This month, Fabulous Florida Writers is pleased to welcome guest blogger Sarah Glenn. She is the author of cozy mystery novels and has had stories included in several paranormal and mystery anthologies. Her latest release, Murder at the Million Dollar Pier, is the second book in her Three Snowbirds series. Glenn was our featured writer on December 3, 2018.
My
life has a soundtrack, and so do my stories. Nothing helps my mind’s eye focus
better than a tune from the time and place of the characters. I’ve written with
Dvorak, Debussy, Kitaro, and Alan Parsons (a lot of Alan Parsons) teasing my
imagination.
The
“Three Snowbirds” series is set in the Roaring Twenties, so I’ve had a lot of
fun exploring the music of the era—and the present is the best time to find it!
When I began writing my first novel, aka my trunk novel, I had to procure the
albums myself or check them out from the library. Today, there are streaming
services galore and YouTube channels devoted to popular decades in the first
half of the twentieth century.
Spotify,
YouTube, and Amazon Music all have selections from the Paul Whiteman Orchestra,
a major force during the Twenties. Despite the name, it wasn’t a single
orchestra; Whiteman had nearly thirty ensembles performing under his name at
one point. One ensemble regularly played the Vinoy Ballroom during the time of Murder
at the Million Dollar Pier, so listening to Whiteman while writing was a
must. “The Japanese Sandman”, one of the popular songs, has a sweet melody I
knew Teddy would love.
For
more obscure music, Pax41 Music Time Machine’s YouTube channel is particularly helpful.
It provides a broad variety of recordings from the 1900s to the 1940s, grouped
by decade, by event (Christmas), and even genre (Broadway showtunes, musical
quartets, even the cinema organ!). In one scene of Pier, Teddy plays the
WWI song “Goodbye Broadway, Hello France,” and Pax41 led me to it.
Elmer
Schoebel, a popular composer in the 1920s, launched his career in Chicago, but
in later years moved to Saint Petersburg. I was steered to his music by a
co-worker who is one of his descendants. I always try to include a reference to
a Schoebel song in our stories. Some of his best-known tunes are “Bugle Call
Rag,” “Nobody’s Sweetheart Now,” “Copenhagen,” and “Prince of Wails.” You can find
several of the original recordings on YouTube, but if you’d like to hear a more
modern rendition, go to Amazon Music. Les Rois du Fox-Trot did a tribute album
to Schoebel, and you can stream it.
For more information, visit the author's website at http://www.sarahglenn.com/
