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A review by leslie1187
The Instrumentalist by Harriet Constable
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
Whoa. This was a stand out book to start the year reading. It is about an orphan girl who is cared for by nuns in this music cathedral with other orphan girls. This girl’s name was Anna Maria Della Pieta and she was a talented Violinist who grew up to become a Mistress of Music at the place that took her in and raised her, teaching her music. She lived in the same place up until she died at 86 years.
The story follows the height of her musical journey from the time she started training to play the violin at 8 years to when she went on to perform concerts with other orphan girls. Right up to becoming the Master of Music when the Maestro she learned from leaves to tour around to showcase his work. The Maestro is the famous musician, Vivaldi. The dynamic between Anna Maria and Vivaldi was fraught with tension. Anna Maria tried to ease by collaborating on compositions with Vivaldi to help him create pieces the orphans performed.
There is an interesting concept about Anna Maria, though I am not sure if this is true about her when she lived, but the book showed how she sees colors when she hears music and sound. A very small percentage of people experiences this. Anna Maria associates each color with a musical note so that when she reads or hears music, she sees she colors that the notes make. The descriptions and characters leap off the page and really immerses you into the setting.
It takes you to Italy in the 18th century and shows you what it was like for these girls who were gifted a chance to learn music and a place to sleep and food to eat. They had each other.
I highly recommend this to anyone who loves music and/or histories about key figures. The writing style was lyrical and rich, and it was Harriet Constable’s debut novel. She wrote it so well that it feels like she had written other books. The writing was transformative in essence. It allowed you to feel like you were there experiencing with the characters.
The story follows the height of her musical journey from the time she started training to play the violin at 8 years to when she went on to perform concerts with other orphan girls. Right up to becoming the Master of Music when the Maestro she learned from leaves to tour around to showcase his work. The Maestro is the famous musician, Vivaldi. The dynamic between Anna Maria and Vivaldi was fraught with tension. Anna Maria tried to ease by collaborating on compositions with Vivaldi to help him create pieces the orphans performed.
There is an interesting concept about Anna Maria, though I am not sure if this is true about her when she lived, but the book showed how she sees colors when she hears music and sound. A very small percentage of people experiences this. Anna Maria associates each color with a musical note so that when she reads or hears music, she sees she colors that the notes make. The descriptions and characters leap off the page and really immerses you into the setting.
It takes you to Italy in the 18th century and shows you what it was like for these girls who were gifted a chance to learn music and a place to sleep and food to eat. They had each other.
I highly recommend this to anyone who loves music and/or histories about key figures. The writing style was lyrical and rich, and it was Harriet Constable’s debut novel. She wrote it so well that it feels like she had written other books. The writing was transformative in essence. It allowed you to feel like you were there experiencing with the characters.