Showing posts with label carnival row. Show all posts
Showing posts with label carnival row. Show all posts

02 July 2025

Music to Write by


I have always enjoyed having music on while I write but as I get older I find that lyrics are too distracting, so I go for instrumental stuff.

I was thinking about this because of something I discovered this week on Freegal --

A word of explanation (or explanation of a word.) Freegal is a free legal (hence the name) music streaming service which is available through some libraries.

It's a mixed bag; clearly some companies are not cooperating with it so you may find all the works of a performer and none of another, or an odd assortment  based on what shows up on, say, a compilation album from some minor company.  And before you ask, I don't know how much the artists are paid per stream.  I know at least one librarian is trying to find out.

Back to our story.  While searching for something else I found Nathan Barr's soundtrack album for Carnival Row, a fantasy TV series I had never heard of.  And, boy, it just worked for me. I tend to like soundtracks as background for writing, I guess because they are dramatic, emotional, and mercurial.

I sent a link to my sister, Diane Chamberlain, who also writes with soundtracks and she approved, so it is good to have my opinion  confirmed by a New York Times bestselling author.

Other soundtracks I like?  Danny Elfman's brooding, hypnotic work for the Batman movies.   

Also the Star Trek themes by many composers.

But there's more to life than soundtracks.  I am not a big fan of classical music, preferring early music.  One group I love is Hesperion XXI, which focuses on 16th-18th centuries, especially Spanish and Sephardic music.

Don't confuse them with the equally excellent Hesperus which performs early American music.

I also enjoy the Belgian cafe jazz of Jacques Brel. You may say that' isn't instrumental, to which I would reply: If you don't speak French it is.

So, writers, what do you listen to when you are creating your masterpieces?

And just for funsies, here is my favorite recording of a Jacques Brel song (not sung by him), complete with subtitles.