The Music Of Erich Zann

I have never again found the rue d'auseil,

From where i desperately flee, that night.

It has disappeared off the maps.

No one has ever heard of it, this place where i was living.

Everything started the night

I heard strange music from the peaked garret overhead.

The person who lived there was an odd old viola-player,

A mute man named erich zann.

I heard zann every night

And, although he kept me awake,

I was haunted by the magic of his melodies.

I was uncertain if any of

His harmonies related to music i had heard before.

I couldn't get those unusual notes out of my head,

Those notes that i have had often hummed and whistled

Inaccurately to myself.

Why did he cast a startled glance toward the lone curtained window?

I don't believe that his affliction with strange fears and nervous disorders is

Connected with his music, there's something more...

The awful, inarticulate cry which only a mute can utter,

And which rises only in moments

Of the most terrible fear or anguish made me

Run upstairs towards his garret

That night.

I thought i heard an exquisitely low and infinitely distant musical note as an answer somewhere above and beyond the lofty wall.

Some kind of evil presence seemed to be coming from the unknown places of the universe. with his music he opened the realms of space, and the outer demon taked advantage of it.

It would be useless to describe the playing of erich zann on that dreadful night.

It was more horrible than anything i have ever overheard. as if his music could close the

Door

To those weird evil powers entering in our world.

At this juncture the shutter began to rattle

In the howling night wind which had

Sprung up outside as if in answer to the

Mad playing within.

Then i shouted in his ear that we must both flee from the

Unknown things of the night.

Nevertheless he neither answered me nor abated

The frenzy of his unutterable music

Suddenly out of the blackness the madly sawing bow struck me.

When my hand touched his ear i shuddered, though i

Knew not why -knew not why until i felt the still face �

The ice-cold, stiffened, unbreathing face

Whose glassy eyes bulged uselessly into the void.