Canone Inverso
Paolo Maurensig Masterfully Weaves Music into Fiction
Following in the tradition of European Romanticism, Paolo Maurensig composes a dark and haunting tale, which underscores the innate conflicts within man: obsession vs. passion. The story is of a young violin prodigy from a small town in Hungary and how his passion for the violin, and one of the local concert violinists, creates in him a conflict to great, until he finally gives in and becomes slave to it. What makes this novel entirely unique, however, is Maurensig's obvious musical background.
The Plot
Maurensig's plot is a story within a story, within a story - which, though sounding confusing, is actually more of a purposed plotting in the hands of this master. Jeno Varga is eventually introduced as the story's main narrator, and lead character. He tells his story of being raised without knowing his father, meeting the love of his life, when he was 8 years old and she was 24, searching after this love, his entrance into a strict music conservatory and his impending friendship with another virtuoso, Kuno Blau.
This friendship begins at the conservatory as the boys find themselves practicing the same song and, amidst an atmosphere of highly competitive musicians, and in Kuno, Jeno says he saw part of himself. From then on the boys compete for the top spots in competitions and the first chair in visiting orchestras, all the while remaining their friendship.
It is not until after they both graduate from the conservatory that their worlds collide when Jeno is staying with Kuno at his father's (the Baron) mansion and everything the reader thinks he knows is thrown suddenly into a cataclysm with reality.
The Music
Along with the dazzling plot, Maurensig added a fascinating narrative structure that, upon first glance looks part European Romanticsm, part confusion, as the reader tries to make sense of times when Maurensig uses harsh, grating language and others when the words seem to make the reader slow down and listen, and the disparity that often occurs between these language devices and what is actually occuring in the plot. After a closer reading, and perhaps a bit of musical training (although this is not necessary), the reader begins to discover that this tale of a virtuoso's self-affliction and talent is being crafted, or perhaps, composed, just as a great symphony.
At times the plot moves from adagio (a slow, flowing pace) to presto (rapid) without a great deal of semantic reasoning to connect it with the words. However, if one views these changes in tempo, odd phrasing and often prolonged fermatas and staccatos, as merely parts of one big score or soundtrack to go under the text, one is also missing the point.
Maurensig seems to be using this secondary plot of music to add to the already multiple applications of the title of the book to the plot. Not only does the inverse canon apply to the multiple voices of the story, as well as the multiple passions pulling at Jeno; but it could also refer to two types of storytelling (words and music) coming together as the only way to fully make the reader understand the lunacy and dedication behind his passion.
The Rest
Canone Inverso was made into an Italian film in 2000, with Hans Matheson, Melanie Thierry, Lee Williams and Gabriel Byrne.
Paolo Maurensig has written one other work, The Lunesberg Variation, which preceded Canone Inverso in its release.
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