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<\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nLittle by little I picked up a variety of records and noticed how music runs like a red thread through my life. In the end, there aren\u2019t that many albums in my personal hall of fame, and the soundtrack of my life is actually not that extensive \u2014 at least not the music that truly moves me and means something to me. The choices I\u2019ve made are often connected with books, which are also a fixed part of my life. Many songs not only evoke memories of a single book but also of long-past feelings and thoughts \u2014 and this connection is rare and therefore very positive. I still remember when I first heard and fell in love with the soundtrack to Dances with Wolves<\/em> \u2014 back then on cassette and later on CD. When I listen to the music now, it feels as if it were only yesterday that I was reading Noah Gordon\u2019s The Shaman<\/em>. The gentle strings suited the novel\u2019s setting in the New World wonderfully, which is also the film\u2019s backdrop. I haven\u2019t reread the book since, and I can\u2019t recall any specifics from it, but the mood I felt while reading \u2014 not just from the book, but also the soft, orange light in my room as the sheer curtains diffused the sunlight, the memory of warm summer days in my childhood, and of course the music itself \u2014 has become a fixed part of who I am. When I put that record on now, the associated emotions are naturally only a shadow of what they were and much changed \u2014 the brain leads you astray with such reminiscences. Still, that beautiful, gentle orchestral music \u2014 which on vinyl has just the right warm hue \u2014 and the reflections it stirs up are a pleasant diversion. And of course the music also stands on its own and still offers a wonderful listening experience.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n There are some artists I can listen to anytime, so I don\u2019t associate them with specific books. Even so, in my mind a blend emerges from all the reading and all the phases of life during which I listened to that music. There are, however, albums I don\u2019t really want to hear these days.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n While music of course awakens or intensifies emotions, it has a broader effect for me. For example, when I read Horcynus Orca<\/em><\/a>, I always listened to Blank & Jones\u2019 Relax Editions<\/em>. That demanding novel has a very particular musicality to its language, and in its beautiful, expansive sentences you can always hear the murmur of the sea, the surge of the waves, the flow of a music that only artfully arranged sentences can create. There are a few books where, while reading, I feel as if I were listening to a beautiful melody. When, as with Horcynus Orca<\/em>, the music I\u2019m playing fits the text so perfectly and the two complement each other, it heightens the quality of those reading hours immensely. It\u2019s relaxing in a very special way, and I slip into a reading flow that I otherwise know only from my work in software development.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n What has never been a source of music for me, by contrast, are the books themselves. I can\u2019t say I\u2019ve ever discovered a musician because of a novel. Of course there are wonderful books about music \u2014 Richard Powers\u2019s The Time of Our Singing<\/em>, for example. It\u2019s a marvelous novel about the cruelty of racism but also about the depth and meaning music can hold in a human life. I especially loved Powers\u2019s passages about the emergence of jazz and blues, which he renders with a particularly beautiful musicality of language. That naturally sparks a desire for jazz, and with a book like that I can\u2019t resist hauling out my turntable. Still, I wouldn\u2019t say I\u2019ve discovered a specific artist through a book.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n When you have a book in your hands, you can toss all constraints overboard in choosing the right music \u2014 and I often do \u2014 or you can deliberately reach for a specific genre. Film music suggests itself: what works well with moving pictures also works for books. Or classical music, which always fits. A genre I find outstandingly suited to reading is video-game soundtracks. Film music is tightly tailored to individual scenes, and that\u2019s exactly what doesn\u2019t work in games; no one can know how long a player will linger in a given place or how long they will experience a particular episode. Game music is built accordingly \u2014 it has to envelop the listener pleasantly for extended periods without quickly becoming dull. On top of that, the music for big game blockbusters is often produced at great expense. Considering budgets in gaming often far exceed those of typical films, it\u2019s clear that the music can be superb. The Horizon Zero Dawn<\/em> soundtrack even had four composers, and if you enjoy the music \u2014 as I do \u2014 on a magnificent premium vinyl edition, you\u2019re in for a truly grand acoustic experience. Or the Skyrim<\/em> soundtrack by Jeremy Soule, which is simply a masterpiece, with influences from film composers like John Williams and musical structures strongly reminiscent of Wagner\u2019s operas: epic yet gentle and emotional. For me, it\u2019s a wonderful way to enhance the pleasure of reading.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n How about you? Do you listen to music while you read? What role does music play in your life? Do you have a turntable? Or is music while reading a non-starter for you?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Over the past few months I\u2019ve been reading noticeably less, mainly because I\u2019ve been indulging more in the pleasures of music. In recent years, music had slipped a bit into the background for me; I sometimes listened a little while working, but only as background noise in the slow lane. A few months ago, I … <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/platten_buecher_3.jpg\")
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