I wanted to make a YouTube playlist with all the songs and artists mentioned in the book series by Cassandra Clare, The Mortal Instruments. They will be in chronological order with the quote and an explanation attached.
1. “‘So,’ Simon said, ‘pretty good music, eh?’
…
‘Mmm-hmm.’ Clary knew perfectly well that he came to Pandemonium with her only because she liked it, that he thought it was boring. She wasn't even sure why it was that she liked it— the clothes, the music made it like a dream, someone else's life, not her boring real life at all. But she was always too shy to talk to anyone but Simon.
…
‘I feel,’ Simon went on, ‘that this evening DJ Bat is doing a singularly exceptional job. Don't you agree?’
Clary rolled her eyes and didn't answer; Simon hated trance music” (City of Bones 4-6).
I chose trance music from 2007 because that's when this story takes place. My favorite tracks are 1 & 6.2. “When she went into the kitchen, she found Luke had left breakfast for her in the form of a Danish in a grease-spotted cardboard box. He'd also left a note stuck to the fridge. Gone to the hospital.
Clary ate the Danish on the way to meet Simon. He was supposed to be on the corner of Bedford by the L train stop at five, but he wasn't. She felt a faint tug of anxiety before she remembered the used record store on the corner of Sixth. Sure enough, he was sorting through the CDs in the new arrivals section. He wore a rust-colored corduroy jacket with a torn sleeve and a blue T-shirt bearing the logo of a headphone-wearing boy dancing with a chicken. He grinned when he saw her. ‘Eric thinks we should change the name of our band to Mojo Pie,’ he said, by way of greeting.
‘What is it now? I forgot.’
‘Champagne Enema,’ he said, selecting a Yo La Tengo CD.
‘Change it,’ Clary said. ‘By the way, I know what your T-shirt means.’
‘No you don't.’ He headed up to the front of the store to buy his CD. ‘You're a good girl.’
Outside, the wind was cold and brisk. Clary drew her striped scarf up around her chin. ‘I was worried when I didn't see you at the L stop.’
Simon pulled his knit cap down, wincing as if the sunlight hurt his eyes. ‘Sorry. I remembered I wanted this CD, and I thought—’
‘It's fine.’ She waved a hand at him. ‘It's me. I panic way too easily these days’” (City of Ashes 133-134).
So since this book was published in 2008 and Simon is looking in the new arrivals section this would be the CD he purchased. This CD was released in January 2008 and the book was published in March 2008. This is a compilation album by the way.3. “Magnus’s door was cracked slightly open, and the sounds of music playing softly wafted out into the hall. Today it was Tchaikovsky.
…
It smelled like the things he associated with Magnus: ink, cologne, Lapsang Souchong tea, the burned-sugar smell of magic” (City of Lost Souls 39).
I just chose one of Tchaikovsky's most popular pieces.4. “She thought of what he had said about the city sinking, and the spaces between the stars, and remembered the lines of a Leonard Cohen song that Simon’s band used to cover, not very well. ‘There is a crack in everything/That’s how the light gets in’” (City of Lost Souls 219).
This is not my favorite song. Cohen is just talking and not singing.
5. “A wall of sound and light hit Clary the moment she entered the club. It was a big, tightly packed space that looked like it had once been the interior of a church. She could still see stained-glass windows high up in the walls. Darting colored spotlights picked out the blissed-out faces of dancers in the churning crowd, lighting them up one at a time: hot pink, neon green, burning violet. There was a DJ booth along one wall, and trance music blasted from the speakers. The music pounded up through her feet, into her blood, vibrating her bones. The room was hot with the press of bodies and the smell of sweat and smoke and beer” (City of Lost Souls 306).
City of Lost Souls was published in 2012, so I found some of my favorite trance tracks from 2012.
6. “‘Jace mostly likes weapons,’ Clary said. ‘He likes books, but they have a huge library at the Institute. He likes classical music. . . .’ She brightened. Simon was a musician; even though his band was terrible, and was always changing their name—currently they were Lethal Soufflé—he did have training. ‘What would you give someone who likes to play the piano?’
‘A piano.’
‘Simon.’
‘A really huge metronome that could also double as a weapon?’
Clary sighed, exasperated.
‘Sheet music. Rachmaninoff is tough stuff, but he likes a challenge’” (City of Heavenly Fire 41).
8. “‘I wonder sometimes,’ he said. ‘My father—Valentine, I mean—loved music. He taught me to play. Bach, Chopin, Ravel. And I remember once asking why the composers were all mundanes. There were no Shadowhunters who had written music. And he said that in their souls, mundanes have a creative spark, but our souls hold a warrior spark, and both sparks can’t exist in the same place, any more than a flame can divide itself.’
‘So you think the Shadowhunter in me . . . is driving out the artist in me?’ Clary said. ‘But my mother painted—I mean, paints.’ She bit back the pain of having thought of Jocelyn in the past tense, even briefly.
‘Valentine said that was what Heaven had given to mundanes, artistry and the gift of creation,’ said Jace. ‘That was what made them worth protecting. I don’t know if there was any truth to any of that,’ he added. ‘But if people have a spark in them, then yours burns the brightest I know. You can fight and draw. And you will’” (City of Heavenly Fire 407-408).
Bach
Chopin
Ravel
10. “‘Chopin.’ Tessa identified the music with a soft smile. ‘I wonder—I wonder if little Emma Carstairs will play the violin someday’” (City of Heavenly Fire 708).
🎧 The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare Spotify Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/09rE17Eu4dSiPj7olRNXGf?si=48ab7c15f4a04a9c
These are some songs and artists that were mentioned in the amazing book series by Cassandra Clare. I also added some songs that remind me of it.
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