Aug 30, 2005

What do you listen to while working?

What do you listen to when you work or study?

I usually look for no-lyrics, melow but not boring, complex but not distracting type of music. My favorites:

1- Mystical Legacies by Ali Jihad Racy. This album contains solo pieces by Racy on different Arabic and Middle Eastern instruments. The nay tracks are especially beautiful. Racy is considered the foremost Arabic musician in the US (yes, not Simon Shaheen)

2- Clarinet Trio & Quintet by Brahms. Towards the end of his life, Brahms decided to retire and never compose again, but then he did. And the last few pieces he produced were amazing. While I find early Brahms a bit too "obvious", his late compositions are truly at a different level. Just like with Mozart's Requiem and Beethoven's Ninth (although his earlier pieces are also amazing), for some reason, "maturity" does show up in music. And it's not just music maturity, but it's life-experience reflected on the composition.

So that is me. What do -you- listen to while working or studying?

3 comments:

  1. Recently i have been listeninig to a lot of film music, i got over 3000 pieces from a friend and i have been getting more and more into it.

    I am happy you mentiond al-racy as i am trying to hopefully attend a performance for him next month. Him and Simon are going to be perfomring together in Los Angeles. Im sure its going to be such a treat. I don't know Ali Jihad personally but i have worked with Simon and he is such a nice person, can't wait to see him again, not to mention 2 arabic music legends at the same time

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  2. I listen to some classical music while working so I can slow down the stress

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  3. My work involves sitting down for prolonged periods of time and trying to squeeze out every single ounce of available creativity, so I need something vibrating like disco hits or something intense like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd(they're also very deep with their lyrics, but that has not proved particular useful because one of projects turned out so complex that no one understood it).

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