Symphony of Secrets

“Would they call in a SWAT team to pry loose his fingers?”

This passage serves as a moment of foreshadowing. When Bern isn’t allowed to take his copy of Red out of the Foundation’s building, he wonders about the practical consequences of ignoring this rule. Much later in the novel, a member of the Foundation’s board hires police officers to jail and assault him when he refuses to give them Josephine’s papers.

“This was the only example in existence of a Delaney working document.”

This quote develops the theme of Evolving Methods of Preserving Media. Bern is describing the handwritten marginalia in a draft of sheet music that shows the process of editing. It has yet to be revealed that Delaney destroyed the working documents because he stole his music from Josephine.

“Bern and Eboni used to joke about starting a pizza restaurant together, if Eboni’s plans on computer security went south, and if Bern couldn’t make it as a musicologist.”

Throughout the novel, Bern and Eboni search for New York City’s best pizza, and this ongoing quest injects a lighter tone into the serious narrative. After they fall in love, they start cooking their own pizza together. Pizza is therefore a foundation of their friendship and comes to represent their growing romance.

“Now the Delaney Foundation had a Black man, a former DF Kid, spearheading the most important project they’d ever had, written by one of the world’s most beloved white composers. The optics would play well in the media.”

In this moment, Eboni helps Bern to realize that if the Foundation fires him, they would suffer from extensive criticism in the media, for the optics of being perceived as a racist institution would harm the Foundation’s long-term influence and reputation. This exchange marks the beginning of Bern’s gradual disillusionment with the Foundation and Delaney.

“Then she turned another corner and from an open door, like mint in cool water or the smooth taste of fresh cream, the sound poured over her: a trombone, a clarinet, and then a trumpet lifting a run of notes that Josephine breathed in like the smell of the earth after a spring rain.”

This quote evokes multiple similes, or indirect comparisons, between music and the senses of taste and smell. The lushness of the prose emphasizes the unique aspects of Josephine’s experience, for she perceives the world with a type of synesthesia that causes her to experience sound through non-auditory senses. Here, the music has the flavors of mint and cream, as well as an earthy odor.

“His words sparkled like motes in the club’s glow.”

This simile describes Delaney talking to members of his band. He is trying to convince them to let him stay, despite the fact that he is not as talented a musician as the others. The descriptive imagery comparing his words to “motes” illustrates their insubstantiality; the band members do not believe that his words are convincing, and to them, his attempts to persuade them have no more impact than dust in the air.

“He’s never seen anyone so invested, so desperate for music; it was as if she couldn’t breathe without it, as if she were a fish swimming in melodies.”

In this passage, Delaney watches Josephine listen to music. The first simile in this quote compares music to oxygen, and the second simile compares Josephine to a fish. Josephine’s love of music develops the theme of The Emotional Impact of Music, and it is immediately clear that her experience of music is far more intense and immediate than Delaney will ever understand.

“Silt. Violet. Periwinkle. Yellow and copper.”

This quote depicts Josephine’s idiosyncratic experience of the song “Carillion.” Her neurodivergence allows her to perceive the music as silt and colors in this example, and the passage emphasizes her unique abilities, which becomes a recurring aspect of her chapters in the novel.

“All the physical locations from the Doodles?”

As Bern and Eboni try to decode Josephine’s symbols, Eboni suggests that they visit the locations mentioned in the enigmatic records. These locations, like the Alibi Club, are now dramatically different. The fact that Bern and Eboni can find no trace of Josephine emphasizes the extent of the erasure that the character was subjected to during her lifetime.

“We thought our love was evergreen.”

This quote is an example of lyrics by Delaney, which he added to Josephine’s music to create the song “Evergreen.” However, Delaney’s lyrics are not what Eboni points out to Bern; she draws his attention to Josephine’s symbols. The revelation that comes from analyzing the symbols—that they are in fact representations of music—causes Bern to hug Eboni, connecting the modern characters’ love story with the song from the past.

“They were a language, a whisper from another room, barely detectable and still only partially decipherable.”

This metaphor creates a direct comparison between Josephine’s symbols and spoken language, highlighting the intricacies of her perceptions and her innate musical talents. Slocumb uses this literary device to describe Bern’s process of learning to read Josephine’s unique symbols; through intensive study, they slowly resolve into music. However, the halting language of the description implies that he will never become fluent or be able to fully appreciate the depths and richness of her talent.

“And the elevator: she could feel it in her ankles and in her rib cage, the press of the button and the hydraulic click (E-flat) and hum (a-flat and C together).”

