Yo Yo Mar is one of my heroes. His passion for music is inspirational. For the past few years I’ve been writing a novel with music as the theme, and this quote sums up what connects my three interlinked stories: “I have always been very curious, wondering, above all, what is it that makes us human? It took me many years to realize that music is one way that we ask, and answer, that question.”
Confronting the question: “what is it that makes us human?” is surely the fundamental reason for writing a novel, no?
On the first anniversary of 9/11, Yo Yo Ma played a Bach cello suite at Ground Zero on the first anniversary of 9/11. The video of that performance inspired this extract from my first chapter:
“The Sarabande was the most profoundly moving piece of music he could imagine. Whenever Edward was troubled, he played it in his head. Now, as the solemn notes rolled around the salon, each an extension of silence, the spaces between them filled with hope, courage, and resilience, he was reminded why we make music. The Human Condition—Humanity—this is what Bach explored with these notes.”
Published by Richard Attree
Growing up in London in the 1960s—an exciting time, and place, to be a teenager, my passions were books and music. I always wanted to be a writer, but was diverted into writing music rather than books, and for the next thirty years I composed music for TV.
For the next thirty years I composed music for TV and radio, working at the BBC’s renowned Radiophonic Workshop, before going freelance. While at the BBC, I won two Sony Awards for ‘The Most Creative Use of Radio’.
In 2007, I retired from the media music business and downshifted to Tenerife to focus on writing (initially, short stories, travel articles for magazines, a column in a local paper etc). Since then I’ve co-authored two novels with my wife and self-published one of my own.
I write for love. It’s my passion, and I’m very fortunate to ‘live my dream’ (to use the jargon of reality TV). Stories, characters, ideas and words are my obsession … and my motto is: ‘Keep Scribbling!’
My debut solo novel TOO CLOSE TO THE WIND, a philosophical thriller, was published in 2019. It’s a story of survival, an epic travel adventure, and a celebration of wind, surf, and the human spirit.
View more posts
Richard Attree 