Music Makes the Virtual World Go Round
Music has always been a vital part of my artistic tool kit. Whether painting, writing, gardening or where the Muses take me music smoothes, inspires and energizes both the artist and the creative process. Since computers first shipped with internal CD drives music and on-line writing and fan fiction became inseparable. Music came attached as sound files, quoted lyrics or references with some songs such as Sarah MacLachlan’s Possession became the basis of thousands of pieces in hundreds of genres. And that was only the beginning.
With the creation of the MP3 file format, management software such as iMusic and downloadable song files a writer could load an entire library of music on their computer and customize the play lists for any writing task, mood or subject. All you need is a big hard drive, a decent Internet service and a good pair of headphones to tune out real life and tune in your inner, creative one
Everyone has their personal favorites or types of music that works best for them. I have found that writing and painting music tends towards the instrumental or pop while gardening requires rock. There is just something about pruning and Limp Bizkit that go together. Here are some of my favorites for inspired writing with links to Amazon.com so you can sample the sounds yourself
Soundtracks are an easy choice for those of us with novels based on or associated with movies. Historical novel writers can find plenty of period films with suitable soundtracks for their writing. Troy by James Horner is one of my hot choices right now along with selections from Howard Shore’s Lord of the Rings soundtracks The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King. Along the same lines as Shore’s music are the works of Enya. While I have her whole collection I tend to favor The Celts, The Memory of Trees and her greatest hits collection Paint the Sky with Stars. With more instrumentals but similar to Enya is the duo Secret Garden. Among their numerous offerings my favorites are Songs from a Secret Garden and Once in a Red Moon which has the original recording of You Raise Me Up made famous by Josh Grobin.
For a session of serious surfing and research I augment my coffee with longer works by various composers including Philip Glass. Try loading up a series of works or a complete opera and letting that rip while you work with no need to change discs. The soundtracks for the Qatsi Trilogy Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqaats and Naqoyqatsi move through western minimalism to eastern compositions and finally completely electronic music. Among the composer’s numerous operas Akhnaten about the Eighteenth Dynasty Pharaoh is the only one I have on my hard drive.
Never under estimate the power of Synchronisity when writing with a partner. While working on a series of posts chronicling the beginning of Paris and Helen of Sparta’s relationship and wanting a more romantic tone to the pieces I loaded up the Phantom of the Opera 2004 movie soundtrack. Several hours later during an IM conversation with Helen we discovered she was listening to the same music though a different recording, the Phantom of the Opera Original Cast recording. We had both tapped into the same source of inspiration and the resulting posts were greatly enhanced by a happy accident.
Finally, you can always create personal play lists or collections of songs to reflect any mood or situation and to suit any character you write. For that matter you can set up the same song twenty times in a row if that helps you (nobody really does this, do they?) Most of mine now have personal play lists to smooth over those times when a particular character stops talking to me. With the beginning of hostilities approaching at Troy, I've begun looking for some more music to use for writing. If there is a version of the soundtrack for Black Hawk Down including not only the Hans Zimmer compositions but also the various rock tracks I haven't found one yet. The Alexander soundtrack by Vangelis is another possibility. Any suggestions?
This article was written listing to a play list entitled Typing, a pop and rock mish mash running the gamut from ABBA to Zeppelin. Whatever works, works.
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