In this quote, Josephine thinks about how the elevator feels off somehow. The passage also reveals that she perceives the entire world in terms of music; she has perfect pitch and can identify the notes that the machine makes. This scene also foreshadows her future decision to hide the opera Red in the elevator’s wall, which is revealed at the end of the novel.

 “The Chopin lifted into its C coda, so pure. She looked around for the yellow.”

This passage develops the theme of colors and synesthesia, and her anticipation of perceiving the color yellow upon hearing the note also implies that her complex perceptions are consistent over time. Within the unique aspects of her synesthesia, Josephine always experiences this particular music in the same way. Thus, the passage emphasizes that Josephine’s abilities are simply a result of her neurotype: a unique talent, not necessarily a disability.

 “He’d fixed up the elevator, too, polishing the brass filigree panels on its walls. Josephine liked the clear geometric patterns and would run her fingers over them on the rare occasions when she took the elevator. She much preferred the stairs.”

This passage foreshadows the Foundation’s discovery of the opera Red behind this paneling. Some of the symbols in Josephine’s Compendium are also described as geometric patterns, which connects the opera’s hiding place with its music.

“She closed her eyes tightly, and that morning’s music bathed her inner ears: the saxophone and trumpet solos touched the depth of her being.”

This metaphor obliquely compares music and water, for the music “bathes” Josephine’s ears and runs into the core of her being. This passage echoes Delaney’s realization that Josephine needs music as a fish needs water; it is her natural element, and she is most comfortable when she is fully immersed in the world of music.

“She would sense Fred’s tread on the landing, and the D-major knock of his knuckles would rattle the door before he came in to peruse the Compendium for what she’d done that day.”

This passage is an example of Josephine’s gift of perfect pitch. She feels a sense of dread when she hears this music because she doesn’t want to give Fred all her music. This moment emphasizes a more ominous version of The Emotional Impact of Music, highlighting Delaney’s cruel control over Josephine’s life and imaginative creations.

 “Place the violet between the lavender.”

This is what Josephine thinks as she tells the receptionist that she wants to meet with Miles. Even in the most mundane moments, she thinks in colors, which represent her experiences of music.

“Boris and Natasha’s great-great-grandma over here don’t want to rent to us because we are too dark.”

This is a quote from Eboni in response to getting rejected for an apartment due to her status as a Black woman. Eboni’s matter-of-fact statement draws attention to the fact that The Effects of Individual and Institutional Racism are adding new complications to Bern and Eboni’s lives as they do their best to elude the Foundation’s pursuit and obtain justice for Josephine.

“She felt unmoored without the comforting weight of the Compendium nearby: untethered, floating above the city.”

This passage conveys Josephine’s feelings after she leaves her trunks and Compendium in Penn Station. In sharp contrast to the water imagery that often accompanies Josephine’s love of music, Slocumb shifts to aerial imagery to depict her unease in the absence of her creations, crafting a picture of something like a hot-air balloon to describe her emotional state.

“The breezes would be quieter in North Carolina. The cicadas would be humming in the sunshine; and every night, as the shadows flowered, the crickets would spiral out their F-sharp to B-minor rhythmic progression.”

Here, Josephine waxes nostalgic for her home in North Carolina. Her perfect pitch allows her to recall the notes that insects make, and as this sound evokes fond memories of a safer, more loving place, the sounds represent yet another example of The Emotional Impact of Music.

“She would wait in the echoing vastness of Pennsylvania Station, the steamer trunks of the Compendium spread around her like trunk-size bean pods: she thought of trunk, as in tree trunk, as something vast and living, a conduit carrying musical sap up and out into the world.”

This passage connects the literal trunks that hold Josephine’s Compendium with figurative tree trunks. The natural imagery of bean pods and sap conveys her natural talent for music.

“As they descended, her body kept sliding into the corner, her sleeve catching on the filigree of the back wall, as if reluctant to leave.”

This passage inserts one final moment of foreshadowing about the hiding place that Josephine uses to conceal the opera Red and protect it from Delaney. After Delaney murders her, he uses the elevator when he removes her corpse from the building. Thus, even in death, Josephine is close to her music, which is concealed behind the filigree.

“He clicked on a particularly gorgeous slide of Josephine’s notations: the pictographs and patterns shimmering and vibrating in the light.”

Bern’s introduction of Red at the opera’s long-delayed premiere includes projecting a digital photo of a physical object—her Compendium. This develops the theme of Evolving Methods of Preserving Media. Scanning Josephine’s documents means that more people can see and appreciate them. The imagery of light in the passage highlights the fact that the truth of her authorship has finally become known to the world.