Reviewed by Melvyn Willin
This is a very entertaining book which conveys an in-depth knowledge of what is weird in music, written in a chatty informal way with several jokes along the way. A brief biography informs the reader that the author, Doug Skinner, has contributed to Fortean Times, Fate, ‘and other fine publications’ and has also written music for several dance companies and appeared on television and in films, commercials etc. The subject matter would certainly be of interest to broad-minded musicologists and paramusicologists, but I’m less sure about its place in the libraries of academic psychologists or parapsychologists.
In addition to the introduction and eight chapters, the book contains 138 pages of music in a variety of different musical notations, notes and further reading, illustrations, and a comprehensive index. There are numerous mentions of other writers in the field of music and the paranormal, but they do not necessarily receive proper references (e.g., Ralls, 2000; Tame, 1984; Tomlinson, 1993; Willin, 2022). The chapters frequently have confusing titles. For instance, ‘On Music that isn’t there’ contains information about ‘silent music’, ‘lost music’, ‘mythological music’, ‘imaginary instruments’, and ‘fictional composers’. ‘On the Music of the Ultraterrestrials’ provides details of the music of ‘fairies, trows, trolls, piskeys, banshees, and other shadowy beings’.
Other chapters provide interesting information about the music of angels (‘Sky People’) and an excellent chapter on musical mediums not only refers to well-known mediums such as Rosemary Brown and Jesse Shepard, but also the music allegedly from the spirit world conveyed by Jonathan Koons, Emma Hardinge Britten and the somewhat obscure Gabriel Robuchon (aka Mérovak). ‘On Speculative Music’ enters the realm of hermeticism and cosmology and a fascinating chapter explores musical codes and ciphers. The musical dreams chapter mentions Tartini’s famous dream which prompted his Devil’s Trill Sonata in 1713 and Paul McCartney’s dream of the tune to what became his hit song Yesterday.
I found some of the book extremely amusing, especially the references to impossible hybrid instruments referred to by Alphonse Allais and Erik Satie such as the ‘wickerwork trombone’, the ‘alto overcoat’ and a ‘leather double bass’ (pp. 26-27). Hidden in some of the author’s humorous prose are some quite profound statements. Skinner’s ‘afterword’ contains the following:
I try to stress that music need not be paranormal to be abnormal. A piece of ‘music from elsewhere’ may in fact come from inside the human brain, but not in the usual way. All ‘normal’ music is written for human motivations: to make money, to be fashionable, to trigger emotions, to shock mommy [sic] and daddy, to show off, to conform, to compete. It’s contaminated with the whole catalogue of human faults (p. 138).
I can thoroughly recommend this book to a reader interested in ‘off-the-wall’ musical ideas presented in both an informative and humorous style.
References
Ralls, K. (2000). Music and the Celtic otherworld: From Ireland to Iona. Palgrave Macmillan.
Tame, D. (1984). The Secret power of music: The transformation of self and society through musical energy. Destiny Books.
Tomlinson, G. (1993). Music in renaissance magic: Toward a historiography of others. University of Chicago Press.
Willin, M. (2022). Music and the paranormal: An encyclopedic dictionary. McFarland.