Sometimes when I’m writing a scene in a particular era and I need more inspiration, I go to Itunes and search for music of that particular era. For more ethnic type music I’ll visit ‘Magnatunes.com’. Many of the scenes written in ‘Aries Fire’ were written whilst sporting headphones piping in mediterranean belly dance music and Israeli or Balkan women chanting or crooning in harmony.
In one scene, I had to write a death scene and wanted it to be visceral, so I discovered a ‘Voices on the Eastern Wind’ by group called, Kitka. So I bought their song called, “Predite Prelye.” It was in Croation. Had no idea what they were singing about. Except that it translated to ‘go…before’. It had such a cadence that I could see women with black fabric covering their faces, lamenting, followed by the celebration of a person’s life during mourning. Who knows, maybe the song is about picking potatoes in the autumn harvest or something…no clue.
BUT! The scene wrote itself. Then of course, I had to listen to Lisa Gerrard’s, “The Arrival and the Reunion” to finish off the scene with a sense of Hunnish cultural communion. Currently, I’m listening to the music of Jennifer Yeung, Yo Yo Ma, and Tan Dun for my next novel, set in 6th century Japan. See if listening to music works for you!
