The impact of music.

When I was about 9 I was attending a private catholic girls school in the South Island of New Zealand – we had a music teacher there who I remember quite clearly; for two reasons. The first reason was the band-aid he always had behind his right ear due to the acupuncture he had had to quit smoking, and the second was an exercise he asked us to do which was to teach us an appreciation of classical music. He sat on his desk and played ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’ composed by Edvard Grieg for Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, all the while reading a story to us about an ogre chasing a princess and a prince who would eventually slay the ogre. Every time I hear the piece, the story, and the feelings I experienced while hearing the music, come floating back to me. After listening to the music and story combination we were asked to write our own story to a piece of classical music that we liked. From memory I wrote a story to match a piece by Vivaldi – but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was about – the only reason I remember the music is because it has been one of my favourites for as long as I can remember.

My writing has always been influenced by what I am feeling, and music has a big impact on what I am feeling, so I guess it is natural that music would have an impact on what I am writing. Sometimes the music itself suggests a story, or rather, images and emotions that can be woven into a story. I have noticed that when I am working on my book I tend to use classical or instrumental music and I think this has more to do with the fact that I don’t want to be distracted by the words of the song. However, when I am doing my ‘imagining’, or trying to put myself into a characters mind, I will often use a song with words. “Hallelujah” by Jeff Buckley is one of the songs which have always had a particularly big impact on me, it is such a haunting song, with a beautiful refrain, and yet it feels so filled with pain and yearning. I’m not sure if it is the lyrics or the music that makes me feel all that, but it evokes such strong emotion in me – and allows me to write in a more honest way. There are a few others I use to deliberately create a feeling, but often the music I listen to just heightens what I am already feeling.

I’m working on the second book at the moment and I have a couple of current favourites, the Irish Celtic group Lunasa has an album called “the merry sisters of fate”, it’s all instrumental and it creates positively delicious pictures for me. I listened to the CD all the way around Ireland – in fact I have now bought it three times – the first was in Dublin but the copy got pinched somewhere along my travels - the second copy I bought here in Melbourne, I had to order it and then wait 6 weeks for it to arrive, after paying almost double what I paid the first time, and unfortunately that copy was in my car when that got stolen and when I got the car back it was gone. The third copy I bought off I-tunes, so it’s on my laptop and my i-phone and I am hopeful I might be able to hang on to it! The other artist I have been really into for this novel is Yo-yo Ma. Particularly the Bach suite for solo Cello in G, No.1, though anything he plays is pretty spectacular. I also just discovered he had a big impact on the music for the film “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, which doesn’t surprise me as the music in that was painfully beautiful.

Often I find that music sparks my imagination, or suggests pictures that I want to somehow incorporate into my worlds, and whenever I listen to a certain piece again it always tends to bring back the same pictures. That being said pretty much everything sparks my imagination now – it’s like I have opened the door to the ideas and they are all fighting to get out. The notepad beside my bed get’s a thrashing most nights now, generally something I have heard or seen during the day will start to circle my mind when I try and relax, and I know that if I don’t write it down it will be gone by the morning. I am terrified that one-day the ideas will dry up so I write them all down frantically, though I don’t honestly see how the ideas could stop flowing…especially when all I have to do is turn on the radio!