Ghi lại những mẩu chuyện, cảm nghĩ về âm nhạc và ngành điện toán/tin học, trong đó có trí tuệ nhân tạo (AI) bằng Claude AI. Posting in both English and Vietnamese my thoughts about popular music and Artificial Intelligence using Anthropic's Claude AI and Claude Code CLI.
Curated by: Claude Sonnet 5 (released 6-30-2026). Prompts written by Hoc Tro.
Bối cảnh
Vào đầu thế kỷ 17, các nhà truyền giáo Công giáo hoạt động tại Việt Nam — phần lớn là các linh mục Dòng Tên người Bồ Đào Nha và Ý, cùng với linh mục Dòng Tên người Pháp Alexandre de Rhodes (Đắc Lộ) — đã chuyển thể bảng chữ cái La-tinh để viết tiếng Việt. Hệ thống này về sau trở thành chữ Quốc ngữ, chữ viết mà Việt Nam sử dụng ngày nay.
Một lưu ý về niên đại: các tài liệu nền tảng được trích dẫn nhiều nhất có niên đại từ thập niên 1620–1650 (đầu đến giữa thế kỷ 17), không phải thế kỷ 16. Francisco de Pina, một linh mục Dòng Tên người Bồ Đào Nha đến Việt Nam năm 1617, thường được xem là người châu Âu đầu tiên thông thạo tiếng Việt nói và bắt đầu hệ thống hóa việc La-tinh hóa nó; Alexandre de Rhodes tiếp nối công trình của Pina cùng các đồng sự Gaspar do Amaral và António Barbosa, xuất bản cuốn ngữ pháp, từ điển và sách giáo lý tiếng Việt in đầu tiên tại Roma năm 1651. Nếu chi tiết "thế kỷ 16" ám chỉ điều gì cụ thể hơn, có thể đó là cách làm tròn giai đoạn này, hoặc ám chỉ những tiếp xúc sớm hơn — ít được ghi chép hơn — của người Bồ Đào Nha trong khu vực. Các cơ quan lưu trữ dưới đây là nơi mọi tài liệu gốc còn sót lại, từ những thập niên sớm nhất được xác nhận trở đi, thực sự được lưu giữ.
Các thư viện và văn khố lưu giữ những tài liệu này
1. Thư viện Tông tòa Vatican (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), Roma
Bộ sưu tập phong phú nhất về các bản thảo tôn giáo tiếng Việt cổ. Phông tài liệu Borgiani Tonchinesi (Borg.tonch.) gồm 41 tập trải dài từ thế kỷ 17 đến thế kỷ 19, bao gồm:
Borg.tonch. 8 — một từ điển Việt–Bồ Đào Nha cổ (bản gốc 1651)
Borg.tonch. 23 và 26 — các từ điển Việt–Bồ (–La-tinh) khác
Borg.tonch. 12, 22, 41 — các bản sao sách giáo lý của Alexandre de Rhodes, trong đó có một bản truy nguyên về Roma năm 1651
Borg.tonch. 32 — sách giáo lý tiếng Việt của Pierre Pigneau de Béhaine (Bá Đa Lộc, 1774)
Phần lớn bộ sưu tập này được linh mục Dòng Tên người Việt Philiphê Bỉnh (1759–1832) tập hợp và mang về Roma vào đầu thế kỷ 19, đó là lý do vì sao các bản sao muộn hơn nằm cạnh các bản gốc thế kỷ 17. Nhiều tập đã được số hóa và có thể xem qua cổng thông tin DigiVatLib của Thư viện Vatican.
2. Văn khố Lịch sử Bộ Truyền giáo (Archivio Storico de Propaganda Fide), Roma
Văn khố lịch sử của Bộ Loan báo Tin Mừng cho các Dân tộc (trước đây gọi là "de Propaganda Fide"), cơ quan trực tiếp quản lý các sứ vụ Đàng Ngoài (Tonkin) và Đàng Trong (Cochinchina) từ Roma. Nơi đây lưu giữ thư từ hành chính, báo cáo truyền giáo và tài liệu ngôn ngữ học từ các nhà truyền giáo tại thực địa — bao gồm cả những bản tường trình chưa xuất bản như bản relazione thế kỷ 17 của Domenico Fuciti về sứ vụ của ông tại Đàng Ngoài/Đàng Trong. Mở cửa cho các nhà nghiên cứu đủ tiêu chuẩn.
3. Thư viện Ajuda (Biblioteca da Ajuda), Lisbon
Lưu giữ bộ sưu tập bản thảo "Dòng Tên tại Á Châu" (Jesuítas na Ásia), trong đó có bản "Manuductio ad Linguam Tunchinensem" — một cuốn ngữ pháp/cẩm nang nền tảng về tiếng Việt (Đàng Ngoài), được cho là gắn liền với những nỗ lực La-tinh hóa sớm nhất của Francisco de Pina, có trước cả các tác phẩm in của Rhodes. Bộ phận bản thảo của Ajuda lưu giữ khoảng 2.500 bộ sách chép tay (codex) và 33.000 tài liệu rời từ thế kỷ 13 đến 20, phản ánh vai trò trung tâm của Bồ Đào Nha (qua mạng lưới truyền giáo Padroado) trong giai đoạn đầu của công trình này.
