It is not often that Australian fiction takes us into the worlds of classical music or academia. In Big Music, Gillian Wills invites us to explore both. Through the trials and triumphs of Beatrice Snow, musician, horse-lover and Dean of Turalong Music School, the behind-the-scenes conflicts of this relatively closeted sphere of our contemporary culture are exposed.
Gillian Wills is an accomplished music reviewer and memoirist, and this is her debut as an author of fiction. Her background as a professional musician and academic shines through in her writing.
If, as a consequence, some overly technical explanatory passages and a generous sprinkling of specialised music references occasionally intrude on the story’s flow, this is balanced by the authenticity of Big Music’s ensemble cast of characters.
The student musicians who rise above their teenage scatiness to achieve moving and nuanced performances, the music school staff who jostle for personal prestige and ever-diminishing resources,
the soloist and conductor who disagree violently over tempo and interpretation – all these are instantly recognisable to anyone who has experienced the real-world environment of a tertiary music school.
Beat, the novel’s protagonist, is particularly well-crafted. Both visionary and pragmatist, her combination of strength and vulnerability is immensely appealing. Beat’s personal and professional journey is reminiscent of those in much-loved British ‘Aga sagas’, but, in Big Music, Wills takes her readers to quintessentially Queensland places and spaces. Having ventured into fiction writing for the first time, it will be interesting to discover whether, in the tradition of her overseas counterparts, Wills finds other equally intriguing stories to explore.
– Tricia Elgar