The Composer Is Dead by Lemony Snicket

The Composer Is Dead Reviews

• 
  emma

  welcome to this semi-annual meeting of the lemony snicket fan club.
  
  on this incarnation's agenda: i read this picture book many years ago, but definitely not enough years ago to be in its target demographic, but still i was a big fan.
  
  that's the lemony snicket magic right there.
  
  part of a series i'm doing in which i review books i read a long time ago
• 
  Lubinka Dimitrova

  A wonderful, sweet book, which the music compliments very nicely. I enjoyed it very much :)
• 
  Kathryn

  Oh, WOW! I LOVED this book!!!! I love the entire creation--the words, the illustrations, the music. It is AMAZING! First of all, it is so very, very FUNNY! Humor is always so subjective but this just absolutely clicked with me. OMG! Witty stuff here. I love the personalities that Snicket assigns to the various instruments. For example, the "The violin section is divided inot the First Violins, who have the trickier parts to play, and the Second Violins, who are more fun at parties." The inspector asks them what they were doing the night of the murder. "We were performing a waltz," said the Violins. "We played graceful melodies so the ladies and gentlemen could spin around and around and aroud until they felt dizzy and somewhat nauseous. This kept us busy all night." The inspector suspects they murdered the composer for making them play waltzes all night. "Don't be ridiculous," say the Violins, "Violins are the stars of any orchestra. If we killed the composer, we would have to find work at square dances or in romantic restaurants." Oh, gosh, good stuff here! ;-> I don't want to give any more away! The accompanying CD, read by Snicket with music by Nathaniel Stookey performed by the San Francisco Symphony is also outstanding. I admit that I tried to read/listen simultaneously but the audio version takes a LONG time to get through due to all the (excellent) music so I stopped the audio half way through. Personally, I felt a bit of the humor in the quick repartee (as I read it) between the inspector and the various instruments was lost with the sometimes drawn-out conversations with musical interludes on the audio version. Opinions may vary, but I'd recommend reading the book first and then listening to the CD as a bonus treat, maybe take that time to look at the illustrations again or just appreciate Snicket's fun delivery style.
  
  While this is a delight in and of itself, it could also be hoped that it would inspire kids to want to go to the symphony or listen to more classical music.
  
  I really do think this is a "children's book" that most adults with a sense of humor and/or appreciation for the symphony will enjoy.
  
  Thank you so much, Angie, for the recommendation!!!
• 
  Betsy

  Remember the days when kids would learn about the different instruments of the orchestra by attending mandatory orchestral performances of
  Peter and the Wolf? Well, go to bed, old man! Kids today don’t have time for stories of wolves and boys and lucky/unlucky duckys. Not them. No, these days to grasp a child’s attention fully it takes nothing short of murder. Cold-blooded, tastefully adapted, deeply illustrated murrrrderrrrr (roll them r’s about your tongue). A shot has been cast across the brow of old Peter and his dilapidated wolf, and a new author’s in town to entice your children with death, woodwinds, and questionable Offenbach references. Yes!
  Lemony Snicket a.k.a. Daniel Handler a.k.a. that bloke with the accordion (sorry accordion fans: no squeezeboxes in this orchestration) has gone out, written a picture book of a police procedural, found himself a composer of his own (presumably not dead yet), and an orchestra to play on the accompanying CD. There was even an illustrator thrown somehow into the mix. The result is The Composer is Dead, a kind of drawing room murder mystery where a subpar Hercule Poirot attempts to pin the murder of “the composer” on various members of the orchestra. And so, without a bit of musical background to my name, I’ll be attempting to review the book and the CD together in one fell swoop. Wish me luck.
  
  Composers compose. Dead composers decompose. And this decomposing composer in particular has caught the interest of the local constabulary. An Inspector is dispatched right quick to interview the suspects, pardon me, the “usual suspects”, find the culprit, and haul him or her off to jail. But it is not so easy. Everyone has an alibi, and if they don’t have an alibi then they are mighty persuasive. The strings were performing a waltz at the time of the crime. The reed instruments flatter themselves out of suspicion. The trombones were having a drink. One by one everyone is questioned and released until the only logical culprit would have to be the conductor. After all, “wherever there’s a conductor, you’re sure to find a dead composer.” But the orchestra protests en masse, and in the end they admit that while they have all “butchered” a composer or two in their time, they also keep such artists alive forever. An accompanying CD brings this tale to audible life, as the San Francisco Symphony, with Snicket narrating, plays a composition composed specifically for this tale.
  
