Ennio Morricone has written scores for nearly 400 films. In 2007
he received an honorary Academy award for his significant
contribution to the art of film music, the only composer to be so
recognized.
Sergio Miceli is an Italian musicologist whose many analyses,
particularly of Morricone’s scores, have established film music as
a major artifact of the 20th century.
Gillian B. Anderson is an orchestral conductor and musicologist who
has reconstructed the scores for over 40 pre-1929 classic films and
performed them with orchestras and at film festivals around the
world.
Morricone is a distinguished Italian film composer with more than
400 scores to his credit, including The Untouchables, Fistful of
Dollars, and Ripley's Game. Miceli is a musicologist. Their book–a
series of insightful/inspiring lectures on the uses/aesthetics of
cinema scores–constitutes a short course in the rigors of film
music composition. The authors mix examples and caveats to young
composers, saying that a course cannot teach film composition.
Attention to synesthesia--partnering of sounds and colors–is a
necessity, and irrational choices should be eschewed ('the most
inadmissible thing is to resort to asynchronism or incoherent
juxtapositions'). Discussion of the process–consultations,
directors, viewings, style, and premix/final mix–are intercut with
'seminars' about solving specific problems; the authors use
experimental film edits to stimulate youthful composers'
imaginations. Morricone argues for strict attention to the
psychological dimensions of the film's characters; he provides
examples from Hitchcock (Morricone's metacinematician), Ridley
Scott, and the Traviani brothers. Morricone's observations include
the ideas that mediated scenes (in which music carries character
reactions) are essential and that 'tone color is one of a film
composer's most important means of expression.' Summing Up: Highly
recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through
faculty/professionals.
*Choice Reviews*
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