[New-Poetry] Music While Writing?

[Jason Quackenbush]

I have different kinds of music I listen to for different things. I  
can't write without music, although it runs the gamut of what I'll  
listen too depending on the mood I'm going for. Often it's the smiths  
or the pixies. the cure. Joy division. Tom Waits has a couple of good  
albums for writing, Alice and The Black Rider. The Sun City Girls.  
Occasionally out jazz like Ornette or Sun Ra. Or something more  
postmodern like Joelle Leandre or Derek Bailey. Bailey has a really  
good record on Tzadik that works well for me. I don't listen to much  
classical music when I'm working on something. I have a few favorites  
but i like classical more for housework than for doing things that I  
have to think about. Although, I do like classical music when i'm  
fiddling around with things with my hands, like building electronics  
kits or woodworking. I think the selection comes down to what level  
of distraction I'm looking for. I really can't stand quiet though.  
Sometimes I'll just put on DVDs I've watched a hundred times and have  
them going in the background while I'm writing. Just something so  
that I don't have to listen to the sound of my own heartbeat or the  
stuff going on outside, traffic and what not. I don't know why that  
is. Maybe it's all the ear training work I did in college. I got so  
used to passively listening for details that I can't really turn it  
off, so I have to give my ears something to do or they'll get bored  
start bugging me with incidental nonsense. Hmmm.
On Feb 29, 2008, at 6:59 PM, Jeff Newberry wrote:

> Any of you poets out there listen to music while you compose?  I  
> don't usually, though I've tried.  I have found that certain music  
> can be rather generative if I listen to it before I write:  Miles  
> Davis, Bill Evans, certain Hendrix songs, certain brands of  
> acoustic blues.
>
> My problem in listening to music while I write is this:  I'm  
> sitting here, typing away, and suddenly I'm wondering, "Is that an  
> Amaj7 or a A13?"  Or "What mode is that solo in?  Mixolydian?"   
> Then, I'm lost in the composition of the tune & lose touch with the  
> poem.
>
> What about you all?  Do you listen to music while you compose?  If  
> so, what?
>
> Jeff Newberry
>
> -- 
> "Memory believes before knowing remembers.  Believes longer than  
> recollects, longer than knowing even wonders."
> —William Faulkner, Light in August
>
>
> http://museoffireblog.blogspot.com
>
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