When I am writing code, or doing anything contemplative really, I find it helps to be listening to music. Not just any music, of course. It needs to be music that a) I like, b) won’t be distracting, and c) preferably helps me enter a meditative – indeed, almost trance-like – state of mind. It needs to be music that continuously moves forward and carries me with it easily so that it becomes a part of my environment that supports me and keeps me focused on what I’m doing. This is hard to describe, so the best thing to do is just to list examples of what I mean starting with what I’m listening to right now. I’ll add more entries as time goes by. Please feel free to share your own favorite music in the comments.
Philip Glass – Music in 12 Parts
This is a long piece from the 1970′s that is my favorite thing to put on while working on computers. Its slowly changing harmonies and rhythms help me to block out all of the external noises and stimuli that would otherwise keep me from being able to concentrate. Really, almost anything by Glass is good to listen to while working, but Music in 12 Parts is always my first choice. There are some fairly bad rips of it on Youtube, but this one seems not too bad and gives a feel for the music. It’s from Part 7.
Johann Sebastian Bach – Bach Organ Works
As played by E. Power Biggs. What can I say about this music that hasn’t already been said? It is sublime. A perfect union of harmony and melody, point and counterpoint, in a glorious structure that fills the mind with clarity and lets one perceive the beauty of form and structure. This in an old recording, but it has been re-released many times.