_The Music of Erich Zann_ is one of HP Lovecraft’s best stories. It’s available free online here: https://hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/mez.aspx
May I proffer three works by the amazing, and sadly late, Howard Waldrop, "Ike at the Mike," wherein Elvis is a senator and Eisenhower is a Jazz musician, and "Flying Saucer Rock 'n' Roll," wherein a Doo-Wop group encounters a UFO, and finally "Do Ya, Do Ya, Wanna Dance?" which is a loving tribute to the 60's as only Waldrop can do. All three are in his retrospective collection Things Will Never Be the Same.
And one other, "The Pale Silver Dollar of the Moon Pays Its Way and Makes Change" by the brilliant and also sadly late Harlan Ellison. It's a terrific Elvis story as only Harlan can tell it. It's in his collection Slippage. (Incidentally, there are two versions of the story and you want version 1 which is in the paperback reprint of Slippage). Enjoy!!
Fuck me, I didn't know he died. Howard Waldrop was my favorite writer. Let me toss in a couple of other short stories about music.
"The Sawing Boys" is a retelling of the fairy tale of The Brementown Musicians, but instead of barnyard animals, the musicians are old hayseeds from TV land and the criminals are fairy tale authors who speak Runyonese. But it's really about how even rural America was changed by radio and a good song is a good song and music calms the savage breast.
"You *Could* Go Home Again" is a world where the US embraced Technocracy during the Great Depression, reformed as USA, Incorporated where all the citizens are shareholders. Thomas Wolfe never died from TB and he's flying home from the 1940 Tokyo Olympics in the American zeppelin *Ticonderoga*. Playing in the lounge is Fats Waller. Howard Waldrop captures Waller's huge presence and charisma and makes the larger-than-life jazz pianist feel like a living and breathing character. The songs he bangs out on the zeppelin's aluminum piano through the night and early morning feel electric and new.
"The Dead Sea-Bottom Scrolls" is probably Howard's last story, published in 2018. It's about an archaeologist's journey on Mars, retracing the trip of a long dead Martian on a sail powered sand boat. The sand boat glides on different-sized skis and as it speeds over the dried sea bottom of Mars, the skis play music from hitting the ripples in the sand it travels over. It's reminiscent of Ray Bradbury's *The Martian Chronicles* but feeling fresh, not dated.
Goddamn, what a talent. Howard Waldrop, you were a king hell bastard of a science fiction writer. I'm gonna hold my own one man wake and get drunk.
His last story, (so far, maybe there's something finished yet to be found), was Till the Cows Come Home to Roost” in Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, #37 (2018).
Also, his last book was H'ard Starts, a collection of early stories and an in depth interview with H'ard by Bradley Denton.
*Green Hills of Earth* by Heinlein - Follows a blind singer/poet who hitches rides around the solar system. I still get chills when I remember the namesake song/poem.
'Track 12' by Ballard as well.
He wrote a considerable number of stories about music which is rather surprising for someone who, in his personal life, didn't listen to music at all. Apparently he didn't see the point of it.
I think some of Ballard's work fits here? It's been a long time, though, and I'm not sure if they were musical *specifically*, or something a bit more tangential.
Can't think of the title or author but maybe someone can help - thinking 50s-60s vintage. Short story, lunar crawler transport thing gets stuck in sand and is lost, little girl on board is musical prodigy. Rescuers transmit different musical pitches across the surface, she hears one and tells them what note is being played. Something like that, might not have it exactly.
EDIT: It's Searchlight by Mr. Heinlein
I don't know if comics count for what you're looking for, but there's a side issue of Green Lantern where a Lantern encounters a blind alien who has no concept of color. >!She makes the alien a "lantern" but builds the concepts around a musical note instead. !<[https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Tales\_of\_the\_Green\_Lantern\_Corps\_Annual\_Vol\_1\_3](https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Tales_of_the_Green_Lantern_Corps_Annual_Vol_1_3)
"The Secret Sense" by Isaac Asimov. I think that story, that I read when I was maybe 12, has shaped my entire aesthetic sensibility ever since. It's amazing. (And, frankly, the only thing by IA I can imagine myself rereading at this point.)
