meta on music !!
Music is a consistent through-line of Jean’s life. Overall he associates it with warmth and affection, which are unconsciously measured by its presence or lack. Mostly though it’s not of his own making. Until her death, his mother sang while she did her endless parade of chores, even in hardship. After she died no one really took up the mantle; his brother Mathieu would whistle but couldn’t carry a tune. And then he followed his mother, and all music fled the family.
It didn’t return to Valjean’s life until the galleys, where there were hideous parodies of song. Crude ditties and work chants, all peppered with argot. Too much spice for him; he never joined in. When at last he emerged from hell and in the end was given a second chance, he developed a taste for religious music. Hymns and carols. He learned but never sang them.
Not until Cosette did he feel the desire to sing. Then he discovered his low voice rendered in song had the power to smooth away anxiety and lull to sleep a precious child. He exploited this use without hesitation. When she grew under the nuns‘ tutelage, she returned the favor. Valjean liked nothing better than to hear her play piano, unless it was to hear her sing. After she was grown, however, his own ventures became more and more rare out of self-consciousness.
At the very end there was no music. After the wedding, silence. Not even the chirping of birds to relieve the gloom, which was fitting. Only, saving grace, the voice of his angel to be the last sound his ears would hear.