4. Thư viện Quốc gia Pháp (Bibliothèque nationale de France, BnF), Paris — Ban Bản thảo
Lưu giữ các tài liệu từ điển gốc của Alexandre de Rhodes và khoảng 250 tác phẩm liên quan đến Việt Nam (chữ Nôm và chữ Hán cũng như các tài liệu Quốc ngữ) trong bộ phận bản thảo phương Đông. Bộ sưu tập bản thảo Việt Nam riêng biệt được tập hợp vào đầu thập niên 1950 bởi người phụ trách Marie-Roberte Guignard, người đã gom góp các tài liệu trước đó nằm rải rác trong các bộ sưu tập châu Á rộng hơn của thư viện. Từ điển in của Rhodes được lưu trữ tại đây với ký hiệu RES 4-NFR-124.
5. Viện Nghiên cứu Pháp – Á (IRFA) — Văn khố Hội Thừa sai Paris (Missions Étrangères de Paris), Paris
Hội Thừa sai Paris (MEP) tiếp quản các sứ vụ Đàng Ngoài và Đàng Trong từ thập niên 1660 (Pierre Lambert de la Motte, 1662; François Deydier tại Đàng Ngoài, 1666), tiếp nối công việc ngôn ngữ và giáo lý mà các linh mục Dòng Tên đã khởi xướng. IRFA lưu giữ khoảng 800 mét dài văn khố MEP — nguồn tài liệu liên tục lâu đời nhất về Việt Nam được lưu giữ tại Pháp — bao gồm một bộ bản thảo ngôn ngữ châu Á riêng ("Bộ H") và một loạt tài liệu cổ/sơ khai ("Bộ A") trải dài từ thế kỷ 17 đến 19.
6. Văn khố Roma của Dòng Tên (Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu, ARSI), Roma
Văn khố trung ương của Dòng Tên trên toàn thế giới. Nơi đây lưu giữ thư từ, thư thường niên và hồ sơ hành chính của các nhà truyền giáo Dòng Tên (Pina, Rhodes, do Amaral, Barbosa và những người khác) được cử đến Việt Nam, được xếp trong bộ sưu tập Đông Á rộng hơn ("Japonica-Sinica"). Đây là nguồn thiết yếu để truy tìm bối cảnh thể chế và tiểu sử đằng sau các tài liệu ngôn ngữ được lưu giữ ở nơi khác.
7. Viện Nghiên cứu Hán Nôm, Hà Nội, Việt Nam
Kho lưu trữ quốc gia của Việt Nam dành cho các văn bản tiếng Việt thời tiền hiện đại, lưu giữ khoảng 20.000 bản thảo và tác phẩm in từ thế kỷ 14 đến năm 1945 — hầu như hoàn toàn bằng chữ Hán và chữ Nôm (chữ viết bản địa cổ), vì chữ Quốc ngữ chưa được áp dụng trong nước cho đến muộn hơn nhiều. Đây là bộ sưu tập đối chiếu hữu ích để hiểu chữ viết tiếng Việt trông như thế nào trước khi được La-tinh hóa, cũng như đối với bất kỳ tài liệu lai ghép hay chuyển tiếp nào.
8. Thư viện Quốc gia Việt Nam, Hà Nội
Lưu giữ một bộ sưu tập Hán Nôm lớn (hơn 5.000 đầu sách chép tay và khắc ván), một phần đã được số hóa trong hợp tác với Hội Bảo tồn Di sản chữ Nôm Việt Nam (Vietnamese Nôm Preservation Foundation). Chủ yếu là tài liệu tiền-Quốc ngữ, nhưng là điểm khởi đầu tiêu chuẩn cho việc nghiên cứu thực hiện từ trong nước.
9. Thư viện Anh (British Library), London
Lưu giữ một bộ sưu tập bản thảo tiếng Việt nhỏ (chữ Nôm, thế kỷ 17 đến đầu thế kỷ 20), bao gồm sáu cuộn triều đình và một số sách đóng tập, đã được số hóa toàn bộ nhờ quỹ Di sản Henry Ginsburg (Henry Ginsburg Legacy). Không tập trung riêng vào các tài liệu La-tinh hóa sớm nhất, nhưng có liên quan như tài liệu đối chiếu từ cùng giai đoạn tiếp xúc truyền giáo.
Bảng tóm tắt
Cơ quan
Thành phố
Nội dung lưu giữ
Thư viện Tông tòa Vatican
Roma
Bộ sưu tập Borg.tonch. — từ điển, sách giáo lý, 1651–1830s
Văn khố Lịch sử Bộ Truyền giáo
Roma
Hồ sơ hành chính sứ vụ, báo cáo thực địa
Thư viện Ajuda
Lisbon
"Manuductio ad Linguam Tunchinensem" và các bộ sách chép tay Dòng Tên tại Á Châu
Thư viện Quốc gia Pháp
Paris
Tài liệu từ điển của Rhodes, khoảng 250 tác phẩm liên quan đến Việt Nam
IRFA / Hội Thừa sai Paris
Paris
800 mét dài văn khố MEP, từ thế kỷ 17 trở đi
ARSI (Văn khố Roma của Dòng Tên)
Roma
Thư từ và hồ sơ của các nhà truyền giáo Dòng Tên
Viện Nghiên cứu Hán Nôm
Hà Nội
Khoảng 20.000 văn bản tiếng Việt thời tiền hiện đại (chủ yếu Hán Nôm)
Translator: Claude Sonnet 5 (released 6-30-2026). Prompts written by Hoc Tro.