  To be blunt, this is not a particularly obvious idea for a book. Peter and the Wolf is one of those standards that nobody pays much attention to any more. Sure, schools regularly scoop large numbers of elementary aged children and up and plop them in theaters to listen to the show, but has any child in the history of the world gone on to become a rabid (poor choice of words?) Peter and the Wolf fan? Do they insist on reading every picture book adaptation of the show? Do they want to hear the music again and again? I’m sure that there are some that do this, but for the bulk of them it’s not the highlight of their week. But to go out and make your own orchestral/picture book version of the same kind of idea? Frankly, Mr. Handler is the only person who could have even attempted this. You need someone with Snicket/Handler’s sway, influence, and musical connections (bonjourno, Mr. Merritt) to be able to wrangle an honest-to-goodness orchestra into shape. To make something like this work you need a popular figure (Lemony Snicket – check) that happens to have a sense of humor (a mention of getting the phone number of “very attractive young sailors” in the text – check) and an ear for what kids like (check and check). I hate to say it, but the reason no one has attempted this before is because nobody had the right qualifications for the job.
  
  Which isn’t to say that Mr. Handler doesn’t put quite a lot of very swell work into this pup. With all the wit and sly allusions readers have come to expect from
  A Series of Unfortunate Events, I’m certain that even people who were not fans of that particular series will gravitate to this piece. Honestly, there’s only one instance where he shakes the old “a word which here means” out of the mothballs. Maybe two. But you can’t help but love the writing. Of course the format follows the standard
  Agatha Christie route where a detective questions a bunch of suspects in a singularly civilized manner, trying to winkle out a murderer’s confession. The fact that this particular Inspector is utterly incompetent (elegant moustache aside) is beside the point. And while kids may need to have the explanation that orchestras have been butchering composers for years explained to them, why bother? It makes sense either way. Older kids who get it will be pleased. And younger ones will end up attending concerts for some time under the distinct impression that the people there are all bloodthirsty killers. It’s win-win!
  
  Which brings us to the illustrations. I have some bad news here. I was not a huge fan. Carson Ellis made a name for herself illustrating the album covers for bands like The Decemberists. She later went on to do book jackets for titles like Trenton Lee Stewart’s
  The Mysterious Benedict Society. Ellis’s style is distinctive. It involves thin lines and watercolor washes that utilize a lot of grays, browns, roses, and watered down blues. I’ve little doubt that there are picture books out there that would pair with her strengths beautifully, but this book was not one of them. In this setting Ellis’s colors are almost too muted to serve the story well. Scenes that are meant to contain lots of crazy movement and dancing, as with the swing dancing section, don’t feel like they contain a lot of movement. The figures are stagnant, and sometimes utterly baffling. There is one pairing of a man with a woman upside down on his left arm that left me squinting and blinking several times in search of his head. Then, inexplicably, that same pairing reoccurs later when the Inspector is rounding up the alibis. I do not think that the pictures detract too terribly from the rest of the book, but they weren’t an ideal pairing and, if this book catches on as much as I hope it will, I'm certain they won’t be the last.
  
  With the given understanding that my orchestral familiarity begins and ends with my six year stint in various middle school and high school orchestras (I was a second violin and therefore, according to this book, “more fun at parties"), I will attempt to critique Nathaniel Stookey’s orchestrations as found here. Yes. So. Sounded good? Sounded good. Actually I did have a question or two about the choices he made. For example, was it utterly necessary to end the piece on such a benign note? I would have assumed from reading the book that the ending would build and build and build until you reached a veritable crescendo with the words, “But those who want something a little more interesting . . . should go to the orchestra!” Which isn’t to say that I didn’t like the music as a whole. I loved the threatening horns whenever the dead composer’s unchanging dead-like state was mentioned. I liked how well the various orchestrations were combined when the Inspector summarizes everyone’s alibis. I loved the music during the litany of dead composers of the past. I just wished for a bigger bang at the end, I guess.
  
