A James Ellroy Playlist: Beginnings

James Ellroy’s debut novel Brown’s Requiem was more than just the start of his literary career. It was the beginning of Ellroy’s musical obsessions, particularly towards classical music, pouring out into his writing. In the following post I am going to look at two of the most notable musical references in Ellroy’s first novel.

Fate Knocks at the Door

Brown’s Requiem is ostensibly a novel about a private detective, the Fritz Brown of the title. But it achieves so much more than the conventions of the genre usually allow. It is also a meditation on classical music. Ellroy’s favourite composer is Ludwig van Beethoven. Surprisingly, the Beethoven references in the novel are somewhat threadbare compared to that of other composers. It is almost as though Ellroy is afraid to critically analyse the master. Brown keeps a portrait of Beethoven on his wall and aspires to be the same form of Romantic, brooding hero, but when he mentions the composer in his first-person narration the effect is comical, ‘I was never a child. I came out of my mother’s womb full-grown, clutching a biography of Beethoven and an empty glass. My first words were “Where’s the booze?”’

The influence of Beethoven is so strong on Brown that he claims, admittedly humorously, that it started at birth. Ellroy himself discovered Beethoven’s music during his childhood. Ellroy was attending John Burroughs Junior High School when his music teacher, Alan Hines, played the four note opening motif of Beethoven’s Symphony No.5, which Beethoven described as ‘Fate knocks at the door’. It certainly was for Ellroy, it ignited a passion and reverence for Beethoven which has persisted to this day. The Fate motif is one of the most famous pieces of music in history. Almost everyone has heard it, and it’s influence is limitless, being easy to parody and inspiring rock and roll and disco covers.

Concerto for Orchestra

Ellroy’s original title for the novel was ‘Concerto for Orchestra’. His publisher Avon insisted he change it on the grounds that it would be difficult to market as a crime novel. The final section of the novel was eventually titled ‘Concerto for Orchestra’ in accordance with Ellroy’s wishes. Ellroy took the title from Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra. Considered one of Bartók’s most popular and accessible works, Ellroy later confessed to me that he now considers it to be ‘dry and academic’. The performance below by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony is both dramatic and suspenseful, and would be a good soundtrack to Fritz Brown unravelling the mystery narrative of Brown’s Requiem as he travels through Los Angeles and Tijuana.

Love Me Fierce in Danger: The Life of James Ellroy is published by Bloomsbury.