[New-Poetry] Music While Writing?

[TheOldMole]

If you'll accept Jazz solo piano, go to Pandora and set up an Art Tatum 
station.;

Jim C -- loved it.

Me -- no music while writing poetry. When I was writing commercial 
fiction, and we still had LPs, I'd put on an album and challenge myself 
to write a page before the side ended.

Anny Ballardini wrote:
> 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 <mailto:jfq at myuw.net>
>     *To:* NewPoetry: Contemporary Poetry News &amp;Views
>     <mailto:new-poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu>
>     *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
>>
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>
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-- 
Tad Richards
http://www.opus40.org/tadrichards/
http://opusforty.blogspot.com/

The moral is this: in American verse,
The better you are, the pay is worse.
  --Corey Ford