  Recently a variety of vocal recordings of famous authors were released. Some authors matched their works. Others, like
  Arthur Conan Doyle, didn't. And Daniel Handler’s voice? Initially you’d perhaps find it unexpected. The audiobook version of A Series of Unfortunate Events had actor Tim Curry read the tales, and that’s about what you’d think Mr. Handler would sound like. Instead, his voice takes a minute or two to get used to. You have to ease into it, as one does a hot bath. Once you get comfortable, however, his narration acts as the perfect complement to the story (which is right). Be sure to pay close attention to the narrated portions of the CD in their entirety because there’s quite a bit of additional dialogue and small off-the-cuff asides to enjoy. Particularly when the narrator starts to get a bit peckish. The first half of the recording is words and music. The second half, music alone.
  
  Owing no particular allegiance to boys, wolves, and their Russian composers, I would love to see orchestras across this great country of ours merrily adapting this story and this music to their usual concert repertoires. And as for the book itself, without considering its larger ramifications and applications, it’s quite strong. As I’ve said, the art wasn’t what I would have picked for it, but it doesn’t really detract. The words are hilarious, as per usual, and the accompanying CD ideal for long car trips, bedtime fare, or just sitting about the living room. A great idea that may play itself out for far longer than picture books can usually hope for.
  
  Ages 5 and up.
• 
  Monica Edinger

  Yesterday I played the CD of this to my fourth class and showed them the illustrations (from the F&G I got at last week's HarperCollins' spring preview). It is terrific!
  
  When I told the kids we were going to listen to something by Lemony Snicket several announced that they'd HATED the Unfortunate Event books. But of course --- these are fall fourth graders, after all, and I suspect those that disliked the books only picked them up (as 3rd or even 2nd graders) because friends were liking them. I love the books myself, but would be the first to say they require a child reader with a particular sensibility and taste (a Carrollian one, if you will).
  
  But this is actually much more accessible, I'd say. The illustrations are fun, but it is the CD that makes this package. Handler is a witty and wise writer and narrator. This is sort of an anti-Peter and the Wolf, I'd guess. Like that classic, the different instruments and parts of the orchestra are highlighted, but so differently. Handler/Snicket, as he does in Unfortunate Events, speaks ironically and amusingly, but never down to his child audience and throws in a few tidbits to the adults as well. (I don't have the book here, but I recall a witty reference to several Bachs and then Offenbach. All dead, of course.)
  
  Look out for this one. And I know that if it is performed again (with Handler narrating)in my town, I'm there!
• 
  Suad Shamma

  I was incredibly disappointed with this book, and I surprisingly seem to be in the minority here.
  
  I bought this book knowing that it is targeted at children, as are most, if not all, of Lemony Snicket's books. I did not, however, realize that those children had to be between the ages of 4 and 6. This book is very small, 10 pages at most, with every page barely containing more than 2 or 3 lines. I admit, the premise of the murder mystery is extremely interesting, and the way it was executed was superbly creative.
  
  The conductor of the orchestra was found dead and Lemony Snicket interrogates the instruments of the orchestra. Very interesting, yes. But, you'll have to be very knowledgeable about classical music and instruments to understand the significance of what answers those instruments gave and the order in which they were interrogated in. So this book really works if you fit under 2 categories - that of a 4 to 6 year old, or a classical musician and instruments aficionado. Otherwise, I can confidently say, you would be wasting your time buying this book. It will take 5 minutes of your time, 10 if you're a very slow reader, and you will end up with nothing but a CD of classical music.
  
  I thought it would be a lot more than it turned out to be, and maybe that's my fault.
• 
  Luisa Knight

  If Lemony Snicket was going to compose a symphony and corresponding plot, it'd be safe to expect orchestral inside jokes, the battle of the instruments, jovial sarcasm, and a little mystery and intrigue. And that's exactly what you get! This experience doesn't disappoint and will be loved by both orchestral fans and The Series of Unfortunate Events friends alike.
  
