Inner Music in Fiction and Biography
‘Inner music’ or ‘musical imagery’ refers to the music that one hears in one’s own head. For example, an ‘earworm’ is a catchy piece of music that is stuck in one’s head and repeats involuntarily. Part of the work of the AHRC-funded Inner Music and Wellbeing Network is to create a database of public examples of imagined music in fiction and biography. These might be found in published biographies, films, literature, plays, poetry, published accounts, song TV programmes etc.
We are always looking for submissions to this database! If you would like to contribute, please fill out the form linked here.
Biography (1) Cartoons and comics (3) Films (3) Literature (3) Plays (1) Poetry (1) Published Account (1) Songs (3) TV Programmes (4)
An Equal Music
In the novel An Equal Music (1999) by Vikram Seth, pianist Julia compensates for her increasing hearing impairment with the use of musical imagery
Dr Who
Dr Who, S3E11–13: ‘Utopia’, ‘The Sound of Drums’, and ‘Last of the Time Lords’. Directed by Russell T. Davies. 2007. Professor Yana/The Master has heard drumming all his life, sending him mad. This reflects the dual beating if his two hearts, and affects the way in which he plans world domination.
Inside Out
Bubblegum advert is ‘loaded up’ by the brain for regular mental replay
Lego Movie 2
Cartoons and comics, Films, Songs
Music which is designed to be catchy and to brainwash the protagnists. The song lyrics are “This song’s gonna get stuck inside your head”
SpongeBob SquarePants
A literal ear worm enters SpongeBob’s brain; his friends are trying to drive it out with another catchy tune
The Auditory Imagery of Great Composers
A note of Tchaikovsky’s musical imagination stopping him from sleeping as a child. Agnew, M. (1922). The auditory imagery of great composers. Psychological Monographs, 31, 279-287. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0093171
The Big Bang Theory
Sheldon feels like he is descending into madness because he cannot remember the name of the song that is stuck in his head
The Song That Doesn’t End
Performed by Shari Lewis, American ventriloquist and puppeteer, 1992.
Touching the Void
Touching the Void is a 1988 book by Joe Simpson, recounting his and Simon Yates’s near fatal descent after climbing the 6,344-metre peak Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. Within it, he describes being delirious after a climbing accident and has a negative experience imagining Boney M’s ‘Brown Girl in the Ring’.