Klaus Always Loved the Classics

In canon, Mozzie and Neal often referred to Kate's love for the classics. In our series, that fondness has been usurped by the two villainous brothers, Klaus and Rolf Mansfeld, and the classics they love are of the musical variety.

Warning for minor spoilers for the Caffrey Conversation AU.

To help define Klaus and Rolf's personalities, I identified them with classical piano music. Neal and Henry grew up on rock music, even forming their own group, Urban Legend. In contrast, Klaus and Rolf both studied classical piano as children and have maintained a deep connection to the repertoire. Klaus first became associated with Schubert in The Woman in Blue. He had a piano in the townhouse, and Neal remarked how natural it felt to hear Klaus perform works by the nineteenth-century Austrian master. Rolf's tastes run a little darker. He prefers the moody low-pitched sonorities of Rachmaninoff.

Classical music was occasionally used to great effect in the canon series. The two standout moments for me were both in the Season 5 episode "Out of the Frying Pan." Mozzie taught Neal how to sneak into the FBI vault to the strains of an aria from Don Giovanni ("Madamina, Il Catalogo È Questo"), and later Mozzie delivered Diana's baby to "About Strange Lands and Peoples," a selection from Scenes from Childhood by Robert Schumann.

In Echoes of a Violin, Neal explains that Klaus liked to plan his heists while listening to variations on a theme. The variations express not only the many ways of achieving the objective but also the different contingency measures that should be taken.

At the top of the list of Klaus's favorite variations are the Huttenbrenner Variations by Schubert and a set of variations by Rachmaninov. In the Rachmaninoff selection, he pays homage to his brother Rolf with one of his, and my, favorite pieces—La Folia. This famous theme has been the subject of variations going back to the sixteenth century. La Folia means madness in Spanish—surely an appropriate term for that Lovecraft-obsessed villain. Rachmaninoff's version is particularly dark and sensual.

Recently Penna wrote about using music as a tool to define characters and as a plot element (Music in Caffrey Conversation). I've found music to also be a valuable aid to writing. When I begin to conceptualize a story, I find it helpful to establish a music soundtrack early on. That sets the framework for what I'm trying to create. For Echoes of a Violin, the two pieces playing in my head have been La Folia and "The Old Ways" by Loreena McKennitt.

Echoes of a Violin on Archive of Our Own
Echoes of a Violin on FanFiction


La Folia by Sergei Rachmaninoff

The Old Ways by Loreena McKennitt

Huttenbrenner Variations by Franz Schubert