Favorite music-oriented novel?

[unclemeat]

Few "music-oriented" novels spring to mind.
In Joris-Karl Huysmans' Against nature [aka Against the grain] (1884) (ch. IV), Des Esseintes plays the "mouth organ" to create imaginary compositions via a synaesthetic association of musical notes and liquors : Indeed, each several liquor corresponded, so he held, in taste with the sound of a particular instrument. Dry curacao, for instance, was like the clarinet with its shrill, velvety note; kummel like the oboe, whose timbre is sonorous and nasal; creme de menthe and anisette like the flute, at one and the same time sweet and poignant, whining and soft. Then, to complete the orchestra, comes kirsch, blowing a wild trumpet blast; gin and whisky, deafening the palate with their harsh outbursts of comets and trombones; liqueur brandy, blaring with the overwhelming crash of the tubas, while the thunder peals of the cymbals and the big drum, beaten might and main, are reproduced in the mouth by the rakis of Chios and the mastics.
cf the famous pianocktail in Boris Vian's Froth on the Daydream (1947).
There are also numerous strange musical references in Raymond Roussel (Locus Solus, Impressions of Africa).
Truffaut's film Shoot the piano player is based on David Goodis' Down there.