  Ages: 6 - 11
  Approx. Duration: 30 minutes
  
  Cleanliness: mentions drinking wine and dancing.
  
  **Like my reviews? I also have hundreds of detailed reports that I offer too. These reports give a complete break-down of everything in the book, so you'll know just how clean it is or isn't. I also have Clean Guides (downloadable PDFs) which enable you to clean up your book before reading it! Visit my website: The Book Radar.
• 
  Laura

  
  The Composer Is Dead by Lemony Snicket is a dark, clever, and hilarious piece by piece introduction to the orchestra wrapped around a mystery. Pure musical brilliance!
  
  As the Inpsector investigates the composer’s death, readers are witness and privy to all sorts of entertaining musical lessons and history. Each instrument comes to life with sound, background, and an alibi. From the “wimpy” flutes to the “arrogant” trumpets, the voices and attitudes of the instruments will have readers learning and humming! My favorite was the drums……
  
  ”We drummed. We percussed. We employed xylophoniness and cymbalism. We heard the beat and beat the herd. We struck up and got down. We conquered the concert, battered the band, agitated the audience, rattled the roof, and got the phone numbers of several very attractive young sailors.”
  
  As you can see, Mr. Snicket is a word wonder! I could have stayed in his world and words for days.
  
  Just a few of my favorites: Shenanigans, Lurking, and Ruckus. :)
  
  Quirky style, attitude, language, fun, and musical knowledge all come together here to create a unique reading experience. I was completely enchanted with the mystery, narrator, and sound of every instrument. Yes, even you oboe! :D
  
  A pitch perfect story for any and all music lovers.
  
  p.s. The book also comes with an audio CD filled with music and Mr. Snicket himself. I never wanted it to end!
  
• 
  Lisa Vegan

  This is so cute and so funny and very creative. It reminds me of the Peter and the Wolf recording I had as a preschooler, where I learned all the instruments and began my lifelong love of the oboe. But this story is so much better. There is a hardcover edition of a picture book that takes about 30 minutes to read and view because of the included CD. The CD pretty much reads the story on the pages and has some extra words and slight deviations from the printed page. Really, I don’t recommend one without the other, and I’m grateful that my library had the two intact. I was laughing all the way through it. This would be a wonderful choice for a family read aloud. It says it’s appropriate for age 5 & up, and I think it is, but my hunch is that adults will enjoy it even more than kids will. It’s an especially appropriate gift for musicians of all ages. Wonderful for musicians, mystery fans, classical and some other types of music fans, and fans of humorous books. Very enjoyable! As soon as I finished I called a friend and recommended it for the kids in her life and asked her if her nephew played on the CD; the San Francisco Symphony performs the music on the CD.
• 
  Tammie

  So funny and so very cleaver. That's the best thing about all of Lemony Snicket's aka Daniel Handler's books, how cleaver they are. I enjoyed everything about this book, the pictures, the humor, and the included audio recording with music!
• 
  Michelle Witte

  Originally posted at
  Libri Ago.
  
  ★★★★★★★*
  
  The moment I saw Lemony Snicket's name on the cover of The Composer Is Dead at the library the other day, I knew I had to read it. I knew it would be funny; what I wasn't expecting was this musical masterpiece.
  
  The story is somewhat basic: a composer has been murdered, and the detective must sound out the man, er, instrument who committed the crime. The text, however, isn't what makes this book so amazing.
  
  This isn't just a picture book, nor is it just an audio book or just a soundtrack; it is an experience. The book is funny enough on its own, but play the accompanying cd with soundtrack, and it's even greater. The experience, however, doesn't reach fever pitch until you add in Snicket's exceptional narration (also included on the cd).
  
  Daniel Handler, the man behind the Snicket, must have played in an orchestra at some point in his life. It's the only way to explain how all of the humor in The Composer Is Dead is spot on.
  
