Fugal Structure, Nestorianism, and St. Christopher in Michel Tournier's "Le Roi des aulnes"

Abstract

saying that its structure does not derive from the characters but is en v(rit6 suspendue A ses seules et secretes vertus, et soumise A un ordre qui ne ddcoule que d'elle-mime (really suspended from its own, secret virtues and subject to an order deriving only from itself).' He even says that the psychological and historical elements of the novel are as unimportant to the progress of its plot as the little rods and pistons on a child's toy locomotive are to its forward movement (VP, 129).2 His surprising statement is true. The novel's plot develops not from the characters but from three main other sources: the fugues of Johann Sebastian Bach, which provide the method of development; the Nestorian Heresy, which provides the central idea; and the legend of St. Christopher, which provides the plot outline. It is Bach's final fugues which inspired the dessein g(ndral (general plan) of Le Roi des aulnes (VP, 128). As Tournier explains, the cantor of St. Thomas encoded his own name into the last fugues of The Art of the Fugue by building a theme on the notes represented in German notation by the letters B A C H and thereby, according to Tournier, giving the fugues their incandescence (VP, 130).3 Therefore, it is not surprising to discover that Tournier has slyly structured Le Roi des aulnes around much the same principle, using the letters of his own name to inspire eight different fugal themes, each beginning with a letter of the name TOURNIER: