Saturday Snippet: Work & Music

Hello everyone!

So I don't know about you, but I find that, sometimes, I work much better when there's music involved. Although, to be honest, not just any kind of music, either.

For example, as a translator, I need to focus specifically on the words that are staring at me from the computer screen. This means that if  hear any kind of song where the artist starts singing, especially in one of the two languages I'm working with, my concentration will be shot pretty much to hell, and I'll need to start a sentence from scratch again.

This is probably one of the chief reasons why I've gravitated towards score music over the years.

I've always loved soundtracks. I remember when my dad would still order CDs from a magazine that was delivered once a month to our house (yeah, this was way before online shopping), my sister and I could each pick one CD every few months, maybe once or twice a year.

First one I picked?

The Fellowship of the Ring. Haven't looked back since.

My current addiction are the extended Hobbit soundtracks; please ignore the playlists in the middle as I'm way overdue for some overhaul, those are the same as they were five years ago!

Over the years, as I became more and more immersed in popular culture, I realized that movies and TV shows alike usually have two different kind of musics running through them: on one track, there are songs by featured artists, either written specifically for that purpose or picked because the message the song conveyed was on the spot; on the second track, the orchestral score with no lyrics, underlining what was going on.

I will sometimes enjoy the first set very much, but mostly I veer sharply towards the original scores. There's something incredible about hearing the main theme of something you're watching on-screen. Probably everyone knows the Game of Thrones one, or Star Wars!

Which is why, when I translate, I make sure to pop in my headphones, get my original motion picture scores, and crank them up so they block out all other noise.

Then, in my happy place, I translate.

xx

*image © to me

Some of the composers I enjoy listening to: Howard Shore, John Williams, Klaus Badelt, Hans Zimmer, Alexandre Desplat, Bear McCreary, Blake Neely, Trevor Morris, Michael Giacchino

Favourite Score: The Lord of the Rings

Favourite Track: The Bridge of Khazad-Dum

Favourite composer: Howard Shore; Hans Zimmer is a close second

Favourite theme song(s): The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Star Wars, Star Trek, Pirates of the Caribbean

Summer tune: Hawaii Five-0 (2010 version)