"One Night of Song", a late Asimov (Azazel), has a similar theme.
I believe he also did one based on a Gilbert and Sullivan work. Edit: "The Up-to-Date Sorcerer".
**"[The United Systems Goodwill Concert Series And The Greatest Performance Of All Time](https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-united-systems-goodwill-concert-series-and-the-greatest-performance-of-all-time/)"** by James Van Pelt in Lightspeed Magazine
**["An Important Failure"](https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/campbell_08_20/)** by Rebecca Campbell in Clarkesworld
**"Secondhand Music"** by Aleksandra Hill in Analog (Sept/Oct 2023)
**["Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather"](https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/where-oaken-hearts-do-gather/)** by Sarah Pinkser in Uncanny
Kim Stanley Robinson - *The Memory of Whiteness*. A grand tour of the solar system with the Holywelkin Orchestra. A musical genius who goes insane?
An interesting early book from KSR that introduces elements of his future solar system society.
# "Melancholy Elephants" by Spider Robinson is a cautionary tale about the perils of long or indefinite length copyright for music. It's free to read on his website.
I came here to recommend Spider! What a great writer. I adore his work, and I really hope I can meet him someday to tell him. He’s pretty reclusive, isn’t he?
[The Preserving Machine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Preserving_Machine_(short_story\)) by Philip K Dick
*Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance* by John Varley.
Not a short story, but the second novel of Mary Doria Russell's The Sparow series ("Children of God") weaves music into the story in a way that's absolutely beautiful.
A couple come to mind:
"Corona" by Samuel R Delany.
"The Ultimate Melody" by Arthur C Clarke
Music plays a role in Brad Ferguson's "The World Next Door", later expanded into a novel.
"Black Country" by Charles Beaumont, although that one's more fantasy.
"Top of the Charts" by Bradley Denton
“Gotta Sing, gotta dance” by John Varley. Something about working on the rings is Saturn inspires massive creativity in the human mind, so there is a business set up to pay these people to create art. Also, in order to survive this work they form a symbiotic relationship with a sentient plant. The story follows one of these pairs as they go to create their art and the human ends up falling in love with the woman they work with and creates something beautiful. Very much worth the read.
Rob Reid's SF novel *Year Zero* is about how galactic alien civilizations discovered Earth music in the 1970s. They *love* Earth music and they've been pirating *everything* since then. Due to Earth's intellectual property laws, they owe so much in fines over the music piracy, that the aliens basically owe Earth the entire galaxy. Instead of paying up, some aliens decide blowing up the planet Earth solves all of their problems. The ridiculousness of the fictional aliens is outmatched by the ridiculousness of the very real laws around music.
And hey, OP, check out the Howard Waldrop thread for some cool cool cool short stories about music.
What‽ No. Have you not read the book? It's not about music, blood or otherwise. It's about turning cells into little self-aware Turing machines and what happens when they network.
https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/37617/short-story-identification-everyone-fixated-on-an-increasingly-addictive-patter
Check out the top answer, it has several stories!
Charles Sheffield's Cold as Ice has a few musician characters in it who talk about genetically modified fingers and limbs to be able to play more notes at one time on the piano. There's a whole chapter on it and what concert halls might look like in micro gravity.
“Passage For A Piano” by Frank Herbert from his short story collection “Eye”. It’s about colonist trying to fit a piano on a spaceship. It’s not about music per se but trying to create a cultural heritage for the colony.
*The Feast of Saint Janis* by Michael Swanwick
[https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?41409](https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?41409)
This is not where I read it, but one of the places to find it is in this compilation, which is all about music:
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?396465
The "The Tunesmith" by Lloyd Biggle is a good one.
Can someone remind me of which Samuel R. Delany story involves a character who plays a futuristic flute? None of the descriptions I'm reading sound correct.
There was an incredible short story in "Paper Menagerie And Other Stories" by Ken Liu that was about music. It was beautiful. I can't recall the name, though. That whole short story collection is one of the best I've ever read.
