ABSTRACT
Musical influences in the Parade's End tetralogy, which is usually considered Ford Madox Ford's achievement in maturity, are richer and subtler. This chapter explores the presence of musicality in Parade's End and shows how, whilst drawing inspiration from nineteenth-century music in an apparently traditional and somewhat expected manner, Ford's writing enacts a transition towards modernist writing. The modernity of Ford's writing comes into play within the detail of the text, where truths are revealed obliquely through an underlying musical network and not through the main voices. Ford's use of the Wagnerian leitmotif may even pave the way towards a radically innovative aesthetics at work within Parade's End. Ford's extensive use of leitmotifs generates a multitude of echoes that reverberate constantly within the text. Ford's enlightened use of techniques borrowed from music thus shapes his exploration of new narrative forms.
