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'But it was to the rugs that Tarrant's eyes kept returning. They touched him with the same
pleasurable melancholy as certain music, Les Préludes of Liszt, perhaps.'
(Chapter 1)
'Tchaikowsky's music swelled and faded. ... The curtain swept down on Act I of
Swan Lake.' [But Tarrant has arrived and Modesty does not stay for the rest of the
ballet.]
(Chapter 3)
In chapter 4 we learn that McWhirter knows his Gilbert and Sullivan, singing lines from 'Is Life a Boon?' from Yeomen of the Guard when talking to Tarrant;s agent Grant.
'I don't get Sibelius meself,' Willie Garvin said quietly. 'All noise and no tune. Now you take old Mozart. There was a kiddy who really knew how to write music with a bit of melody.'Blind Commander Challon is playing Chopin, first a Nocturne, then the Polonaise in A, while his daughter Jeannie is being abducted.
(Panel 524)
Modesty: Mr Bach and I are just good friends.
Willie: Fugue in E flat, eh? Some kiddy that Bach--talked pure mathematics with music.
(Panel 746)
There was a pause, then a creamy-smooth announcer›s voice said: “And now, for all
clean people … Music To Wash To.”
Her wide eyes filled with laughter. Still watching the box, she reached out and turned off
the shower. The voice was Willie’s, one of the several he could produce perfectly when he
cared to put aside his natural cockney.
The next chords were from a full orchestra, the opening bars of Chopin’s Polonaise in A.
But the fourth bar consisted of a perfectly-timed gurgle from an emptying bath.
(Chapter 7)
Willie whistles Bert Kaempfert's Swinging Safari, ‘an extraordinarily difficult melody to
produce, and some part of Collier’s mind registered that it was being whistled
beautifully.’
Later they put on a record of Jacques Loussier's interpretation of
Bach's Fantaisie et Fugue in G Minor.
(Chapter 2)
Lucifer spends an hour in his room playing records of ‘pieces by Saint-Saêns and
Pierné of which he never tired.’
(Chapter 14)
Modesty: That man who hit the taxi I was in has sent me a ticket for the ballet, Willie.
Willie: I'm glad it's only one ticket.
Modesty: So am I. The last time we saw ballet together, you slept through it, and the time before you just giggled.
(Panels 2071-3.)
[Modesty does gymnastic exercises to a Cole Porter selection. Meanwhile Willie expresses
his dislike of ballet:]
He said, ‘Ah, now that’s the only sort of ballet I like watching, Princess.
The jumping-about bit. With the rest of it, I always seem to laugh in the wrong places.’
She turned, smiled, pushed back a sweat-damp piece of hair and said, ‘I’m going to
buy you a soul for your next birthday.’
(Chapter 5)
Willie: ... Parades and masked balls, fun and frolic, revelry and
romance.
Modesty: Don't miss the romance on my account, Willie love. I'll be doing the jazz spots.
Willie: Suits me, Princess. There's girls everywhere, but you only get Bourbon Street jazz in
New Orleans.
(Panel 2973)
[Modesty to Willie:] Why don’t you make yourself comfortable in the sitting room
while you’re waiting? There’s a new Frank Zappa album on the stereo.
(Chapter 4)
Willie smiled and shook his head. “If you don’t fancy exercise, there’s
the best collection of jazz records in London, and a pretty good selection of classics.”
(Chapter 7)
‘Let’s go in and listen to some music.’
‘Sure.’
Willie put a Sidney Bechet tape on the hi-fi, volume turned low, then took one of the big armchairs.
(Chapter 3)
[Sir Gerald Tarrant, hiding in a wardrobe, recognizes Verdi's La Forza del Destino
overture.]
(Chapter 3)
[At a carol-singing rehearsal:]
“Good evening, Miss Blaise. I just wanted to say how pleased we are to see you here with
your guests.”
She smiled. “I bludgeoned them into it, Mr. Cranwell, just as you bludgeoned me when you
called the other day.”
“Oh, come now. You were very easily persuaded, I’m glad to say.”
“That’s because I was counting on my friends. The truth is, I can’t reach either
the high or the low notes, so I just have to mime all the time. So does Mr. Garvin.”
(Chapter 15)
Sir Gerald takes Modesty to a new ballet at Covent Garden.
(Panels 5133-4)
… they were alone in the carpark because they had left the concert during the interval,
after the Beethoven piano concerto, being agreed beforehand that they preferred to miss the
Mahler symphony and dine at a reasonable hour.
(Chapter 3)
“I got one of those press-button phones, and the different numbers make different musical
notes when you press ’em. You can play little tunes on ’em if you want. I mean, you
press 951 and you got the first three notes of Three Blind Mice. I don’t know proper music
but I can put any tune into do, re, mi, fa, easy. Tonic sulphur they call it, don’t ask me
why.”
(Chapter 11)
Stefan Kolin, defecting concert pianist and Sir Gerald’s godson, gives a
recital at the Festival Hall, during which his wife is kidnapped to force him to redefect.
The programme includes a Scarlatti sonata and a Chopin prelude.
(Panel 6845)
Once again Modesty attends a performance of Swan Lake at Covent Garden, this time
escorted by Sir Gerald Tarrant.
(Panel 8071)