Your Story Soundtrack

[Darth Fingon]

This may be somewhat off-topic, but I'm the Admin and I can do what I want.

Any music you find particularly inspiring to writing, or music that you find connects very will with your current project?

At the moment, I have the Conan the Barbarian CD. Yes, I know. But I still maintain that this is some of the best movie music ever written. Evidence:

Theology/Civilization (which I equate with both Glorfindel and Fingolfin)
The Mountain of Power (obvious connexions there)

I cannot, however, listen to music and write at the same time. I have to listen to music in the car on the way to work and then think about what I want to write once I'm at the computer. If I have music on the computer, I end up paying attention to it and accomplishing exactly nothing. Multitasking is not one of my strong suits.

[surgicalsteel]

I usually play some sort of music when I write, but I find that it has to be just the right music for the mood of what I'm writing. Sometimes that's Jimmy Buffett, sometimes it's one of the many Putumayo world music CDs I've got, sometimes it's the New Age station on the satellite TV.

I'm with you on the Conan music - fantastic soundtrack!

[dracoena]

For Tolkien fanfiction, a lot of Blind Guardian!

[jael]

Current project? No soundtrack that really does it for me, and that might be part of the problem. But I wrote King Stag to the soundtrack from Last of the Mohicans -- The Gael in particular- and King of Shadowed Halls to Jeff Buckley's cover of Hallelujah.

I can sometimes write to music, if it's instrumental and not too intrusive. Mostly, though, I get my inspiration while working out.

I concur on Conan -- best ever!

[russandol]

I write to music, usually instrumental. Considering it's been almost 18 months into my current project, I've probably forgotten many of the melodies. But these are several I can remember:

• "Face to Face" by Siouxsie and the Banshees, found for me by Pande, oh it fits so well, lyrics and all!
  
• "Unchained melody" by U2 (I never liked the song, but this version has something, probably the husky voice...)
  
• "The Eyes of Truth" by Enigma, takes me to faraway exotic countries
  
• "Avatar" soundtrack, dramatic and varied, it works wonders for inspiration
  

Plus many other bits from an assortment of movie soundracks, Jael mentioned "The Last of the Mohicans", yes, that's in there too! So thanks for the Conan tracks, Darth, I hadn't listened to those before!

[aearwen]

I too need to write to music. It has to be instrumental or in a language I don't understand, or my mind gets "caught" by the meaning of the lyrics at a time I'm trying to bend language to my own uses. David Arkenstone is one of my favorite composers to write to, as are Michael Jones and Gnomusy. I also like gaming music - the background music to Lineage II, Riven, and Uru are among my faves of those.

I honestly believe that movie sound tracks are the "Classical Music" of the 20th/21st centuries. And as a classical musician and classical music afficionado, I find them most satisfying as writing tools. My favorites are the soundtracks of "Last of the Mohicans", "Stardust", "Glory", "Dragonheart", "Kingdom of Heaven", "Dark Knight", "Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves", and "Avatar". I like selected bits of Howard Shore's sound track to the LotR trilogy too - but there's an awful lot of war music to sift through to get the intriguing and/or softer parts. One of these days, I'll have to do that.

For those who enjoy classical music among us, have any of you heard the "Lord of the Rings Symphony" by Johan De Meij (Symph. #1)? There are some very interesting moments in that one!

Frankly, I have a playlist of over 40 hrs of non-repeating music that I turn and and let spiel when I sit down to actually create. It helps my mind "tune out" the day to day sounds around me and to create mood - and sometimes I'll deliberately move to a particular set of pieces within the list, if I want to hear something specific.

[samtyr]

Wagner is always good. For some reason, I always imagine the Oath of Feanor as one of those really *cool* arias? solos? in an opera.

[vanime18431]

Well, I don't know if this counts. buuuuut, on my mp3 player I have various songs, ranging from Rolling stones, to a couple heavy metal pieces that I liked in high school. I used to play this stuff at work when I had to work the accounting stuff in Excel.

[erulisse]

Of course, I'm not an author, but I always have something on in the background. If my DH is sharing the room with me, it's the TV which I have learned to ignore over many years of practice. For myself, sometimes I will put on music, although I listed to that in my car more often.

I listen to a lot of Nightwish - love their music. And lots and lots of classical. I agree that Conan is top-notch, and I also have to admit to a great love of the three soundtrack disks for Lord of the Rings which I have listened to 100's of times. For perfect inspiration, though, nothing can beat Beethoven.

- Erulisse (one L)

[vanime18431]

LOVE Beethoven! Immortal Beloved is one of my favs....sigh...wish I had letters like that!

Hugs and Love,
Vanime

[pandemonium]

Let's see. Here's Aulendil's playlist on iTinfang:

War Dogs – Juno Reactor
More Human Than Human -- White Zombie
Policy of Truth – Depeche Mode
Masters of the Universe – Juno Reactor
Devil Inside – INXS
Everybody Wants to Rule the World – Tears for Fears
Weird Science – Oingo Boingo
Some Like It Hot – The Power Station
Leech – Eve6
Ruiner – Nine Inch Nails
Head Like a Hole – Nine Inch Nails
Indigo Eyes – Peter Murphy
Man in the Box – Alice in Chains

When I need to wake up the sleepy Dark Muse, I play "Wicked Garden" by Stone Temple Pilots. Loudly.

The Dark Muse is generally pretty indulgent of his playlist above, but he reminds me that there's plenty of classical music he loves, too. "Glorification of the Chosen One" from Igor Stravisky's Sacre du Printemps is his soundtrack for the forging of the One Ring, and he likes to think that during the sing-off with Finrod, he’s as imposing as Il Commendatore in Mozart's Don Giovanni.

[sanna]

The grand total of two stories I've written were done to Azam Ali, Helium Vola and Qntal.

I definitely need music to keep myself in focus. Without it my mind just wanders off.