  While marketed as a children's picture book, young children won't get most of the jokes. Instead, the musically inclined adult reading (or listening) to the book will be laughing to the point of hyperventilating.
  
  Don't believe me? Watch the
  book trailer, which demonstrates a bit of what I'm talking about.
  
  I played this book for my stepmom, a concert cellist cum cello instructor. She laughed and nodded at all the jokes and one-liners, and then immediately went out to purchase a copy to share with her students.
  
  I highly recommend this book as a gift for the music major/orchestra teacher/flautist in your life. If they've played in an orchestra, even just in high school, they will be rolling by the time the experience ends. Then buy a copy for yourself.
  
  *Because this book deserves much more than 5 stars.
• 
  becs_recs

  I am excited for the day when I have the opportunity to play The Composer is Dead in my own classroom. The entire idea of staging a murder investigation in an orchestra setting was unique and delightful - exactly what I have come to expect from Lemony Snicket. As a proud former band geek, I so enjoyed the personification of the various instruments throughout the Inspector's interviews. As an alibi, the flutes claim to be "much too wimpy and high-pitched for murder!" and the tuba is a "confirmed bachelor" who sits at home playing cards with his landlady, the Harp. In addition to an engaging premise, the accompanying musical tracks add a rich element of suspense and humor to the story. I highly, highly recommend taking the time to sit down and properly experience this book, complete with Snicket's narration and Nathaniel Stookey's composition.
• 
  Jamil

  Opening exerpt:
  
  

  "The Composer is Dead.
  
  "Composer" is a word which here means "a person who sits in a room, muttering and humming and figuring out what notes the orchestra is going to play." This is called composing. But last night, the Composer was not muttering. He was not humming. He was not moving, or even breathing.
  
  This is called decomposing."

  
  
  Nicely illustrated by Carson Ellis. Comes with an audio CD (reading + music) too!
• 
  Tirzah Eleora

  Rereading this favourite of mine after quite a few years. Snicket is known for his dark humour and this book is no exception, but it's done in such a way that I think even those who didn't like A Series of Unfortunate Events could appreciate it. While technically written for kids, it's very intelligent and I still find it hilarious. The audio CD that accompanies the book is even better, and I've just discovered that the whole thing is on YouTube, so check it out!
• 
  Abigail

  The composer is dead, and the Inspector is determined to find the guilty party in this hilariously clever look at the symphony, and the world of classical music performance. As he interviews each of the instruments, or orchestral sections, he discovers that everybody has a plausible alibi. But the composer is definitely dead, so someone must have killed him...
  
  With tongue firmly in cheek, popular children's author Lemony Snicket offers an entertaining picture-book tribute to the murder mystery genre, as well as to the glories of classical music, in The Composer Is Dead. With lots of clever puns and plays on words, as well as his signature word definitions, Snicket crafts a book that is as thought-provoking as it is hilarious. Carson Ellis, who won a Caldecott Honor earlier this year (2017) for
  Du Iz Tak?, provides the artwork, which captures the madcap sense of humor found in the text to perfection. There is original music to accompany this tale, composed by Nathaniel Stookey, but unfortunately, I was not able to listen to it. Even without that experience, I enjoyed this one immensely, and would highly recommend it to all Lemony Snicket fans, and to anyone searching for picture-books about the symphony, or the world of music.
• 
  Brianna

  Highly entertaining if you've ever played an instrument in an orchestra... or not, really it's just an entertainingly lighthearted read
• 
  Harold Ogle

  This was tremendously entertaining, with some added amusement that was unintended by the author. The book involves the investigation of an orchestra by a detective who is trying to discover why "the composer is dead." It contains a lot of funny digs at different orchestral stereotypes, including a number of veiled inside jokes and puns, as the detective interviews each section of the orchestra as suspects in the murder case. What makes it really shine, though, is that it is also an audiobook: each copy of the book comes with a CD containing two sets of audio tracks: one is the full audiobook, with a great reader performing both the interrogating inspector and the shifty sections while an orchestra performs the score accompanying the dialog; and the other is just the orchestral score, for those who wish to add their own dramatic flair reading the text aloud. It's a wonderful performance piece.
  