Note: this is an often overlooked but fantastic skill from Claude AI. It can read a transcript in one language, then write a complete essay in another language.
I used to watch this video, not understanding a word the Maestro was saying, but now I could, thanks to Claude Sonnet 5 AI !
From here on out, it would be all generated by Claude.
Ennio Morricone spent much of his career teaching as well as composing, and this masterclass — recorded at the CSC (Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, the Italian national film school, home to the Cineteca Nazionale in Rome) — is one of the fullest records of how he actually thought about his own craft. He opens with a short prepared statement on the relationship between music and film, then spends roughly an hour taking questions from students, ranging across Once Upon a Time in America, The Mission, Marco Polo, Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, his fallings-out with directors, his contempt for ghostwritten film scores, and his verdict on Vangelis.
Translated and adapted from the Italian-language recording "Ennio Morricone al CSC – Musica per il Cinema," posted by the CSC's YouTube channel from its archive ("From CSC - Cineteca Nazionale"). Speaker: Ennio Morricone. Student questioners are not individually named in the source recording and are credited here simply as "A STUDENT."
MORRICONE:(Applause) Good morning. I've prepared a few things — I've written some notes, and afterward I'll wait for your questions, because your curiosity probably deserves, and will get, a clearer answer than anything I can offer here in this very brief talk on music for cinema and musical language.
MORRICONE: To understand the sometimes miraculous mystery of applying music to a film, one has to understand the essential nature shared by these two arts. Far be it from me to think music is essential to the existence of cinema today — in fact, I think a truly rigorous cinema should avoid the use of other arts too, not just music. But that would take us far afield from what I want to discuss here today.
I. Why Music and Film Are Sister Arts
MORRICONE: The essential thing that cinema and music share is their common temporal nature: it would not be possible to watch and listen to a film, or to listen to a piece of music, without reckoning with something at once concrete and abstract — their duration. To put it in a formula, we might borrow the phrase "energy-space-time," with all the implications specific to these two arts of ours.
MORRICONE: With that said, applying music to a film always happens for empirical, intuitive reasons. It takes into account the film's montage — its dynamism and horizontality — and the physical depth of its images — their stillness and verticality. It's on these two planes, conceptually and technically, that the application of music takes place, and music will work all the more effortlessly and effectively the more the composer is able to conceptualize feelings and give feeling to concepts.
MORRICONE: If cinema, by its nature, is flat — falsely deep, as you can see by watching a landscape projected with no sound at all, where a meadow and a receding row of trees or a road simply gets lost — then only music, or rather the choice of music, has the task of giving that false depth truth, of restoring reality to it. Its effectiveness is tied inseparably to the composer's ability to make it expressive, not just physically but abstractly deep, by conceptualizing the feelings the film wants to convey — feelings to which the film owes not only its commercial reasons for existing but also the expressive purpose that justifies its creation.
MORRICONE: As for the film's physical horizontality — the dynamism of the editing and the sequencing of images — the value and function of the music rests entirely on rhythm. That doesn't mean a fast-cut sequence can't carry static music, or a physically deep sequence dynamic, rhythmic music. What I mean is that cinema receives from music a vitality that makes its own expressiveness explicit — a vitality that natural, essential temporality contributes to. Otherwise, none of this would depend on the quality of the music at all, on its technical or artistic value.
MORRICONE: These are reflections I've felt the need to make about applying pre-existing music to a film — music already established by history: Bach, Mozart, Mahler, to name a few of many examples. The consensus audiences have always granted certain composers of the past convinced me that the effectiveness of that music on film — its functionality as well as its expressiveness — isn't really the point, since music only has to express itself. It's tied strictly to form, which as a sonic object is what allows it to be experienced at all. Hence my claim: music commissioned for cinema has to be music in the formal, grammatical, syntactic sense — a language, even one very distant from other languages, that communicates with the listener. Music applied to images has to carry the same values as the music of the great composers I just mentioned. It goes without saying: for music to work on a film, it has to be music. The more it truly is music, the more it gives the film the expressive, profound meaning that justifies its own production.
II. Montage, Synchronization Points, and the Discipline of Musical Form
MORRICONE: What we call a "sync point" is an element of the editing, a visual component that can shape musical form decisively. At a sync point, the composer has to account for a change of image, or for an event — or several events, even psychological and therefore invisible ones — within a sequence, or a change of course in the director's intentions. You all know what a sync point is, right? Let me spell it out anyway, in case there's any doubt: sync points are the moments where director and composer agree that the music should vary from what came before, so a new musical event begins. Sometimes this matches a change of image; sometimes it matches an emotional or psychological shift in something that isn't seen but that the audience is still meant to understand.