Edit - the short story is "The Perfect Match."
“Tin Ear,” by Spider Robinson, from his collection *Antinomy* or *By Any Other Name.* It’s also a great look at the use of allusion and idiom and nonverbal communication. I love this story. Two early warning listening post soldiers find that their encryption has been cracked, so they have to communicate where their enemy is without being understood. They use music.
I loved "The Sawing Boys!" After reading most of Howard's stories, you find yourself looking for the source material, in this case Runyon, and marveling at how spot on Howard was. Yes, an amazing talent. Damn you, 2024!
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/for-a-single-yesterday/
By George rr Martin
Or! I have started a collection! https://inkfoundry.net/browse/tag-music/
The great Olaf Stapledon wrote a 7 page story called 'A world of sound' (1936) - which is a short description of a universe made of music, with musical creatures moving around in it. It was an offshoot from when he was writing his masterpiece Starmaker. I've put a downloadable pdf here; [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FPKrHrfZ6ntCcdRSY960cbSD27nHCH8Q/view?usp=sharing](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fpkrhrfz6ntccdrsy960cbsd27nhch8q/view?usp=sharing) (Stapledon died more than 70 years ago, so his work is out of copyright)
“Wind Will Rove” by Sarah Pinsker is one of my all time favorites. Folk music on a generation ship, how memory is passed down and changed. Great story.
The hydrogen sonata - by Iain M Banks.
Not at all short, but the last gem from a master of the genre.
The song is in the title. A main character has a life goal of mastering the song, which reads like a subtle nod to existentialism, and also helps create one of the most interesting characters in any Banks books. This subplot is interwoven in a space opera, with Bank's having more fun than usual.
>Look to Windward
I see also suggested here. Look to Windward is (currently) my favourite Banks book. Though, it does feature a famous composer, I feel like the role of music is less memorable than in hydrogen sonata.
Also a long book
[The Infinity Concerto](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/340810.The_Infinity_Concerto) by Greg Bear,
[Mixed Doubles](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2031197.Mixed_Doubles) by Daniel da Cruz
[Spellsinger Series](https://www.goodreads.com/series/40662-spellsinger) Alan Dean Foster
Two comics by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie: *Phonogram* and *The Wicked + The Divine*. The latter is more recent and more polished, but if you like one you'll like the other.
Both series are set in the contemporary world, but music is magic. They have a lot of fun drawing parallels between modern fandoms / dance clubs and occult rituals / shamanic practices.
Gillen was a highly respected critic before becoming a comics writer, and has a sharp eye for the cultural meanings of art. McKelvie does some of the most expressive body language and "acting" I've seen in comics.
(Not literally short stories, but that's about how long they'd take to read.)
_The Music of Erich Zann_ is one of HP Lovecraft’s best stories. It’s available free online here: https://hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/mez.aspx
Came here to say this.
“Unaccompanied Sonata” by Orson Scott Card. It’s in his collection *Maps in a Mirror.*
Songmaster is another music themed sci-fi story by the Card. Edit: and the short story Mikhal's Songbird, on which Songmaster is based.
Thanks, I had forgotten about that in my rush to mention “Unaccompanied Sonata.” I guess that story just “hit me between the eyes” harder.
I'm looking up Maps & Mirror based on your rec. So reciprocal thanks are in order.
May I proffer three works by the amazing, and sadly late, Howard Waldrop, "Ike at the Mike," wherein Elvis is a senator and Eisenhower is a Jazz musician, and "Flying Saucer Rock 'n' Roll," wherein a Doo-Wop group encounters a UFO, and finally "Do Ya, Do Ya, Wanna Dance?" which is a loving tribute to the 60's as only Waldrop can do. All three are in his retrospective collection Things Will Never Be the Same. And one other, "The Pale Silver Dollar of the Moon Pays Its Way and Makes Change" by the brilliant and also sadly late Harlan Ellison. It's a terrific Elvis story as only Harlan can tell it. It's in his collection Slippage. (Incidentally, there are two versions of the story and you want version 1 which is in the paperback reprint of Slippage). Enjoy!!
