[New-Poetry] Music While Writing?

[millb at aol.com]

I don't know if anyone else has mentioned this, but, one thing I do when I write as related to music is repetition.  I put on one album and let that repeat over and over.  Usually Miles Davis or David del Tredici pr Sublime.  Helps me get into a trance and I play the CD over and over again--sometimes all evening or all week or whatever I need.


-----Original Message-----
From: Jason Quackenbush <jfq at myuw.net>
Sent: Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:15 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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