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November 21, 2022
Meg Howrey's Playlist for Her Novel "They're Going to Love You"
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Roxane Gay, and many others.
Meg Howrey's They're Going to Love You is a moving and visceral novel of art, love, and loss.
Booklist wrote of the book:
"[A] novel about devotion, art, and love in many forms...Howrey’s prose invites readers to feel the emotion of each dance, beautifully translating physical and visual art onto the page...Howrey’s incisive character studies create a heart-wrenching story of love and loss."
In her own words, here is Meg Howrey's Book Notes music playlist for her novel They're Going to Love You:
They’re Going to Love You is a story about making art, and loss, and forgiveness. It’s also largely set in and around the dance world, with characters who have a professional relationship with music. Throughout the novel, people talk about music, play it at the piano or listen to recordings, react to it, use it as deflection or explanation, make dances from it. Choosing favorite composers or works for the people of the book was great fun. (And a good dodge for days when the writing was not exactly flowing.) The playlist all comes from music mentioned in the book and is largely classical with a few outliers for anyone who enjoys making the jump from TLC to Stravinsky.
1. Mélancolie, FP 105—Francis Poulenc, Pascal Rogé, pianist
Poulenc: self-critical, stylish, queer, witty, manic-depressive. A nice fit as a favorite composer for the character of James, who describes the composer as “good for restless souls.”
2. Etude No. 12 in D Sharp Minor, Op. 8—Alexander Scriabin, Vladimir Horowitz, pianist
Scriabin, another favorite of James and another musical—and otherwise—lunatic. I chose this one for the playlist, from Scriabin’s early Romantic style, because I could imagine James playing it to illustrate his point: “Etudes are for improving technique, so I recommend them for a crisis. One can plonk away at an etude and look like one’s practicing and not having, as Mother used to say, a come apart.”
3. I Am What I Am—George Hearn, La Cage Aux Folles (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
The book’s main character, Carlisle, is ten when she understands, clearly, that her father is gay and that her father and James are lovers. This clarity arrives just as AIDS is beginning to cut its devastating swath through the gay community. Carlisle is taken to see La Cage Aux Folles and is impressed by the emotion this song creates in the audience. Later, she will reflect that La Cage represented the only example of gay parenting she would see for the next two decades.
4. Etude No. 2—Philip Glass: The Complete Piano Etudes, Maki Namekawa, pianist
Carlisle turns to Glass to calm herself down, keep a lid on her emotional state. I feel like a lot of writers find Glass useful when working. Propulsive without being intrusive.
5. Requiem, Pie Jesu—Gabriel Fauré, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
This is my favorite recording of Fauré’s Requiem. Here is Carlisle on the Pie Jesu: As a send-off for the dead, it’s so gentle, even cheering. No fear or judgment. I guess what kills me is the compassion.
6. Pavana and Gallyard—Anon
Carlisle has a gig choreographing for a Tudor-era movie. She’s upset, and the recorder and the lute are not good instruments for expressing fury.
7. L’isle Joyeuse—Claude Debussy, Seong-Jin Cho, pianist
For the anecdote where this appears, I needed something a young pianist with some virtuosic skills would play. The title of the piece also became the chapter title, and a reference for a magical summer on the isle of Manhattan. Sometimes everything comes together.
8. Piano Sonata No. 2, in G Sharp Minor Op. 19, Andante—Alexander Scriabin, Yuja Wang, pianist
James choreographed a ballet to this music, and recounts that the dancers found the music “difficult.” I can only imagine the bananas way dancers would count this.
9-11. The Firebird Suite (1910 Version)—Igor Stravinsky, Columbia Symphony Orchestra
This is real ballet music. That is, music written specifically for a ballet, to match a scenario, with the composer getting notes and instruction from the choreographer. I listened to recordings of this nearly every day while writing the book, got a copy of the score, read about it, talked about it, and eventually deleted many paragraphs of nerdy writing about it from the novel. You’re welcome!
12. Volcano Songs: Duets: Walking Song—Meredith Monk
Carlisle makes a ballet to Meredith Monk music, which I think would be cool.
13. Sinfonia Romantica (Symphony No. 4)—Carlos Chavez
Soundtrack for a love affair in Mexico.
14. Creep—TLC
Ballet dancers have to do a barre every day of their working lives, and therefore get excited when the music isn’t Chopin or show tunes. I auditioned some good early 90s tunes in my living room for this moment in the book.
15. Piano Trio in E Minor, Op. 67 I. Andante—Dmitri Shostakovich
Shostakovich has kind of a Tim Burton-time-machine-to-19th-century-because-Stalin-made-me vibe, but is also great music for inspiring a young choreographer having an emotional meltdown.
16. The Firebird (Arranged for Piano 4 Hands)—Igor Stravinksy, Maki Namekawa and Dennis Russell Davies, pianists
The full orchestration of this is fabulous, but Carlisle is in a stripped-down moment.
17. Les Soireses de Nazelles, FP 84: 11b. Var2—Francis Poulenc, David Jalbert, pianist
In a 1953 interview, Poulenc said this—and much of his own work—was “beyond redemption.” He might have been embarrassed it was so beautiful.
18. The Firebird Suite (Arranged by E. Naoumoff)— Igor Stravinsky, Emile Naoumoff, pianist
The last music, and almost the last moment of the book. A beautiful arrangement.
19. Forget Forgive—Someone
This song doesn’t appear in the book, but it’s perfectly thematic so I chose it for an Outro. Also, it’s a really good song.
Meg Howrey is a former professional ballet dancer and actress. She is the author of the novels The Wanderers, The Cranes Dance, and Blind Sight, and a coauthor of the bestselling novel City of Dark Magic and of City of Lost Dreams, published under the pen name Magnus Flyte. Her nonfiction has appeared in Vogue and the Los Angeles Review of Books. She currently lives in Los Angeles.
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