Musical Thoughts

What kind of music do you favor?

A couple weeks ago, during one of my Tea Party Book Clubs, one of my lovely reader friends asked if I listen to a contemporary Christian music group, and I admitted that I rarely listen to modern music at all. Oh, I know a lot of the praise and worship songs from various churches and conferences, but when it comes to turning on a radio or buying things, I always go to one of two places:

Classical
Big band

Why? In large part, it’s because I don’t like lyrics when I’m doing anything that requires thought, and often even when driving, I want to use the time for brainstorming. So lyrics distract me. I much prefer instrumental offerings, and the stations that offer such things more than others are inevitably classical stations.

When it’s time for fun, I just love the stylings of the Big Band era. They speak to my soul in a way that a lot of modern compositions don’t, and I love that swing-dance beat to them.

When you catch me singing a song, it’s likely either a hymn, something from a 90s-era Disney movie or a musical, or a song from the 20s-50s. These have been my tastes since high school, and they haven’t changed much over the (mumbling) years since. 😉

At the moment, I’m in the editorial stages of The Spy Keeper of Marseille, and so, music is on my mind. You see, my hero, Marcel Laurent, is a concert pianist. It’s been a while since I’ve written a musical character–I think the last one was Lukas De Wilde in A Song Unheard, who played the violin. And I had such fun with Marcel because, unlike Lukas, I actually play his instrument. I started taking piano lessons when I was seven, continued them until I graduated high school, and have played for fun and/or church services most of the years since. I am by no means a professional or a concert musician. But music is, and has pretty much always been, a big part of my life.

I was in middle school when I switched piano teachers, and my new one, Mrs. Peto, had me play some select pieces for her, which I brought from my, ahem, repertoire. I don’t honestly remember all that I played, but I think it was probably “Fur Elise” and something from Beauty and the Beast, knowing myself at the time, LOL. Mrs. Peto started me on gospel music and learning how to make up my own left hand accompaniment based on a melody line or hymnal, which has served me very well. I also played a lot of rewritten, expanded hymns full of glissandos and trills and huge, sweeping chords I had to stretch my hands every day for a year to be able to reach. (And by “reach,” I mean I could finally reach an octave, maybe an octave-plus-one. Never-ever-ever the octave-plus-three some of those arrangements by Dino called for. Sorry, dude, my hands are just NOT that big!)

It wasn’t until years later that my mom told me that Mrs. Peto had asked her what my musical goals were, saying that if I wanted to go pro, I should find a teacher who focused more on classical. Mom assured her I did not intend to go pro, so this focus was fine.

Which is absolutely, 100% true. I didn’t want to pursue a career in music, and I have found the focus of my musical education to be highly practical and practicable and useful over and over again.

That said…she thought I had a shot of going pro??? I did not know this! LOL And it made my day to hear about it decades after the fact. 😉

In the course of my day-to-day life at this point, music is often honestly not even there. I don’t listen while I’m at home most of the time, and quite often in the car I opt for silence too. And yet, I love music. I love finding the pieces that tell the story I want to hear…or to tell. In writing The Spy Keeper of Marseille, I had SO much fun choosing what songs Marcel would be playing at each point in the story. It meant lots of listening to talented pianists on YouTube–out of my ordinary, but absolutely DELIGHTFUL.

It also involved brushing up on my musical notations and terms, so Marcel could use those lovely Italian phrases to describe the world around him. My editors loved these little touches too. =)

And one of my biggest smiles, as I was reading my editorial notes, was when Kathy said she found herself looking up all the songs I mentioned and listening to them as she read. I love this. I love this SO MUCH.

So while I don’t do this often, this book will come with a playlist. 😉 All classcial, various composers, pieces that describe here and there in the story, and which become a love story themselves.

I don’t know what kind of music you usually favor. But I hope that, next summer when this book releases, you’re in the mood for a muscial story. And if not…then I hope the words provide the soundtrack for you on their own. 😉