MORRICONE: A sync point handled superficially fractures the musical form, breaking it up illogically — the way misplacing the punctuation on a page of prose would. The danger is fragmenting the film, making it incoherent right at the moment when unity and the smooth circularity of the cuts is what's needed. A film's sync points should be honored with an almost casual touch — or better, a deliberate, calculated appearance of casualness — carrying the musical and visual discourse forward without breaking it. Mistakes here, and the wrong choices that follow, have produced scores that don't serve the film well — especially when the sync points pile up, and the music ends up out of breath, chopped into pieces, unable to express anything useful for the images.
MORRICONE: When I talk about "form," I don't just mean the classic, established sonata form — I mean any form or non-form. "Form," here, should be understood as a coherent musical event: organized sound, with all its micro- and macro-components, correctly notated and performed, as a purely sonic object.
III. The Composer's Responsibility to a Mass Audience
MORRICONE: We all know a fact conditions a film's very existence: how costly it sometimes is to make, and how it's experienced collectively in movie theaters. The more successful a film is, the more money it returns to whoever risked spending — sometimes enormous — capital to finance it. That capital flowing back to whoever advanced it keeps the production cycle going, financing other films. And it's into this production logic that the composer's responsibility gets grafted: the responsibility for how he writes his music, regardless of his own absolute aesthetic or technical convictions.
MORRICONE: To serve a film's commercial and production logic, the composer historically has to express himself in a language an average listener can understand, staying far from banality. This is where his responsibility begins — toward the director, the producer, the audience, but above all toward himself, his professional dignity, and his own conscience as an artist. He's the one who has to resolve, privately, the dilemmas of his own creativity, its ambiguities and compromises. There are countless pressures pushing toward banal, meaningless music of the lowest kind; countless music publishers, record executives, certain producers, but also certain directors and editors, who will try to push him toward the easiest path — toward what's already been heard, already validated by success, and therefore already old.
MORRICONE: How should a composer defend himself, his professionalism, his art, and the film he's been hired to interpret? How does he morally redeem his own work? What kind of musical language results from all these pressures, between the composer and the conditioning of mass media? I'll leave that open — I'll take your questions now, and I hope to give clear, thorough answers.
IV. Three Chapters Recapped — and the Confusion Around "Electronic" and "Contemporary" Music
MORRICONE: I don't know if I've been clear in this brief introduction — I touched on a few chapters to stimulate your questions. First was the possibility that music and cinema are, in a sense, sister arts, in that both only acquire expressive value through time. We couldn't imagine a film sequence lasting a few seconds, or a piece of music lasting a few seconds — though there are striking exceptions, in advertising, or in music: Webern wrote extremely short bagatelles — seven of them lasting three and a half minutes altogether, some barely fifteen or twenty seconds. So it's not out of the question that music can concentrate a musical idea into a few seconds. But as a rule, both music and film need time — even brief time, but time — to express themselves. You couldn't say the same of a car, for example.
MORRICONE: So the first chapter was about that. The second was about form determined by sync points, and above all by the cuts of the editing, which condition musical form — and this is the serious problem facing anyone who writes music for film: the film needs music that corrects, in a sense, what's peculiar to the film itself — its cutting. If the music itself fragments at every cut, we'll certainly end up with a fragmentary work, and both the music and the film will suffer for it. So the composer's duty is to stay pliant against the cuts — though I've done the opposite myself in certain deliberate cases, matching a hard cut with a complete change in the music.
MORRICONE: The other short chapter was on how a musical language for cinema can be shaped by what the audience, the producer, the director, the record industry expect — by what people believe is valuable when it isn't at all; by what many believe is "electronic music" when it's nothing of the sort; by what people think is "contemporary music" when that isn't contemporary music either. These are historical misunderstandings repeated every day — and perhaps you yourselves are victims of them too: how many of you say "electronic music" or "modern music" when you really mean rock music? All of this was invented, to some degree, for economic and commercial reasons — and so the composer who writes for cinema has to reckon with these facts, even when he doesn't agree with them. So, to answer the question I posed at the start: I'll explain how you can make conditioned film music like this without spitting in your own reflection in the mirror — while keeping the professional and artistic dignity that a composer, an artist, must always hold onto.
V. Source Music vs. the Score: Amapola and Yesterday in Once Upon a Time in America
A STUDENT: I'd like to know something about how you actually work, with reference to some films we've watched recently — for example, Once Upon a Time in America, which you discussed with Sergio Leone. It's one of the examples you mentioned: there are pieces in that soundtrack that aren't entirely composed by you — "Amapola," for instance, which recurs frequently. Was that piece chosen before you started composing, or after — did you write music around it, or was it chosen once the score already existed? And separately: there's a famous, long-running advertisement built around one of your pieces — a mineral water ad, if I remember right, using the oboe theme from The Mission. What's your relationship with advertising? And when a director asks you for, say, "a moonlight feeling" or "a cavalry-charge feeling," how do you respond — do you refuse, unfairly?
