Music to Write By

My nephew forwarded a link to a discussion about music to write by.  I also write to music and clearly this is a matter of taste--what gets your creative juices flowing?  Especially with fiction, music must not intrude upon the creative flow.  For me, that means no voice, only instrumental music.  Well, let me clarify--no voice singing lyrics in English that I can understand.  So someone singing in a language other than English might be okay.

It also depends on what kind of piece I'm writing.  When I'm blogging, like right now, I can listen to lyrics which are very repetitive.  For example, I'm listening to Moby 18 as I write this.  I like Moby because each song has such a definitive mood. 

Mood is extremely important to music to write by.  Perhaps that's because music can inspire a deeper reflection on the psychology of character.  This is often true as I listen to Philip Glass while writing--my very favorite composer to write by.  I also like Bruckner.  Wagner and Mahler are too much.  Vivaldi is great, but Mozart is too much.  Modern musicians like Brian Eno and Raphael are wonderful, too.