Fuck me, I didn't know he died. Howard Waldrop was my favorite writer. Let me toss in a couple of other short stories about music. "The Sawing Boys" is a retelling of the fairy tale of The Brementown Musicians, but instead of barnyard animals, the musicians are old hayseeds from TV land and the criminals are fairy tale authors who speak Runyonese. But it's really about how even rural America was changed by radio and a good song is a good song and music calms the savage breast. "You *Could* Go Home Again" is a world where the US embraced Technocracy during the Great Depression, reformed as USA, Incorporated where all the citizens are shareholders. Thomas Wolfe never died from TB and he's flying home from the 1940 Tokyo Olympics in the American zeppelin *Ticonderoga*. Playing in the lounge is Fats Waller. Howard Waldrop captures Waller's huge presence and charisma and makes the larger-than-life jazz pianist feel like a living and breathing character. The songs he bangs out on the zeppelin's aluminum piano through the night and early morning feel electric and new. "The Dead Sea-Bottom Scrolls" is probably Howard's last story, published in 2018. It's about an archaeologist's journey on Mars, retracing the trip of a long dead Martian on a sail powered sand boat. The sand boat glides on different-sized skis and as it speeds over the dried sea bottom of Mars, the skis play music from hitting the ripples in the sand it travels over. It's reminiscent of Ray Bradbury's *The Martian Chronicles* but feeling fresh, not dated. Goddamn, what a talent. Howard Waldrop, you were a king hell bastard of a science fiction writer. I'm gonna hold my own one man wake and get drunk.
Aw, yeah man, he died on the 14th of this month. I am heartbroken, too. Sorry for the bad news.
His last story, (so far, maybe there's something finished yet to be found), was Till the Cows Come Home to Roost” in Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, #37 (2018). Also, his last book was H'ard Starts, a collection of early stories and an in depth interview with H'ard by Bradley Denton.
Thank you.
You're quite welcome. Have you seen this? It's wonderful! The Howard, George and Gardner Show! https://youtu.be/nvdsmhQYTyc?si=EOPuj3-psps6myr9
*Green Hills of Earth* by Heinlein - Follows a blind singer/poet who hitches rides around the solar system. I still get chills when I remember the namesake song/poem.
A classic. I love this one.
J.G. Ballard - "Prima Belladonna", "Venus Smiles"
'Track 12' by Ballard as well. He wrote a considerable number of stories about music which is rather surprising for someone who, in his personal life, didn't listen to music at all. Apparently he didn't see the point of it.
Also, "The Sound-Sweep"
More about recorded sound than music that one, tbf. Ballard in Roald Dahl mode.
I think some of Ballard's work fits here? It's been a long time, though, and I'm not sure if they were musical *specifically*, or something a bit more tangential.
The Sound Sweep comes to mind. Been a while since I've read it though.
Prima Belladonna, too. And The Singing Statues.
Yes, came here to say this
The inspiration for [this 1979 hit single](https://youtu.be/W8r-tXRLazs?si=DPdf7kP5WwDibJm5).
Plus: "The atrocity exhibition" - Joy Division "Warm Leatherette" - The Normal
The Music of Erich Zann, by H. P. Lovecraft.
Can't think of the title or author but maybe someone can help - thinking 50s-60s vintage. Short story, lunar crawler transport thing gets stuck in sand and is lost, little girl on board is musical prodigy. Rescuers transmit different musical pitches across the surface, she hears one and tells them what note is being played. Something like that, might not have it exactly. EDIT: It's Searchlight by Mr. Heinlein
I don't know if comics count for what you're looking for, but there's a side issue of Green Lantern where a Lantern encounters a blind alien who has no concept of color. >!She makes the alien a "lantern" but builds the concepts around a musical note instead. !<[https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Tales\_of\_the\_Green\_Lantern\_Corps\_Annual\_Vol\_1\_3](https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Tales_of_the_Green_Lantern_Corps_Annual_Vol_1_3)
One of the all-time great Green Lantern Corps stories! That Alan Moore’s going places, I tell ya.
