Indeed there is a great deal of joie de vivre to be found within the music.

However I find it very difficult not to listen intently to Bach. And I mean that in a good way, but disqualifies his work from being my "working background" music. My pick for programming music is the complete Mozart symphonies. They're also works of genius, but I can be in their presence without my mind being constantly drawn to them and away .

I also go for the Renaissance lute works of John Dowland. In many ways the pop music of the day (and noticeably less sophisticated than the baroque that immediately followed) this somehow puts me in the right mood for UI design.

Maybe my impression comes from high school piano, when I succeeded in playing various Bach pieces (selections from Well Tempered Clavier among others), but for the life of me couldn't memorize the dang things.

Perhaps "serious" is the wrong term; maybe "methodical" or "mathematically inclined" is better.