  The unintended entertainment was from watching and hearing my kids as they listened to the score for the first time. It starts off wonderfully: "The composer...is dead." There's a three-second caesura, and then the score begins, with a tremendous basso brass blatt reminiscent of "Night on Bald Mountain." My kids started laughing hysterically each time this happened, and soon it became clear that, to them, the sound was evocative not of the grave, but of tremendous flatulence. They absolutely loved it, and were completely entranced.
• 
  Ann

  What a fun book! This is a great introduction to musical instruments and their positions within an orchestra. The plot is that a composer has died, so the detective interrogates various instruments, from the violins to the cellos, to the drums and the horns. It’s quite amusing to read the personality descriptions that Snicket has been assigned to the instruments. The end is quite amusing (though the word-play and irony may be lost on some young children). I’m afraid I did not listen to the accompanying CD, but I think it’s a nice touch for those children who find the book whetting their interest in The Orchestra!
  
  *****
  
  Thanks for recommending this, Angie!! It looks MOST interesting! And I've been meaning to read a Snicket book, anyway:)
• 
  Kori

  It's like "Peter and The Wolf" except, Lemony Snicket. (I was going to say "better", but I realized that I actually like Peter and The Wolf".)
  
  It's very clever, and the lady who illustrated the liner notes for most of The Decemberists albums illustrated this.
  
• 
  Carol

  Well, this is the perfect book to introduce children to the musical world. It tells you all about the different instruments that compose an orchestra, and since it has a CD, you can also hear them out, one by one, and then as a whole ensemble. It's really good, although for me as an adult it was rather slow. I have a lot of problems following audio books because I'm easily distracted, so it didn't really help me. But I see how great this can be for younger kids. And the story is fantastic! Lemony Snicket does amazing voices and impressions.
• 
  Jorge Rosas

  I loved this book, it’s perfect for an introduction to the orchestra world, in the middle of an assassination the detective tries to find out what happened y interrogating the different types of instruments. This one is a mixture of an audio and normal books, you can only use the CD but you’ll be missing the illustrations, you could read the book alone but it’ll be lame, but when you combine them it’s a wonderful thing, a little bit too long for the instrument parts but still quite enjoyable.
• 
  Danielle {halfdesertedstreets}

  As a rule, I don't include picture books in my yearly tally unless they're for The Newbery Project or teaching, but I'm making an exception here because this was SO MUCH FUN. It had me grinning the whole time.
• 
  Ariel Jensen

  The combination of Lemony Snicket & Carson Ellis is too perfect. The story is captivating & the illustrations are interesting and wonderful. The ending though!! ...Maybe I’m dumb but I just don’t get it.
• 
  Jacm

  
  Lemony Snicket strikes again! This time he has gone above and beyond the league of any mere mortal author by collaborating with an orchestra to produce a delightful, funny, educational, entertaining affair.
  
  Listening to the text being read by the author along with Nathaniel Stookey's orchestral beautiful accompaniment while at the same time admiring Carson Ellis' illustrations was such immersive immersive experience I would STRONGLY recommend it to one and all
  
• 
  lady_moonique

  Fun story for children (and adults) who want to know something about orchestras, delivered in an interesting way.
• 
  Kristen

  Broke out the CD player for this one. I thought it was mostly clever. But it was confusing (at the end) to my daughter, who is 11, despite her love of everything Lemony Snicket. My favorite part is when the narrator calls out the names of dead composers. The CD did make it fun... and suspenseful.
• 
  Julie Rowse

  This is right up there with A Young Lutheran's Guide to the Orchestra and Peter and the Wolf, as an introduction to orchestras. I laughed out loud on nearly every page. So fun.
• 
  Katie

  A beautiful, funny personification of different orchestral instruments. I was cracking up.
• 
  Sara Grace

  Wish there was a little more detail on individual instruments - but I guess as a bassoonist I should be happy it's at least mentioned - and pictured! I would love to purchase a few copies of this book for myself and family!
• 
  talia ♡

  thank you lemony snicket for sending me this book (and autographed!!) :')) 💖💖💖