Obscure/fictional composer?

[JimmyMac]

I have this vague memory from many years back that HPL mentioned more than once an obscure composer, possibly Russian, who wrote long rambling pieces. Can anyone on this forum remember the name, and was he real or fictional?

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

I don't know, but rambling Russian composer from the right period sounds like Scriabin. And I bet Lovecraft would have loved him.

 

[augustlynch]

So I did some digging and found a reference here to a very obscure composer Phelix Lamark being the inspiration for Lovecraft's "Sleight of Hand". I don't have the book myself, so I can't give you more info as he seems pretty lost to history -- having a few degrees in music, I've never heard of the guy. The segment I linked, interestingly, says Scriabin was also inspired by his work.

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

So I did some digging and found a reference here to a very obscure composer Phelix Lamark being the inspiration for Lovecraft's "Sleight of Hand". I don't have the book myself, so I can't give you more info as he seems pretty lost to history -- having a few degrees in music, I've never heard of the guy. The segment I linked, interestingly, says Scriabin was also inspired by his work.

I did the same research at the time of my first reply here. I'm afraid the book The Musical Illusionist, in which both name "Phelix Lamark" and Lovecraft's supposed piece, "Sleight of Hand," appear, is fiction.

"In the tradition of Borges and Calvino, The Musical Illusionist is an interwoven collection of postmodern folk tales—disappearing manuscripts, neurological anomalies, teleporting bacteria, and an unforgettable composer who manipulates sound to bend perception—that masterfully blends scientific curiosity with magical-realist caprice." The Musical Illusionist

 

[augustlynch]

Ha, I saw Alex Rose's name and read it as Alex Ross and didn't think to look any further. Thanks