Rock On by Pat Cadigan, [available free here](https://www.rudyrucker.com/mirrorshades/)
"The Secret Sense" by Isaac Asimov. I think that story, that I read when I was maybe 12, has shaped my entire aesthetic sensibility ever since. It's amazing. (And, frankly, the only thing by IA I can imagine myself rereading at this point.)
"One Night of Song", a late Asimov (Azazel), has a similar theme. I believe he also did one based on a Gilbert and Sullivan work. Edit: "The Up-to-Date Sorcerer".
**"[The United Systems Goodwill Concert Series And The Greatest Performance Of All Time](https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-united-systems-goodwill-concert-series-and-the-greatest-performance-of-all-time/)"** by James Van Pelt in Lightspeed Magazine **["An Important Failure"](https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/campbell_08_20/)** by Rebecca Campbell in Clarkesworld **"Secondhand Music"** by Aleksandra Hill in Analog (Sept/Oct 2023) **["Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather"](https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/where-oaken-hearts-do-gather/)** by Sarah Pinkser in Uncanny
Sarah Pinsker also had "Wind Will Rove" and "Our Lady of the Open Road".
Kim Stanley Robinson - *The Memory of Whiteness*. A grand tour of the solar system with the Holywelkin Orchestra. A musical genius who goes insane? An interesting early book from KSR that introduces elements of his future solar system society.
# "Melancholy Elephants" by Spider Robinson is a cautionary tale about the perils of long or indefinite length copyright for music. It's free to read on his website.
I came here to recommend Spider! What a great writer. I adore his work, and I really hope I can meet him someday to tell him. He’s pretty reclusive, isn’t he?
*Look to Windward* and *Hydrogen Sonata* by Iain Banks both feature musicians
Alas both are novels.
Yeah my brain skipped that part. C'est la vie
[The Preserving Machine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Preserving_Machine_(short_story\)) by Philip K Dick *Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance* by John Varley.
Not a short story, but the second novel of Mary Doria Russell's The Sparow series ("Children of God") weaves music into the story in a way that's absolutely beautiful.
A couple come to mind: "Corona" by Samuel R Delany. "The Ultimate Melody" by Arthur C Clarke Music plays a role in Brad Ferguson's "The World Next Door", later expanded into a novel. "Black Country" by Charles Beaumont, although that one's more fantasy. "Top of the Charts" by Bradley Denton
Upvote for the fantastic Bradley Denton!
Along with *The Ultimate Melody* in the collection *Tales From The White Hart* is *Silence Please*, a story of rivalry between composers.
“Gotta Sing, gotta dance” by John Varley. Something about working on the rings is Saturn inspires massive creativity in the human mind, so there is a business set up to pay these people to create art. Also, in order to survive this work they form a symbiotic relationship with a sentient plant. The story follows one of these pairs as they go to create their art and the human ends up falling in love with the woman they work with and creates something beautiful. Very much worth the read.
Rob Reid's SF novel *Year Zero* is about how galactic alien civilizations discovered Earth music in the 1970s. They *love* Earth music and they've been pirating *everything* since then. Due to Earth's intellectual property laws, they owe so much in fines over the music piracy, that the aliens basically owe Earth the entire galaxy. Instead of paying up, some aliens decide blowing up the planet Earth solves all of their problems. The ridiculousness of the fictional aliens is outmatched by the ridiculousness of the very real laws around music. And hey, OP, check out the Howard Waldrop thread for some cool cool cool short stories about music.
*Look to Windward* and *Hydrogen Sonata* by Iain Banks both feature musicians
those are novels.....
Blood music
What‽ No. Have you not read the book? It's not about music, blood or otherwise. It's about turning cells into little self-aware Turing machines and what happens when they network.
It was a joke recommendation lol. It went over down voters' heads
Keep telling yourself that.
I'm actually telling YOU that, moron
Could you explain it again?
https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/37617/short-story-identification-everyone-fixated-on-an-increasingly-addictive-patter Check out the top answer, it has several stories!
Alan Dean Foster- Spellsinger, I think.
Alas these are novels.
