The Music of Erich Zann (The Work of H. P. Lovecraft, Episode 27)

‘The Music of Erich Zann‘ is a horror short story by American author H. P. Lovecraft. Written in December 1921, it was first published in National Amateur, March 1922. The story is an account of the enigmatic Erich Zann, an elderly musician whose unique and unworldly melodies draw the curiosity of a young university student. Due to lack of funds, a student studying metaphysics abroad is forced to take up lodging in a cheap apartment building on a street named the ‘Rue d‘Auseil‘. The street is not far from his university and is bordered by a river, dark warehouses and a large wall, and is described as being very steeply inclined, as if being on a cliff. The student cannot see what lies on the other side of the wall, as only a single window on the top floor of his building looks over it. Along with the building‘s disabled landlord, Blandot, one of the few other tenants is an old German man named Erich Zann. The old man is mute and plays the viol with a local theater orchestra. He lives alone on the top floor and at night he plays strange melodies the student has never heard before.