[New-Poetry] Music While Writing?

[Anny Ballardini]

My ideal background sound would be solo piano, and distanced in the other room to cut out all other noises. Difficult to find on these radios, as a matter of fact I keep on changing stations which distracts me further. I will have to sit down one day and build my own library, maybe and hopefully. In the meantime I am quite grateful to IcebergRadio pianists section - don't know why they fill it with orchestras:
http://www.icebergradio.com/#player/40071

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jason Quackenbush 
  To: NewPoetry: Contemporary Poetry News &Views 
  Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2008 9:15 AM
  Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] Music While Writing?


  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


    _______________________________________________
    New-Poetry mailing list
    New-Poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu
    http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/new-poetry




------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  _______________________________________________
  New-Poetry mailing list
  New-Poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu
  http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/new-poetry
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/pipermail/new-poetry/attachments/20080301/deb2a2f5/attachment.html