MORRICONE: "Amapola" had to be in the screenplay from the start — it wasn't something I could choose, because it had already been chosen, after careful research, by the screenwriters, precisely because it had to belong to that specific era the film depicts. In fact every musical quotation in that film was chosen with real rigor. Remember the scene change when De Niro returns to the station — "Yesterday" marks a passage of time there, and only that piece of music does. So I couldn't choose it — I could have, if I'd been asked to, but instead I orchestrated it: I orchestrated "Amapola," I orchestrated "Yesterday," and everything else that was used. But none of that, for me, is really the score of the film — I'd call it "source" music: the little house band playing in a nightclub, the kind of music that exists because we live surrounded by music — music hasn't been banned yet. Writing that doesn't concern me the way the characters' actual emotional and dramatic relationships concern me. I take care never to let a casual, realistic source cue — a radio, a jukebox — get confused with the music that belongs to the characters themselves.
MORRICONE: As for a director asking for "a moonlight feeling" — these days, at my age, I've been turning that kind of request down for years. I'd worry that reusing an easy, generic emotional trope risks becoming pure "easy listening" — profitable, sure, the way some of the old orchestrators (George Melachrino, Mantovani, and others you're too young to know) built entire careers on it, and with a certain professional dignity, relative to worse, purely commercial pop music. I tried something similar, deliberately, in a couple of places in Once Upon a Time in America — the little period-style string orchestra playing "Amapola" at a restaurant is meant to sound exactly like what an ensemble in a venue like that could actually play, nothing more. Elsewhere in the same film I let myself go further — over an old-fashioned gramophone recording, I layered a second, more sophisticated score that Leone hadn't explicitly asked for, because a director without musical training can't ask for something he doesn't know is possible.
VI. Working with Directors: Sergio Leone, Pasolini, and the Question of Trust
MORRICONE: There are many kinds of directors. Some say: "I want this, this, this, and this" — at my age now, for some years, I've turned those down, because if a director doesn't trust the composer he himself called in to score his film, and won't let him think, propose, and instead wants to dictate to him, then it seems to me the only honest answer is: either I work this way, or I don't work at all. I've walked away from directors for exactly this reason — some of them years ago; I won't name names, though I could.
MORRICONE: Others go to the opposite extreme — and here I have to tell you about Pasolini. Pasolini came to me for Salò, and brought a typed list of pieces he wanted to use — pre-existing pieces, not something to compose. I told him: "You've called the wrong person — I write music, I don't adapt other people's music onto a film." And he — the only director who's ever done this, it's worth saying — told me: "Then do whatever you want." It was extraordinary: I did exactly what I wanted.
MORRICONE: But when a composer does whatever he wants because the director pushes him to — and there are others who just say "do whatever, I don't know what to tell you" — the composer carries a heavier responsibility. I never go into a recording session without the director's consent for the musical ideas I want to pursue. I'd never do that, because I can't force a director to accept something he wouldn't want. So before I even record — before I even compose — I ask for his consent, I discuss my ideas with him. I might change my mind in some cases; I can take a director's suggestions, I don't rule that out. But I insist that, when I'm called in front of a film, I get to have the right reactions myself, without anyone telling me what to do. I might come up with a good idea and describe it after days of reflection, or all at once — I've rarely, but sometimes, jotted down notes, not musical ones, while watching a film in the dark. I always insist on that blank-page freedom. If what I propose isn't shared by the director, I'm ready to open a dialogue and find a common idea — one that isn't purely mine, and that the director shouldn't accept purely passively either. Only that way can I go spend millions on a recording session; otherwise I can't.
MORRICONE: I've already described the two opposite poles: one is the director who dictates everything and the composer just executes — that's not for me; the other says "do whatever you want" — that's Pasolini. Sergio Leone, actually, represented both types at once: he wanted a specific musical approach from me, and after I refused, he told me to do what I wanted — an ambiguous position, if there ever was one.
VII. On Repeating Oneself: Cinema Paradiso, The Untouchables, and Falling Out with Two Directors
A STUDENT: I was curious about something — watching Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, I was struck by how certain aspects of the music resembled things you'd already composed before. I'm thinking of The Untouchables — the notes aren't identical, correct me if I'm wrong, but they begin the same way. What I'd already heard in The Untouchables, I heard again in Cinema Paradiso, in a piece I can't name exactly. Do you ever feel influenced by your own earlier music — reusing an idea you've already had once, for different, maybe dramatic, reasons, even without the same motive behind it?
MORRICONE: That's an excellent observation. It's entirely possible I unintentionally repeated something I'd already done — it's very possible, because an author has the right to repeat himself. It would be wrong only if he did it deliberately, selling the same thing twice to two different buyers. But as long as the author is being honest, believes he's expressing himself as well as he can in that moment, I don't see why someone with a real artistic personality has to reinvent music that may already have been invented centuries ago. A composer's own stylistic fingerprints, like any artist's, are bound to keep surfacing — I couldn't deny that about myself if I tried. After so many years of work, I find myself considering something fairly private: that despite having made so many different films, there's a musical throughline running through all of them — one that I recognize, and that even people without much musical background recognize too. So yes, this happens, without a doubt.
