Fox and Suzanne Brandreth found it loving homes in the USA and Canada. I am very grateful to my editors—Francesca Main, for her perceptive readings and invaluable notes, Josh Kendall and Lara Hinchberger, for their additional insights and suggestions—Maxine Hitchcock, Jessica Leeke, and the hard-working teams at my publishers, Simon & Schuster, Viking Penguin, and McClelland & Stewart.
I owe a big debt of thanks to Adam Robinson for taking me to see the college choirs and making Cambridge feel like home, and to Birkbeck College for keeping the roof over my head while I wrote the book. Thanks for the help, advice, and encouragement of Ailsa Cox, Michael Marshall Smith, Robert Paul Weston, Meryn Cadell, Steven Galloway, Keith Maillard, Derek Dunfield, Amanda Lamarche, Carla Gillis, Cathleen With, Susan Olding, Catharine Chen, Cliff Flax, Alice Kuipers, Patrick Neate, Hellie Ogden, Luke Brown, Mark Wainwright, Bobby Kewley, Laura Brodie, Phil Kielty, and Anne Seddon. Thanks also to Kit Holland and Tim Marwood for shedding light on unfamiliar aspects of student life, and Shaban Javed for kindness and numerous free meals.
Thank you to my girlfriend, Stephanie, for her love, belief, and stabilising presence (Opi did us proud). Thanks to my family for their great encouragement along the way: Alex and Nick—my brothers and kindred spirits—Ali, Dad, my grandparents, Uncle Harry and other absent friends.
Most of all, thank you to my mother, Lynn, who has read every draft and incarnation of this novel, and without whose love, resilience, faith, support, and wisdom I could never have written a word.
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Prelude: June 2003
First Days
One: Incidental Music
Two: Empires of the Passions
Three: A Reversible Lack of Awareness
Four: The Harmony of What Exists
Five: Fantasies of Unlimited Power
Six: The Rightful Order of Things
Seven: Dead Reckoning
Last Days
Eight: The Remote Possibilities
Nine: Near Allied
Ten: Wives of the Above
Eleven: The Treatment of Our Mutual Friend
Twelve: Her Ideal Life
Thirteen: Ibidem
Fourteen: Elephants
Fifteen: A Light Went Off in the Organ House
Sixteen: Waiting
Seventeen: New Wrongs
Eighteen: The Ordering of Material Affairs
Nineteen: The Visits
Twenty: Caterwaul
Days to Come
Twenty-one: Testimony
Delusions of hope
Author’s Note
Acknowledgements
The Bellwether Revivals Page 42