Music and my Writing Muse

Tags

music, writing

Early in my writing career, I could not listen to music while I wrote my stories of epic fantasy, sci-fi, horror and weird tales. Nothing, nada, nix. The reason being that I am a person with several areas of interest.

If you’ve read my bio in various locations on the web, anthologies and book backcovers, you’d know I have a few musical talents. I’m a professionally trained classical organist. I’ve contributed a couple of pieces to the Moravian Music Foundation, with more on the way. Not to mention my voice training, which has enabled me to keep a range of almost 3 whole octaves on a good day (C2 to B4) after all my years.
Making a long story short, music is as much my creative language as English is.

As a result, for the longest time, music of any genre and writing time were mutually exclusive. I would easily be distracted by thoughts of “that’s a cool chord change,” “Ooh! Polychords!” “How did they get that synth texture?” and a bazillion other interruptions as I was trying to hammer out the next chapter.

With the passing of time, things slowly changed. I can now read and edit with almost any music playing, as long as the volume is low enough. And this past year, I discovered I can finally write while music floats out of my computer speakers.

But not any music. I still require there be no vocals. As soon as I hear a voice singing words, my language centers try to multitask, and get tangled. If I can change the station fast enough, my writing muse is not scared away.

This past year, I’ve been listening to internet radio. I can’t listen to my 500-CD library and streams, because I will sing along to it, losing any hope of writing for an hour or so. For quite a while now,I find I’ve been listening almost exclusively to SOMA-fm (www.somafm.com). Specifically their Groove Salad, Groove Salad Classic, Secret Agent, and Deep Space channels.
Ambient with minimal voices. Sheer bliss! I really must send them a donation and get one of their cool T-shirts.

Here’s the music on SOMA I’ve earmarked during 2022, with the intention getting my own copy in 2023. Not just for listening, but for study in the creation of my own piano/organ/synth compositions.

table, th, td { border: 1px solid black; border-collapse: collapse; }

Artist	Title
Animal Firepower	Nylons
Audio Lotion	Farewell To Vesper
Babble	Sun
Bent	Kisses
Bonobo	Cirrus
Deep	Smokers Delight
Edge Of The Universe	The Synthetics
Elemental Journey	The Band From Atlantis
Fragile State	Panacea
France Dom	Urban Haze
Global Communication	14:31 (Ob-selon Mi-Nos)
Harbor Tea Rooms	Midnight Hour
Higher Intelligence Agency	Skank
Incognito	I Can See The Future
Keston And Westdal	Nebula
Kick Bong	Landscape (Cydelix Remix)
Mauxuam	Sounds A Lot
Module	Empty Space Missing Units
Nacho Sotomayor	Interior
New Deal	Then And Now
Nitemoves	Mikuni
Ott	Joyful Wonder
Polished Chrome	In The Garden Desire
Poly Vinyl	Margaritta
Pretz	Texas Exhale
Promisk	Eyes Like Sun
Quant	Sauna Grease
Secede	Leraine (Feat. Kettel)
Setsuna	Ether
Sounds From The Ground	A Thousand Colours
Telepopmusik	Don’t Look Back
Thomas Lemmer & Andreas Bach	Greater Love (Gold Lounge Remix)
Tycho	Weather See Cypress A Walk PCH
Ulrich Schnauss	Molfsee I Take Comfort in Your Ignorance (Tycho Remix)
Yonderboi	I Am Cgi

Advertisement

Whistle While You Kraftwerk

Tags

King Crimson, Kraftwerk, Liparulo, music, Rick Wakeman, Soma FM, Triumvirat, WMUH

As a kid, I did all my homework while watching TV — usually Star Trek reruns
— much to the chagrin of my parents.  During my college days, I graduated to listening to music while I worked on my physics and math problems.

The refrains of my unusual musical tastes were loud enough that I couldn’t hear the mumbles, comments, complaints and curses that I’m sure my fellow academicians were voicing in their offices and dorm rooms next to mine.
Since I was a church organist, and an enthusiast about all things keyboard related, my speakers were constantly blaring the sounds of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Triumvirat, Kraftwerk, Chick Corea, Patrick Moraz, Walter (before he became Wendy) Carlos’ synthesized masterpieces, Rick Wakeman and Yes, and of course King Crimson featuring their magically hypnotic mellotron.

In the workaday world that came after college, my cubicle was void of tunes, until I was promoted to an office where I could play my music — albeit at much lower volumes. I also tuned to college radio, so that I could enjoy a variety of music, and not cheese off my office-mate. See? I can be taught to be considerate!

Actually, that was only half the reason for lower volumes.
I found I enjoyed the music so much that it distracted me from efficiently performing my work.

These days, I wonder how I accomplished any work at all.
I shake my head in disbelief a how many of my peers work with loud music. For example, Richard Liparulo told me he often plays music conducive to the genre he’s writing – e.g., playing star-opera movie sound tracks while writing sci-fi.

I now most often work in silence. The noise, dialog and movie rolling in my head when I’m writing is enough and incredibly fragile. My budding efforts are entirely erased if music intrudes. That is simply intolerable to my muse.
On those rare occasions that I can tolerate music — usually when I’m doing light editing — I seek refuge with my old favorites. Though lately I tune into internet radio, streaming my old college radio station WMUH, or  Soma FM’s 70’s, 80’s and Secret Agent channels.

So, what do you whistle while you work, or listen while you lurk?