MORRICONE: And it happens in more deliberate ways too — as with Gillo Pontecorvo. When I made Burn! with him, he'd fallen in love with a piece I'd written for another film, and I fought hard not to redo it. I fought with the director I'd originally written it for too, who was attached to it — we didn't fight exactly, but Pontecorvo forced my hand in the end. What I wrote for him wasn't identical, but it closely resembled a very specific structure of that earlier piece — he wanted something like it, felt it worked too well: he'd tried it himself, without telling me, lifting it onto another editing reel and running it against his own film — he'd gotten used to it, and wanted it, period. That's a case, I'll admit, of my being — unfortunately — dishonest in service of Pontecorvo's film, and partly disloyal to the other director. But what could I do? Pontecorvo and I have always been close friends — we've made few films together, because he makes few films, but we're close — and I couldn't leave him stranded. So I did something I shouldn't have, but in the film, it genuinely worked: the scene where Dolores returns triumphant with the whole population on the beach — anyone who remembers the film remembers that cue. It runs two, two and a half minutes, and it's quite close, structurally, to the earlier film I mentioned, which came out in theaters around the same time.
MORRICONE: The other case was The Cannibals, with Liliana Cavani — the piece there was fairly similar again, to the one I'd made for Pontecorvo. We didn't argue about it — I told her, "talk to Gillo." After that film I never worked with Liliana again, even though she's a major director. That's one of the cases where I simply wasn't asked back — not because I refused outright, but because, after that episode, I was never called again. As with a number of other cases, for that matter.
VIII. The Mission: The Ave Maria, the Te Deum, and the Real Score Behind Marco Polo
A STUDENT: I want to bring up that masterpiece, The Mission, which I love enormously. I'd like to know about the genesis of some of its pieces — I was struck especially by the final chorus, by the Ave Maria you composed, and by the Te Deum. How did those come about?
MORRICONE: The Ave Maria and the Te Deum are both very brief pieces — the Ave Maria is barely a minute long, the Te Deum runs a little past two minutes. Those are, in a sense, "covers" — pieces of music I handled with a lot of care, even though I don't consider them essential to the film in the strict sense. They work beautifully because they're sung by the characters themselves — they're a realistic, diegetic source: they don't come from behind the screen, they come from inside it. So they carry a different kind of importance than what I called "casual" music earlier — the Guaraní Ave Maria, or the Te Deum, could have been written by any composer, not necessarily me, because they're objective, historical pieces. I worked from a specific premise: this was music brought by the Jesuit missionaries from Europe — processional chants, because they couldn't very well teach the natives Gregorian chant; they could have tried, but instead, rightly, they taught them the processional songs sung behind religious processions. That's the origin of that Guaraní Ave Maria and the Te Deum. But that isn't The Mission's actual film score — the score is something else entirely, with a different kind of knowledge behind it.
MORRICONE: Take my research for Marco Polo as another example — music meant to evoke the East, for a story set in the East. Almost every film I've scored has, at some point, called for "Chinese" music — but writing genuinely Chinese music isn't really my business. I've written "Chinese" music that works fine for the whole world — as with Montaldo's Marco Polo — but wouldn't work in China itself. It's the same as if I tried writing Arabic music: it's not possible, we don't have the instruments or the players for it in Italy, and I don't know how to write it, because it's a tradition that isn't mine, that doesn't concern me. If you want genuinely Arabic music in a film, you have to get it on location, from a composer of that tradition.
MORRICONE: So, with that premise laid out for Montaldo, I did the opposite: I studied the history of the period's background music, certain old Chinese compositional practices, and I even realized some of them, even without the right instruments or performers — but culturally, what I produced could work anywhere in the world, just not in China. The real challenge of Marco Polo wasn't that "Chinese" surface at all — it was finding reasons to stay tethered to a historical period that was, musically speaking, quite austere, while still making myself understood by a modern listener, without ending up with something that felt like a museum piece. The problem was that modulation, in the sense of moving from one key to another, didn't yet exist in that period — so I wrote several pieces that stay motionless, built on just one or two chords for the entire piece, varying only the theme, its orchestration, adding choruses, but with total harmonic stillness, because the historical period didn't allow for modulating passages. Curiously, this connects to something a lot of rock musicians do too, staying on that same harmonic simplicity — though they do it because they're not equipped to complicate the harmony, while I arrived at similar simplifications for entirely different reasons: historical coherence.
MORRICONE: Where I did modulate — in the second half of the main theme heard at the start, in the titles, and elsewhere in the film, in the viola line — that's really a modal passage rather than a true modulation, since modulation in the proper sense didn't exist yet: it moves toward very distant tones, the way Gregorian chant moves from one mode to another. Through passages like these I managed to travel quite far — carrying a melody that starts in D minor all the way to a very distant key — while still keeping the historical coherence I wanted, without simply writing "ancient" music outright. Everything else — every trick of the orchestrator's trade, in the good sense of the word — I allowed myself freely; I stayed tethered to history only through those specific harmonic details. That, and not the "Chinese" surface color, is the real music of Marco Polo.
IX. Silence as Violence: A Creaking Ladder, a Coffee Cup, and Once Upon a Time in the West
A STUDENT: I'd like to know about your collaboration with directors when it comes to absolute silence — scenes where there's no music at all. Do you decide that, or does the director? In Once Upon a Time in America, for instance, there's a scene where Noodles returns, and the other character, seated on his throne, stirs his coffee with a little spoon in complete silence — it's a very effective, almost violent silence. What's your relationship with the sound engineer, with sound in general?