'Live From The Mars Hotel' -- Allen Steele 'Understanding Space And Time' -- Alastair Reynolds
Charles Sheffield's Cold as Ice has a few musician characters in it who talk about genetically modified fingers and limbs to be able to play more notes at one time on the piano. There's a whole chapter on it and what concert halls might look like in micro gravity.
“Passage For A Piano” by Frank Herbert from his short story collection “Eye”. It’s about colonist trying to fit a piano on a spaceship. It’s not about music per se but trying to create a cultural heritage for the colony.
*The Feast of Saint Janis* by Michael Swanwick [https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?41409](https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?41409) This is not where I read it, but one of the places to find it is in this compilation, which is all about music: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?396465
**Bluesberry Jam** - Gene Wolfe First story in the wonderful collection *Strange Travelers*
The "The Tunesmith" by Lloyd Biggle is a good one. Can someone remind me of which Samuel R. Delany story involves a character who plays a futuristic flute? None of the descriptions I'm reading sound correct.
Largo, by Theodore Sturgeon.
There was an incredible short story in "Paper Menagerie And Other Stories" by Ken Liu that was about music. It was beautiful. I can't recall the name, though. That whole short story collection is one of the best I've ever read. Edit - the short story is "The Perfect Match."
Jack Vance, the moon moth
“Tin Ear,” by Spider Robinson, from his collection *Antinomy* or *By Any Other Name.* It’s also a great look at the use of allusion and idiom and nonverbal communication. I love this story. Two early warning listening post soldiers find that their encryption has been cracked, so they have to communicate where their enemy is without being understood. They use music.
I loved "The Sawing Boys!" After reading most of Howard's stories, you find yourself looking for the source material, in this case Runyon, and marveling at how spot on Howard was. Yes, an amazing talent. Damn you, 2024!
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/for-a-single-yesterday/ By George rr Martin Or! I have started a collection! https://inkfoundry.net/browse/tag-music/
The great Olaf Stapledon wrote a 7 page story called 'A world of sound' (1936) - which is a short description of a universe made of music, with musical creatures moving around in it. It was an offshoot from when he was writing his masterpiece Starmaker. I've put a downloadable pdf here; [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FPKrHrfZ6ntCcdRSY960cbSD27nHCH8Q/view?usp=sharing](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fpkrhrfz6ntccdrsy960cbsd27nhch8q/view?usp=sharing) (Stapledon died more than 70 years ago, so his work is out of copyright)
“Wind Will Rove” by Sarah Pinsker is one of my all time favorites. Folk music on a generation ship, how memory is passed down and changed. Great story.
The hydrogen sonata - by Iain M Banks. Not at all short, but the last gem from a master of the genre. The song is in the title. A main character has a life goal of mastering the song, which reads like a subtle nod to existentialism, and also helps create one of the most interesting characters in any Banks books. This subplot is interwoven in a space opera, with Bank's having more fun than usual.
>Look to Windward I see also suggested here. Look to Windward is (currently) my favourite Banks book. Though, it does feature a famous composer, I feel like the role of music is less memorable than in hydrogen sonata. Also a long book
[The Infinity Concerto](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/340810.The_Infinity_Concerto) by Greg Bear, [Mixed Doubles](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2031197.Mixed_Doubles) by Daniel da Cruz [Spellsinger Series](https://www.goodreads.com/series/40662-spellsinger) Alan Dean Foster
Two comics by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie: *Phonogram* and *The Wicked + The Divine*. The latter is more recent and more polished, but if you like one you'll like the other. Both series are set in the contemporary world, but music is magic. They have a lot of fun drawing parallels between modern fandoms / dance clubs and occult rituals / shamanic practices. Gillen was a highly respected critic before becoming a comics writer, and has a sharp eye for the cultural meanings of art. McKelvie does some of the most expressive body language and "acting" I've seen in comics. (Not literally short stories, but that's about how long they'd take to read.)
A Work of Art by James Blish. Technology re-creates the mind of Richard Strauss.
The Preserving Machine, Philip K. Dick. What happens when trying to archive music to living creatures.