Music in János Térey’s Verse Novel A Legkisebb Jégkorszak [The Shortest Ice Age] - Acta Universitatis Sapientiae

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica, 16, 1 (2024) 150–164

DOI: 10.47745/ausp-2024-0010

Abstract. Mentioning composers, singers, bands, and well-known musical events and citing lyrics have all been well-established and commonplace practices in literature throughout the ages. The interpretation of these gestures usually resembles the process of understanding other kinds of allusions, references, and intertextuality because that is what the above listed instances ultimately are. When it comes to art forms that combine multiple forms of media, such as films, the use of music as background score, soundtrack, etc. is usually perceived as a fundamental part of the work, and its absence is always noted. Such frequent or constant appearance of music in literary works is not commonplace, and it typically means that the plot and theme of the text itself are music, or at least they are heavily music-oriented. The 2015 verse novel of János Térey is quite peculiar in this regard. On average, a song, a piece, a composer, or a band is mentioned on every seventh page of the book. The music referenced includes numerous genres from metal to pop, classical, jazz, and even hymns. The situations vary from background music on the radio to a character listening to his/her favourite song or someone reminiscing about an event. The variety of music and the situations it appears in throughout the novel indicate a conscious effort on the author’s part. The paper aims to examine how the various lyrical citations and musical references found throughout János Térey’s A Legkisebb Jégkorszak [The Shortest Ice Age] function as literary devices.

Keywords: music, verse novel, Hungarian literature.