MORRICONE: I always say what I think — but yes, it's true that some of those choices, in some cases, were Leone's own, over the twenty-some years we worked together. Let me tell you a story. Years ago I used to give concerts with an improvisation ensemble, Nuova Consonanza. Once we went to Florence — this was twenty, twenty-two years ago — to give a concert; we performed the second half. The first half is what I want to tell you about, because it was an extraordinarily important experience for me.
MORRICONE: The audience was still filing in, not even knowing what to expect, when a performer walked onto a small, low stage, took off his coat, hung it on a coat rack, while people were still finding their seats. Then he climbed up onto a kind of raised walkway that ran around the whole perimeter of the stage, using a ladder that had been carried in from one spot to another. Leaning out from this wooden platform, while the audience was still coming in, he began, very slightly, to twist this wooden ladder — you could barely see the movement at all; you only knew he was twisting it because it let out these very faint creaks. The audience kept arriving. This went on, with small variations, for forty minutes, until everyone was seated and waiting for something to happen — not after ten minutes, not after twenty, but eventually people understood something significant was happening. It was comic, honestly, telling it now, and it was comic in the moment too — but for me it was tremendously important. He kept twisting that ladder for forty, forty-five minutes, then finally let go, climbed down, put his coat back on, and left. That was the end of the first half.
MORRICONE: After reflecting on it for a while, I told this story to Leone: the point of that little performance was that any sound at all — any sound of everyday life, from the crudest to the subtlest — isolated from the context that produces it and set inside silence, takes on a meaning that transcends its realistic function and takes on another meaning we can't even name — we can't predict, empirically, what magical or dramatic potential any sound at all might carry once isolated and placed inside absolute silence.
MORRICONE: Telling Leone this story fascinated him enormously, and out of it came — anyone who's seen the film will remember — the first twenty minutes of Once Upon a Time in the West, built from a sequence of these realistic sounds. Not exactly those same sounds, and helped along by the image too, so it's not identical — but he was encouraged by that story, and being a pragmatist, he went and did it. The coffee cup is the same idea: that little cup makes you understand the nervousness, the tension in that moment. In cases like that, the composer absolutely cannot compete with something that already carries its own, self-sufficient meaning — music there would be, in a sense, an imposition, a clarification where no clarification is needed. Music has no absolute obligation to intervene. Ideally, you'd want a film rigorous enough that it wouldn't need music at all — that it would already carry, in its own construction, the sonic and expressive results it needs.
X. Painting Has No Duration — Film Does
A STUDENT: I want to tie this back to something you raised earlier — the relationship between film and music, and more specifically cinematic and musical duration, which doesn't exist in painting the same way. First: in what sense shouldn't a film rely on music as an additional expressive device — and what, then, is the one device a film should rely on, if not the sum of everything it's made of? And on painting: Professor Rondolino, who once came to speak to us about short films and animation, made a comparison to painting regarding duration of viewing versus the cinematic image. I'm a little confused about how the duration implicit in viewing a painting — the time it takes to take in all the elements of a composition — compares to the duration implicit in the movement of images unfolding across a film's sequences. How do you reconcile two things that seem incompatible?
MORRICONE: So, in your view, painting has no duration of its own? It doesn't — you can take in a painting in a single glance, in one second, and be struck by it: I think of certain paintings I've bought that struck me immediately, in an instant — I fell in love with them at once, no time needed, not as a first impact. But if the painting really is a work of art you love and want to keep looking at, then yes, it asks for time too — you could stand in front of it for six hours. But that's not an intrinsic property of the painting stealing your time; that's you, standing there in admiration. If instead you linger on a single image in a film you like, you can't — the film keeps moving regardless, and so the film escapes you. Which, paradoxically, confirms exactly what I said before.
A STUDENT: Could you explain a bit more what you mean by using tonal and atonal music together for the same result — as if they were two distinct systems of musical creation, but able to coexist?
(This question carries directly into the next section.)
XI. Tonal Dictatorship, Atonal Freedom, and Smuggling Serialism into a Tonal Score
MORRICONE: Tonal music is the kind that's been established for centuries, the kind whose handful of notes fix themselves onto our ear, onto our brain — it's practically a dictatorship, in that sense. If you're in the key of C major, D is less important, G will be the prime minister, and F, the subdominant, will be the queen — there's a clear, precise hierarchy. That's tonal music, explained in slightly sociological terms. Atonal music, by contrast, doesn't take the seven notes of the traditional scale but all twelve pitches of the Western tempered system — other, non-European systems have far more notes than that, but ours has twelve. The revolution began with Schoenberg, and even earlier, with the dissolution already audible in late Wagner. These twelve tones carry equal importance among themselves: C matters exactly as much as C-sharp, F as much as G. The reason ordinary listeners without specific musical training find a contemporary piece difficult is that it lacks that hierarchy, that red thread of C-G-F holding things together — so they get lost in an enormous desert of twelve equal tones. They get lost mainly because that recognizable shape, that red thread, that little red dot that's always present in tonal music, is missing. In atonal, contemporary music — with its full serialization not just of the twelve tones but of every other musical parameter too: pitch, dynamics, rhythm, everything — the listener loses that sense of clarity they've felt for years, for centuries, which has become almost constitutional for all of us. So people feel lost in front of atonal music — but they should get used to it more, should listen to a piece of contemporary music as often as they listen to pop songs, and they'd start discovering aspects of it that are genuinely very interesting.
