Music for writing Deryni fanfic

[DesertRose]

So Evie and I were talking about this a little in the chat room (when nobody else was around), and I had a question for the fanfic writers.

I happen to be one of those people who needs appropriate background music for almost everything.  I listen to a local radio station that plays a wild variety of music while I'm working, and I have a lot of playlists in my music player for various other tasks.

Do y'all listen to any particular music when you're writing Deryni fanfic? 

When I'm working on Deryni stories, I listen to my playlist of the Tallis Scholars (singing Thomas Tallis), the Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos (singing Gregorian chant), the Newberry Consort (the CD is named "Music for a Medieval Banquet") and a few other random pieces of music (the St. Olaf choir singing the Rachmaninoff "Bogoroditse Devo" [which is basically the Russian Orthodox Ave Maria], a recording of the Lauridsen "O Magnum Mysterium" [which you'd never know was a 20th C. composition by its sound], and two pieces off the soundtrack to the 1993 film "Shadowlands"--"Veni Sancte Spiritus" [again, you'd never know it was a 20th C. composition] and "Once in Royal David's City" [which is actually a Christmas song but it's pretty]).

Most of that music (in fact, all of it with the possible exception of the Gregorian chant) is not really period for the Deryniverse, but it's close enough and it puts me in the right mood.  (Thomas Tallis lived in Tudor times, and the Newberry Consort music is mostly Italian, but it is medieval at least.)

So anybody else who can't think--much less write--without mood music? 

[Jerusha]

Alas, I'm afraid I can't write or study with music in the background - it takes all of my concentration and I'm too easily distracted by a good song.

I did come up with a good battle scene in the spirit of TKJ while listening to the Merlin soundtrack though.  I had no good use for it, but Dhugal came charging to the rescue with the Cassani banners flying!  (In spite of the fact he was not the accepted heir at the time.   )

[Aerlys]

Music definitely helps get my creative juices flowing, mostly instrumentals of various types. I find that it invokes the images in my head. However, lately, when trying to actually put those images to paper, music becomes too distracting. Maybe I'm just so surrounded by activity that I need quiet time to collect my thoughts (which is probably why I haven't been able to write anything down lately).

I've written scenes to various artists/labels including Schubert, Hooked on Classics, Wyndham Hill, Frank Mills (no, not "Music Box Dancer"), Depeche Mode (call me crazy, but great villain music) and Dream Academy. I also enjoy listening to "epic" music by artists like The Immediate and Thomas Bergersen. It all depends on the song, my mood, and my muse. This applies not just to my fanfic, original work as well.

[Evie]

LOL!  That sounds awesome, Jerusha! 

I can't listen to music with lyrics, because I'm also too easily distracted. However, I can sometimes listen to very quiet (i.e., volume turned very low) instrumental music. Celtic music is one choice, or period instrumental music.  Music in Latin or another foreign language doesn't count as music with lyrics for me, since I can't understand what the words are saying, so I am less likely to get distracted.

I also recently downloaded some background sounds that were designed for playing in the background during a medieval or fantasy-medieval role-playing game or campaign.  I have selections such as "Medieval City," "Medieval Great Hall," and "Medieval Tavern," with the sorts of background sounds you'd expect to hear in those settings.  For instance, "Medieval City" has the sound of horse hooves clopping down the street, wagon wheels passing by, occasional bells in the distance, indistinct murmur of voices from some marketplace in the distance, the cackle of geese being driven to market, the slosh of a cart driving through a puddle, and other sounds of that sort.  It loops endlessly, so it can be played for as long as needed, and again, I keep the volume down so it's just very muted ambiance that is playing just at the edge of my consciousness.  Of course, wouldn't you know that now that I've found such cool background sounds, now I'm writing a 21st Century story!  *headdesk*  But I've discovered the same soundtracks work great if I want to immerse myself in the medieval period while reading medieval murder mystery or some such fiction. I can't remember the name of the website I got them from just now, but if there is interest, I can look it up.  I got them with a batch of other RPG downloads, most of them free although I paid for some items, so I don't remember if the sound files are free or if I paid for them.  If I paid, I don't think they were all that expensive; maybe a buck or two.

[Aerlys]

Those sound very intriguing, Evie!

[DesertRose]

This applies not just to my fanfic, original work as well.

Yeah, I pretty much have some kind of music playing if I'm home and awake.  Like I said above, for work (I work from home) it's just a local radio station that plays pop and rock from about the late 70s to some stuff that's popular now.  I like the variety; they promise not to play the same song twice in the same day, and I have yet to catch them replaying a song, but with that range of music, they'd honestly better not repeat songs much.

If I'm writing, though, that's the wrong mood to set, hence the Tallis and Gregorian chant, etc. playlist for Deryni stories.

My brain will play music at me if I don't have some playing in the background, so turning on the radio or queuing up a playlist is the opposite of distracting for me.  It helps me focus on whatever I'm trying to do, rather than the jukebox in my brain going off on tangents.  The only time I don't have music playing is when I'm asleep, and even then, I queue up a guided meditation on YouTube for falling asleep.  (But those stop after about an hour, and it usually takes me a half hour or less to fall asleep.)

[Aerlys]

it's just a local radio station that plays pop and rock from about the late 70s to some stuff that's popular now.  I like the variety; they promise not to play the same song twice in the same day, and I have yet to catch them replaying a song, but with that range of music, they'd honestly better not repeat songs much.

Is this the radio group that "plays what they want" with no repeats? I like them, too.

During Lent, since I can't fast from food, I fast from other things, including music. So, prety quiet these days. Of course, circus music is still the soundtrack of my life.    I honestly cannot fall asleep to music, no matter what kind.

[Jerusha]

I agree, Aerlys, I also can't fall asleep to music.  I do have my alarm set to music in the morning, and whatever song I wake up to (which I may not recognize at the time) often ends up stuck in my head, whether I like the song or not! 

[DesertRose]

it's just a local radio station that plays pop and rock from about the late 70s to some stuff that's popular now.  I like the variety; they promise not to play the same song twice in the same day, and I have yet to catch them replaying a song, but with that range of music, they'd honestly better not repeat songs much.

Is this the radio group that "plays what they want" with no repeats? I like them, too.

Yes.  I like them because they play a good variety of music, and unlike the classic rock radio station locally (OMG, the music from my high school years is considered classic rock now---I'm old!), they don't play the same twenty songs over and over.

[revanne]

I tend to listen to a station over here called Classic FM which as it says on the tin plays classical music but it doesn't assume any musical knowledge and since it started 20+ years ago has helped a lot of people me included get into classical music. So that's pretty much on in the background whatever I'm doing. Or depending on the mood I might listen to music from the Taize community in France which is pretty much in Latin.

However regardless of what I'm doing if I'm stressed then it can only be Bruce Springsteen.

I can fairly well concentrate whatever's going on around me comes of having started my theological training when I had three children under 4.

[DesertRose]

You were a busy lady, then, revanne.

I was doing my university degree when my daughter was little, but I only had the one child.  (She's by-God enough, though.  )  I can't imagine trying to study anything with that many that young.  Good on ya for getting it done.