Neil Mach's Blog - Posts Tagged "last-music-bearer"
The Last Music Bearer
I am often asked how I came up with the idea for The Last Music Bearer:
I was imagining a world in which there was NO MUSIC. Then I read about Islamist Extremists who were trying to stop music being played in the African country of Mali (music is an intrinsic part of their culture ) and I began to wonder - could that really happen? Could organized religion really stamp-out music altogether?
So I re-imagined a world where music had actually been banned and eradicated by a supreme religious authority. My fantasy is set in Britain during the Middle Ages. Around 900AD in the British Isles - the rule of law comes from the church of Rome. Regional Kings were not omnipotent, so they had to take their lead from the Holy Empire. All power and all influence came from the church – and much of this power was exercised by secretive monastic communities.
In my story, one such group of secret wandering monks was still bringing the gift of music to small communities ... In fact they were offering Music Therapy. But another (more radical) sect were intent on hunting them down and wiping out the last vestiges of music for good.
My story follows a young adult (Elis) who is trained to be a Music Bearer by the Music Bearing Monks and also follows his hunter ( a member of the sinister Black Hounds) whose 'God Given' task is to exterminate Elis and all his kind.
http://lastmusicbearer.com/
I was imagining a world in which there was NO MUSIC. Then I read about Islamist Extremists who were trying to stop music being played in the African country of Mali (music is an intrinsic part of their culture ) and I began to wonder - could that really happen? Could organized religion really stamp-out music altogether?
So I re-imagined a world where music had actually been banned and eradicated by a supreme religious authority. My fantasy is set in Britain during the Middle Ages. Around 900AD in the British Isles - the rule of law comes from the church of Rome. Regional Kings were not omnipotent, so they had to take their lead from the Holy Empire. All power and all influence came from the church – and much of this power was exercised by secretive monastic communities.
In my story, one such group of secret wandering monks was still bringing the gift of music to small communities ... In fact they were offering Music Therapy. But another (more radical) sect were intent on hunting them down and wiping out the last vestiges of music for good.
My story follows a young adult (Elis) who is trained to be a Music Bearer by the Music Bearing Monks and also follows his hunter ( a member of the sinister Black Hounds) whose 'God Given' task is to exterminate Elis and all his kind.
http://lastmusicbearer.com/
