Music of the Stars

"Music of the Stars" is a Cthulhu Mythos short story by Duane W. Rimel first published in 1943.
==Synopsis==
In 1940, a man named Rambeau visits his friend, Frank Baldwyn, who shares his interests in both occultism and music. Baldwyn claims that he has come across disturbing combinations of tones, which he plays in his piano. Rambeau is shocked to hear it, describing the melody as "eerie and unearthly". When the music is finished, they hear the rustling sound of agitated rats moving inside the wall. Baldwyn claims that his music affects all animals, including humans. He believes he might be close to unveiling "the music of the stars", a song that would literally drive the listener mad.
Rambeau is fascinated and awed by the idea, but also realises the danger, recalling the fate of a certain Erich Zann, as well as "the savage music with which certain tribes in Haiti summon their evil Gods". To guide him in the composition of the "music of the stars", Baldwyn plans to study several passages of the Chronike von Nath, by Rudolf Yergler, a book containing "odd musical rhythm patterns designed to summon certain star-born monsters from the Earth's core and from other worlds and dimensions". According to history, Yergler himself went mysteriously blind and mad after completing his book, and died in an asylum. He was found dead after a thunderstorm, covered in holes that looked like burn marks.
After a week goes by, Rambeau visits Baldwyn again, and is shocked to see how his physical health has deteriorated. Still, Baldwyn claims that he has almost completed his composition, and asks Rambeau to return in the evening. When he does so, Baldwyn confirms that he's succeeded in making the music described by Yergler. He admits that a friend of his named Lancaster, who is extremely knowledgeable in the matters of the occult, has begged him not to play it, claiming that it might summon "a certain thing from the shadows of another dimension". However, Baldwyn dismisses Lancaster's worries and asks Rambeau not to interrupt his experiment.
When Baldwyn starts playing, the entire house seems to shake. The moonlight intensifies until the glass of the windows and the lamps shatter. Rambeau sees a strange shadow appear over Baldwyn and screams, but the scream is lost amidst the cacophonous music, and he can only watch in horror as a monstrous beast starts to materialise. When Baldwyn finally stops playing, the beast envelops him. Rambeau grabs his revolver, but his shots seem to go through the monster and only hit the wall. When the thing is gone, Baldwyn looks like Rudolf Yergler did in death: eyeless and covered in holes that look like burn marks. Still alive, Baldwyn claims that the thing has consumed part of him, and urges Rambeau to kill him before it consumes the rest. When the monster starts to materialise again, Rambeau shoots Baldwyn, then faints. He ends the narrative by coming to terms with the fact that he's going to be hanged for murder.
Category:Lovecraft Circle Works
Category:Duane W. Rimel works