''Music and Silence'' is a historical novel written by English author

Rose Tremain Dame Rose Tremain (born 2 August 1943) is an English novelist, short story writer, and former Chancellor of the University of East Anglia. Life Rose Tremain was born Rosemary Jane Thomson on 2 August 1943 in London to Viola Mabel Thomson and ...

. The audiobook, released in 2009, is narrated by Michael Praed,

Clare Wille Clare Wille is an English stage and television actress. Wille has been working as an actress and voiceover artist since graduating from RADA in 1997. Her recent theatre work includes ''Seeing Without Light'' at the Drum Theatre, Plymouth Theatr ...

, and Alison Dowling. ''Music and Silence'' is set in and around the court of

Christian IV of Denmark Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and King of Norway, Norway and List of rulers of Schleswig-Holstein, Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years and 330 days is th ...

in the years 1629 and 1630. The main historical event depicted is the end of Christian's second marriage, to Kirsten Munk, and the start of his third, to Vibeke Kruse. There are also numerous sub-plots and parallel stories, the main one being the love affair between two fictional characters, an English lutenist Peter Claire and Emilia Tilsen, a Danish servant of Kirsten's. In addition there are several references to Danish history and flashbacks to Christian's childhood and subsequent development.

Reception

''Music and Silence'' was generally well-received among British press. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' gave the novel an average rating of 8.6 out of 10 based on reviews from multiple British newspapers. The book won the 1999 Whitbread Award for Novel.

References

{{reflist 1999 British novels Chatto & Windus books Cultural depictions of Christian IV of Denmark Fiction set in 1629 Fiction set in 1630 Historical novels Novels about music Novels set in Copenhagen Novels set in the 17th century