2024/106: The Instrumentalist — Harriet Constable

He lifts his arms. They lift their instruments.
A curl of red from the violins, a spiral of gold from the cellos.
And his face instantly drops.
Because this is not what he planned. This is not what he expected at all. [loc. 4840]

As a baby, Anna Maria della Pietà is deposited at the Ospedale della Pietà by her sex-worker mother. Like her mother, Anna Maria 'sees' colours. She is a naturally gifted musician, and attracts the attention of the music master, who agrees to teach her. (His full name is not given in the text, but he is Antonio Vivaldi.) Anna Maria grows up determined to make a name for herself, sacrificing everything -- especially friendship -- for her ambition to be a famous composer. She certainly receives a great deal of popular acclaim, and the famous Tartini declares her 'maestro'. But this is 18th-century Venice, and her teacher (having taught her and the other girls of the figlie di coro to compose in his own style) makes it clear that no female name shall appear on any of the compositions they have worked on together.

Constable evokes the sounds, scents and tastes of Anna Maria's world, from the fish and salt and spices of the waterfront to the colours of the music that drifts through Anna Maria's dreams of drowning. Though Anna Maria's life is sheltered, the darker realities of life are never far away: illness, unwanted pregnancy, theft, the men who attend concerts solely because they wish to marry Pietà girls. And the girls themselves can be cruel -- Anna Maria most definitely included.

Perhaps the novel would have been better without the introductory chapter, describing Anna Maria's conception and birth and the origin of her nightmares about drowning: and perhaps her behaviour is sometimes anachronistic. But her rage at her teacher's duplicity, and her determination to perfect her art, are all too familiar, and Constable weaves an engaging account of Anna Maria's disillusionment, and her vengeance. The novel is well-researched and the author's afterword provides a useful list of sources, and a summary of Anna Maria's life after the end of The Instrumentalist.

Fulfils the ‘Author debut in second half of 2024’ rubric of the 52 books in 2024 challenge.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for this full honest review. UK Publication Date is 15 AUG 2024.