Pale Fire: Illustrated Sports Illustrated Sports Pale Fire Journal | Page 87

Dr. J.E. Notropis’ Guide to Music—Volume 1
Art must be interpreted. Indeed, what is art if not a vehicle for interpreta-
tion? Well today, dear reader, I shall be your driver. Indeed, I will guide you to
the definitive, absolute truth of not one, but two works of art! Recently, I have
been entrusted with the care and critique of a work of music composed by a re-
nowned musician, rather uselessly entitled “A Sad Song”. Of course, this permis-
sion was implicit: I merely downloaded the MP3 file from the internet (and have
attached it here for your use), but as a critic of the arts, I feel it is my right, duty,
and obligation to provide authoritative commentary. Excitingly, if we ignore the
cumbersome title, this composition is clearly centered around Nabokov’s great
novel Pale Fire. It would be folly to ignore that book in this guide, for it is neces-
sary to understand that work to truly understand this one. So, I shall do my best
to not only explain this composition, but the illuminous novel it is based upon.
Lesser critics will likely argue the use of one melodic theme twisted and
contorted into so many shapes and over so many disparate harmonies references
the theory that Pale Fire is all a tale constructed by the insane Charles Kinbote.
They will undoubtedly cite several passages from the novel to support this claim.
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