The world of the 17th-century Danish court is brought to life. The main character, Peter, provides the outsider perspective into this world. King Christian IV is a troubled man, rather too introspective to be a king. His wife, Kristen, is one of the most utterly self-centered women to inhabit fiction; she is a terrible person, but she makes a great character! The pace is slow, so don't go in expecting an action-filled read, but enjoy the language and the world building.

Based on the first 100 pages: the characters are being introduced and it sounds as plot is going somewhere and maybe it gets somewhere, but I lost interest with presentation of characters and no sense of plot.

Some reviewers already described the style of writing very well as archaic.

This is a big, complex book, with a vast cast of interesting characters and a fascinating and unpredictable plot. I didn't enjoy it completely, partly because I lost the threads sometimes and partly because of the grotesqueness of some ideas and sections within it, but I did appreciate it. There is a strong theme of the awful narrowness of women's lives, which I appreciated, and Kirsten, the furiously irredeemable wife of the Danish king, is probably going to stay with me forever, in both good and bad ways.

The structure of this book is like a rope, with different strands wound together to create a whole. At its core is the strange court of the 17th century King Christian IV of Denmark. This is a world in flux, where the old certainties of the past are being challenged by the advance of science and the new Protestant religion. Another strand is the love affair between a young English lute player and a maid. Then there is the lonely king, brooding on his past, with its battles lost and vanished friends. His unsupportive, unfaithful queen, with her affairs. Strangest of all is the tale of the heroine’s family, dominated by the mesmerising character of her stepmother, Magdalena, as she captivates them with a mixture of culinary skill and sexual power.

This is a book that uses all of the reader’s senses to capture the past. The music and silence of the title, of course, but also heat and clinging cold, light and dark - as in the opening passage where we follow a lamp guttering through the dark palace. The brilliant orchestra, condemned to play in a damp cellar. Tremain adds further complexity with her writing style, shifting from first to third person narration, and moving through time.

I thoroughly enjoyed Rose Tremain’s Music and Silence. This a novel full of memorable characters, bizarre situations which succeeds in opening up the past, not through layers of authentic detail, but in the best way, through interesting characters and intriguing plots.

Better than "Trespass" (the first book of the author that I have read). It is quite entertaining, engrossing and surprising for me because I am not really into historical novels, especially dramas and books based on real stories of royal families. Since the book is narrated by the perspectives of several characters, every part has a different tone. I will especially remember this book with the hilarious narrative of Queen Kirsten and Marcus, the child who can hear and understand the sounds of nature. I wish the music could be heard more in the lives of characters though because I felt that the music becomes a secondary element after some point while it was one of the main characters in the beginning.

Know I’ve read it but don’t remember anything about it so no rating

If there was ever a novel I wanted to crawl inside and live there forever, in that setting and with those people, then it's this one. I do not expect anyone else to feel this way, but Music & Silence is a quality read in any case.

My goodness, there are some tremendous reviews of this novel on GR! I can't possibly compete... nevertheless this is a glorious novel, beautiful to read and an engrossing story. I did a bit of reading on line about King Christian IV of Denmark, but there isn't much there really. What Rose Tremain's imagination has done with so little is fabulous, creating characters that seem so real, with depths of emotion and internal workings so deep and profound. The Danish court and the king himself are all quite bizarre, as are his schemes to return Denmark to prosperity. Music of course is at the heart of the story, with the English lutenist Peter Claire traipsing through Ireland and Denmark, trying to satisfy the whims of his various employers, engaging and avoiding the desires of their wives! A love story is also at the book's heart, with many a foil put in the paths of our star crossed lovers. A reviewer has remarked how many fairy tales of old are threaded through the story - the evil stepmother, the put-upon servant, the lost child, the silver-clad mountains. I have read most of Rose Tremain's novels, and I think this is the best yet. Wonderful, magical, engrossing.

An unusual setting for a historical novel -- 17th century Denmark -- told from the viewpoint of a court musician. I found it very enjoyable, if some of the details were either high in the squick factor or improbable, but still a good read that is partially based in fact.

For the complete review, please go here:
http://www.epinions.com/content_24841...

As might be assumed from the title, references to both music and silence permeate the book. The "hero" is a lutenist whose music - whose very presence - apparently soothes King Christian IV. I admit to not being familiar with the sound of a lute, but Peter Claire had been hired to play with the King's orchestra, though it is a very small ensemble, not one we would think of as an orchestra. Silences come often and are represented in many ways.

As they part, both men reflect upon all that might have been said in this recent conversation and yet was not said; and this knowledge of what so often exists in the silences between words both haunts them and makes them marvel at the teasing complexity of all human discourse.

This is told by a variety of characters. Sometimes we learn of what happens through a journal or diary, and other times it is a third person narrator. The voice of each is distinctive. A couple of them have the cadence of what I think of as a fairy tale voice. For me, this is not a positive reaction as I didn't like fairy tales as a child and never warmed to them. Added to this is that one of these characters with a fairy tale voice is a self-centered woman who verbally abuses everyone. She is utterly vile. Hers may be the more well developed characterization. I longed to know more of them better.

Though I came to see the story does have a beginning and an ending, it didn't feel that way in the middle. The different voices were sometimes in different physical places within the novel, and sometimes parts didn't seem to contribute to anything - dead ends, so to speak. With the different prose styles, it was hard to feel a flow.

Lurking somewhere in the deeper recesses of my brain I discovered something from my long ago schooling that fits this book. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. This book is that. If I look at its separate parts, it's hard to see how I could possibly like this. But I did. Not a 5-star like, probably more like the the lower part of the 4-star group like. I will turn to Rose Tremain again.

My expectations for Music and Silence were high, since I had loved Restoration, and perhaps this was a problem, as I found the former less engaging than I hoped. I think the shift from 1st person to third worked less well for me than for others, though I still find Tremain's writing engaging and full of beauitful images. The structure of the novel has been compared to a rope, twisting several narrative strands together to create a culmulative effect - not unlike composing music I suppose. I admire the attempt more than I found it effective. The central story of Christian IV of Denmark was brilliant - his wifee Kirsten has a distinctive and engaging voice, and the picture drawn of a man longing for a sense of peace and happiness is wonderfull drawn. However, for me the contrapuntal plot of Peter Claire and Emelia was less successful - both characters were remarkably bland, and I wasn't at all engaged by their romance. Consequently Music and Silence was a mixed bunch - it's a long novel which at times failed to keep my interest and at others was full of moving and evocative writing. I will certainly read more Tremain, but I can't say this one impressed me like Restoration did.

Loved it..couldnt put it down. I love the way its written from different perspectives and jumps back in time so you gradually learn more about the characters backrounds and connections. Im not a massive fan of alot of Historical fiction, preferring to read the real thing. For example - Alison Weirs or Antonia Frasers biographies of European Royals are as gripping as any fiction with plots counter-plots intrigue and sumptous detail, why would you need a weak inaccurate story built around the same period. Perhaps not knowing anything at all about the historical characters in 'Music and Silence' helped me overcome this, I enjoyed knowing they were real, but i was able to enjoy it for beatifully written story telling.