The article deals with one of the greatest writers of the turn of the 20–21st centuries Pascal Quignard. The article deals with the theme of music, passing leitmotif through his essay “Music Lesson”, “The Hatred of Music” and the novel “All the Mor­nings of the World”. In the essay “Music Lesson” the original traumatism of human existence becomes the starting point of existential reflections of the writer. The metaphor of the mortal wound represents the irreversibility of the lost. Dialogue of different discour­ses creates alternative version music, with the Orphic properties. The theme of loss is duplicated in the novel “All the Mornings of the World”. Death of Saint-Colombe’s wife, known musician 17th century, changed his life. The music of Saint-Columba escapes from third-dimensional space – it belongs to another dimension, in which each lived phenomenon acquires the meaning of irreparable loss. Further development of the theme music in the essay “The Hatred of Music”. Collage of quotes, interpolations reproduces the dialogue of different cultures. Both the essay and the novel are laced with rhetorical reflections on the Orphic properties of music.