The novelist J. B. Priestley has been mentioned both as a reader of and contributor to the Everyman Library and as the author of Angel Pavement, the likely inspiration for Stella Gibbons's novel My American.
One of his minor works is a little book called Low Notes on a High Level, which was first published in 1954.
Priestley called Low Notes a 'frolic'. It is very light; it is amusing and original.
The plot is preposterous; it features some huge, bizarre, imaginary musical instruments that can play very low bass notes. Also included are some colourful characters, a fictional Scandinavian country, classical music on the radio and a pirate broadcasting station run by a freedom-loving rebel.
Unlike some of the other featured books, Low Notes does not contain much quotable material. The story needs to be read as a whole: most extracts would not do justice to the book as they wouldn't mean very much or seem very amusing without the surrounding context.
Priestley was a strong critic of many aspects of contemporary society. In Low Notes he took the opportunity to satirise practices of the day that he disapproved of and people he had a low opinion of.
Much of Priestley's criticism of certain organisations and the people associated with them was inspired by his experience of working for the BBC as a radio presenter during the Second World War.
He disliked politicians, pretentiousness and bureaucracy; he rather despised conformists, people who are types rather than individuals and herd members who don't think for themselves - like these two committed consumers for example:
“If the Coronation had lasted for twenty-two hours on TV, they would never have taken their eyes off the screen, even at the risk of going blind and dotty. Always they did as they were told, Enid asking for Shifto the magic washing powder, Bernard demanding Filter-Dung the new cigarette.”
I first read Low Notes on a High Level when I was still at school; a recent re-reading was quite enjoyable and inspired me to produce some notes that I hope will make people want to read it for themselves.
As with the Sellar and Yeatman books, Low Notes may seem dated to the readers of today. It may not hold the attention of people who are unfamiliar with 1950s London and the BBC culture of the time.
Even so, people who can get inside books and authors' minds and people who want an entertaining read and a brief distraction should find it worth reading. Perhaps the best approach would be to think of it as a science fiction story about aliens on another planet!
These covers show the instruments that produce very low notes. We can see the nine-foot two-man triple-bass fiddle from France, the Great-German-Double-Bombardon - six feet of shining brass with a horn a yard in diameter - and the giant Italian contra-fagotto, which is twice the size of a normal bassoon:
