Query
Been listening to Richard Strauss, reading about him, and he reminds me of Nabokov. Same sense of humor, interesting letters, full-term marriage, hair-unfriendly forehead and an insistence on avoiding easy aesthetic categories. For example, this Q and A from a press conference with Strauss has a Nabakovian ring:
“What do you think of the American school of composers?”
“There aren’t any schools; there are only talents and geniuses.”
Strauss was a great musician who also loved writing. Nabokov was a great writer who it seems to me doesn’t display much interest in music, surprisingly for a father whose son became an opera singer (maybe something Nabokov has in common with Michael Corleone).
The only significant reference to music I can think of offhand is the aversion to jazz by his surrogate John Shade. Anyway, my query: is music a major factor in Nabokov’s work?
All the best,
don