Now this one really was a bit different. First of all there’s more classical (as you might expect), and fewer songs are name checked in the book itself. But music had a profound impact on my writing process, in that, for the first time, I made a point of consciously listening to different soundtracks to try and put myself in the right frame of mind. I listened to a lot of Monteverdi in the Marciana library and, obviously, other classical pieces were important either as mood or as an integral part of the story.
I listened to a lot of Goblin / Claudio Simonetti whilst writing action/suspense scenes. The Alan Parsons’ Project track appears as I really did walk past a pianist playing “Eye in the Sky” in Piazza San Marco upon leaving the Marciana.
Pink Floyd are not present, for the first time. Hawkwind are, of course. Indeed, my initial title for the book was “Choose Your Masques”. My publisher, rightly, insisted that the words “Venice” or “Venetian” needed to be there!
I won’t say any more as the book has only just been published but compiling this playlist made me realise that, actually, this one really does serve as a genuine soundtrack to the novel.
Happy listening / Buon ascolto
Philip Gwynne Jones 