Heroic Dreams - All Things Medieval

I ran into a blog post by Neal Stephenson which I found pretty interesting, and very applicable if you are a writer.  He talks a little bit about his newly realeased book “Anathem” and how he used music to get into a medieval frame of mind. I very much agree with his philosophy that choosing the right music can be an aid to your writing. I find it enormously helpful in my writing.  And I would say that is not an earth shattering revelation I have made because we are all aware of the impact that music can have on our lives but I do think there is something to be said for exploring music of the past - some of it is just remarkable.

I am not a real big Stephenson fan and his earlier stuff is a bit too cyberpunk for me but his later stuff like the Baroque cycle, which takes place in 17th and 18th century Europe, is simply brilliant.

But even if you are not a writer there is much to be said about listening to some music from centuries gone by. Much of it is so very good and so very profound.

Anyway, if you are interested in what he recommends here is some of his music list:

• Suprasl Orthodox Mosaic
• Early Russian Plain Chant 
• The Origin of Fire: Music and Visions of Hildegard von Bingen
• 1000: A Mass for the End of Time / Anonymous 4

His recommendations are a bit specialized because he very much wanted to evoke a specific mood of a monastery while he was writing so I thought I could add a little variety to the suggestions.

His recommendation of the Hildegard von Bingen is great but my favorite is Hildegard von Bingen: Canticles of Ecstasy and if you don’t really listen to classical music this next collection is kind of fun because of the theme:Music for a Medieval Banquet.  Also, I am a classical guitarist and I listen to a lot of solo guitar works (I have a whole section of my website devoted to the Classical Guitar Here) so I can recommend a nice collection of classical guitar pieces for people not overly familiar with the classical guitar and its music: Essential Guitar: 33 Guitar Masterpieces.

An Interesting Little discovery:

Reading up about Stephenson I found out that he worked on the Clock of the long now which is a 10,000 year clock that ticks once a year! Great Project! And this project was his inspiration for Anathem. This is pretty cool and it hauntingly relates to my earlier post about taking a long view look of things

Upcoming: I have finished reading Terry Goodkinds Wizard’s First Rule and I will be posting my review tomorrow,or later today.

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