SH Comments
Reged: Feb 16 2004
Posts: 1056
|
|
This thread is for comments about Under the Influence?, by James Schellenberg.
|
James Schellenberg
Regular reader
Reged: Mar 21 2005
Posts: 29
|
|
I'm really curious to find out what kinds of music other people listen to, either while writing creatively, or writing non-fiction, or reading, or editing. Whatever! Is music connected to other types of creativity for you?
Also, if anyone has questions for Louise Marley or Scott Mackay, I would love to hear them. They are professional musicians and writers, and I'll be asking them some stuff for my next column.
|
James Schellenberg
Regular reader
Reged: Mar 21 2005
Posts: 29
|
|
Here is what I would have answered for the survey:
I almost always have music on when I'm writing or working. There have been times when I've turned on my computer to write down an idea and gotten carried away without turning on any tunes – good times, but rare. My favourite for really crunching away at some hard database work used to be Nirvana's Nevermind. The CD I put on most often now when I need to get started on a tough writing project is 54-40's Greatest Hits – I can sing along and get pumped up, but not in a distracting way because I know the songs so well.
I went through a hardcore Philip Glass phase (still strikes me once in a while). I'm currently enjoying Le Tigre and Metric a lot, two indie post-riot-grrl bands. I also tend to listen to classical music if I'm in a mellower part of a project. In particular, I like Erik Satie, who did some fabulous and whimsical solo piano pieces. In the piano vein, Mussorgsky's original piano version of Pictures at an Exhibition is good. And Glenn Gould of course.
Oh, and there have been some great soundtracks in the last year or so. Collateral, Garden State, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind come to mind (in the first two cases, I liked the soundtracks better than the movies, so the visuals don't pop into mind obtrusively).
|
Anonymous
Unregistered
|
|
James,
I'll second your Glass, Satie, Mussorgsky and Gould (solo piano). Add John Cage's Preludes and Sonatas for the Prepared Piano, Kurt Schwitter's Ursonate, Mozart's Requiem, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, the Beatles, ACDC, Glen Miller, or pieces that I composed myself, usually for piano. Stuff that, like you say, I already know (or can't understand) the words to, so I don't find them as distracing as I would if someone were actually talking to me. Furniture music.
Louis L'Amour claimed to be able to write anywhere, even on the dotted yellow line in the middle of traffic, but I'm not like that. Most of the time I write in silence, to the music in my head, the humming of the computer, the Morse code of my fingers on the keys, or maybe the clickety clack of my cat -- who has one claw that doesn't retract -- on the hardwood floor. Writing is a solitary business, and I suppose many people want music to fill the void.
I wonder why the sudden surge in writer-oriented articles and columns. I'm afraid SH is turning into a writer's magazine, and you can't get more navel-gazing than that. Writers writing about writing (no offense, I do this too) is like one penguin trying to fly by sitting on the shoulders of another. It doesn't work unless one of them accidentally falls off and lands in the water, which is the sky for a penguin. They live in the antipodes, you see. Up is down and down is up, for a penguin. The only animal in the world with a wash-and-wear tux for a birthday suit.
--José
|
Jed Hartman
Fiction Editor
Reged: Oct 15 2003
Posts: 151
|
|
For me, anything with audible words (songs, TV, radio, people talking, etc) distracts me from doing anything with written words. I have a hard time listening to music with lyrics while writing, editing, or reading. I sometimes put on some wordless low-key music for such activities (I have a "Background Music" playlist in iTunes), but that's usually to block out other noise rather than because I actively want to hear that music at that time.
|
James Schellenberg
Regular reader
Reged: Mar 21 2005
Posts: 29
|
|
José, I didn't know I was part of a trend :) This particular column happened to go this way, but I'm planning to cover as wide a variety of things as I can. And suggestions are welcome.
Jed, you said "anything with written words"... I'm curious, is that with editing too? Or just for writing your own stuff?
|
Anonymous
Unregistered
|
|
Here's a related suggestion, James: How about doing something on popular songs with spec lyrics? Like "Godzilla", "Voodoo Chile", "Rocket Man", etc. Probably work by Wagner and Mozart could be included too.
I can't remember if Glass did any spec operas (Einstein?) and while Satie was definitely into fantasy, I doubt it shows up in his cabaret songs. (I'd love to hear his "Socrates," but I haven't tracked it down yet.)
Mussorgsky, Stravinsky, and countless others were inspired by myths (spec) to write instrumental pieces or ballets like "Night on Bald Mountain" or "Firebird." Darius Milhaud's "Création du Monde" is one of my all-time favorites, incorporating elements of classical music and jazz to retell an African creation myth, based on a scenario by the adventurer and poet Blaise Cendrars (The bestselling picture book SHADOW was based on one his poems, a retelling of African myth). Picasso did the original set design and costumes, I think.
For spec fiction fans, there's all kinds of stuff in the movies and on television, and most people seem to know about it. Even the bad stuff. For the spec poetry fans, there's all kinds of stuff in music, but it seems to be overlooked or ignored. I think it's part of the insulated nature of the community, who seem to want to pull together by pretending "no one understands or appreciates this stuff but us," and the popular work, the kind of spec poetry that nearly everyone has sung along to and enjoyed, must not really be spec poetry. I bet there are even spec fiction fans who "hate" spec poetry, but love many songs with spec lyrics, or music with a mythological or spec foundation.
Sometimes, I'm afraid, I sound like a broken record.
--José
|
MFitz
New user
Reged: Mar 21 2005
Posts: 9
|
|
I don't usually listen to music when I write. I don't have a music system anywhere but in my car. I use a laptop or write long-hand most of the time and write outside whenever the weather permits. Out door neighborhood white noise work well to focus my mind. Music has too many emotional tags that may or may not be what I want for what I'm working on. I have gotten story ideas from music. I'm working on a space opera inspired by characters from a traditional Cornish song about smuggling and piracy. How's that for mixing genre?
I do however listen to music almost non-stop at work. I play CD's on my computer and listen with headphones. I have a job that involves lots of detail, sometimes number crunching, setting up and billing/estimating matrixes, and sometimes writing simple computer code. My work-cube is in the same room with one other worker, a conference table, and a general use file area. I have to have music going to do my work. It blocks the background noise and helps me get into the zone. It has to be music w/o words or with words in another language. Although sometimes I can slip in some Rush or Jethro Tull. I do classical music, sound tracks, Celtic and traditional music. Mostly CD's by local groups. Celtic music is great caffeine for the ears when I 'm trying to cut down on the real thing. Lately I've also been getting into Indian and Mid-eastern pop or Mid-eastern pop/jazz/new age fusion. One of my friends gave me some music from her belly-dancing class and it got me hooked.
|
Jed Hartman
Fiction Editor
Reged: Oct 15 2003
Posts: 151
|
|
Quote:
Jed, you said "anything with written words"... I'm curious, is that with editing too? Or just for writing your own stuff?
Yup: editing, writing, reading, anything having to do with written words. The spoken or sung words draw too much attention from the part of my brain that deals with words, I guess.
|
MorningStar
New user
Reged: Mar 01 2005
Posts: 18
Loc: South Carolina, USA
|
|
I'm not a writer... but whenever I'm reading (slowly) through something in Greek or Latin, or whenever I'm doing research or writing a research paper, I tune my Winamp into streamingsoundtracks.com -- lots of good soundtracks.
|
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
Edit
Reply
Quote
