Over at Largehearted Boy, novelist Lev Grossman revealed the music he listened to while writing his new novel, The Magician King. Listen to some of the songs at this free Spotify playlist.
In the essay, Grossman described one of our favorite pieces of writing music, “Bolero,” by Maurice Ravel: “It’s one of those melodies that’s so obviously perfect you can’t understand how one human being could have come up with it — it’s sounds like the product of a 1000-year-old folk tradition (I imagine Ravel doing what Paul McCartney did after he wrote “Yesterday” – he went around asking everybody if they’d heard the melody before, because he could swear he’d stolen it from somewhere). It’s great to write to because it doesn’t have any words, which are always distracting, and it whips you up into an intensely excited state in which you feel like a genius even when you aren’t one.”
Follow this link to get a Spotify invite for the free service. Once you have an account, check out our Thomas Pynchon Spotify playlist, our Ann Patchett Spotify playlist and the new Lev Grossman Spotify playlist.
Lev Grossman’s Spotify Playlist for The Magician King
The Psychedelic Furs – Love My Way
London Symphony Orchestra & Arpád Jóo – Boléro (Ravel)
The Mountain Goats – Up The Wolves
Flight Of The Conchords – You Don’t Have To Be A Prostitute
Metric – Help I’m Alive