A STUDENT: That's clearer now — I thought I understood you to say you can exploit both of these systems at once, in the same solution. Is that possible?
MORRICONE: I wouldn't want to put too much weight on tonality by itself — I touched on this earlier, around Marco Polo — but you could also frame it this way: I was talking about the pressures a composer faces writing for cinema. There's no doubt those pressures exist — having to answer to the audience, the producer, the director, the music publisher, the record label is certainly a form of being conditioned. Though, honestly, I've often been proud of certain constraints — even when they're annoying, overcoming them, fighting against them, has felt, in the cases where I succeeded, like accomplishing something musically important — even if none of that is meant to interest the audience; it's private, personal. So these pressures can be overcome by a composer in various ways, and he has to find his own path. I said earlier that, having to write "dictatorial," tonal music by necessity — because audiences need to hear something clear and precise, a message that isn't hard to take in, that doesn't make the film difficult to understand, since overly complicated music would just distract — applying contemporary parameters on top of tonal music was, for me, a discovery. I didn't arrive at it all at once; it came gradually. The full serialization of every musical parameter, the way it's practiced in contemporary composition, I've applied often, very often, in film music — and now I'm starting to bring it, a little timidly, into the music I write outside of cinema too, for concerts and other occasions.
MORRICONE: When I applied this, for instance, to "Amapola" — a piece harmonically as simple as possible, built on two very simple chords — layering a technique consolidated by tonality together with the full serialization associated with the Darmstadt school, I was making a point about a lack of harmonic footing: this music, even while remaining tonal, stays suspended. In twelve-tone music that suspension comes from the system's own nature, since the twelve tones share no tonal kinship and are therefore inherently suspended. I, instead, made a piece feel suspended while its metric and rhythmic functions stayed absolutely necessary — as in "Amapola," and in other pieces. It's a kind of mania of mine: adapting, and in some way redeeming my own work, my own art, after having been constrained by it. When I say "tonal" and "atonal," I mean, in shorthand, the whole range of contemporary musical experience.
XII. Composing 1900 in the Dark
A STUDENT: I have the microphone back — I'm from the photography program, so this interests me especially: you mentioned paintings you've bought — what are your tastes in painting, which painters do you like, and has it ever happened that you conceived a piece of music starting from an image, from a painting?
MORRICONE: Yes — the image is fundamental. Often, when I say I was struck by certain images, certain films, it's because at that moment there wasn't even dialogue yet, and the images alone gave me the stimulus. Some very important material for Bertolucci's 1900 I wrote in the dark — I already had notes, musical ideas, and when I played the themes for Bernardo, he was thrilled, evidently. In fact I didn't work much on the actual orchestration for 1900 — that came later — but on finding the themes I worked very fast, almost all of it, while watching the footage, already half-expecting what might come to me. I'd brought blank sheets of paper with me, and over time I developed a way of writing music even without a musical staff — if you'd like, I can show you at the end.
XIII. What Real Electronic Music Actually Is
A STUDENT: I'm curious about your relationship — or lack of one — with electronics, with synthesizers, with all of that.
MORRICONE: First we need to agree on what "electronic" actually means. In recent years I've been fairly scandalized by how loosely this term gets used. Electronic music isn't what everyone — probably you included — thinks it is. To be clear: music that reproduces tempered sounds, the tempered pitches of the traditional scale, is certainly not electronic music. Music that imitates timbres that already exist, that could be played on traditional instruments, is not electronic music either. Real electronic music is music that uses, in varying proportions, the only four fundamental waveforms — the sine wave, the sawtooth, the square wave, and the triangle wave — plus white noise. From these elements, generated by electrical generators built specifically for the purpose, and from combining these waveforms in different proportions, you get all the timbres you already know from traditional instruments — but above all, you get timbres you can't even imagine. The composer-engineer, or engineer-composer, who sits down in front of a machine like that can invent something new at every moment, and can patiently search out sounds that are otherwise nonexistent and unrepeatable. That's electronic music. You don't hear it around much — it's not the music of rock, it's not synthesized bass lines.
XIV. Why Contemporary Composers Rarely Score Films — and the Immorality of Ghostwriting
A STUDENT: In an interview, I believe with [Salvatore] Sciarrino, he said contemporary composers aren't called on enough to score films. You're also a contemporary composer, and maybe producers trust you more because they know your music won't complicate things — whereas Sciarrino and others might. Does Sciarrino have a point to complain about?
MORRICONE: He's right to complain. I've always fought — I can swear to it here — to help contemporary composers get into cinema, and I mean real research composers, not people writing little tunes. There's a real problem, though: a composer going to the movies with ordinary audiences can't put them through something experimental. That's essential — if Sciarrino wrote film music the way he writes his concert pieces, no one would put it in the film, and that's not an insult to him — it's because part of the drama, and even the pleasure, of being a film composer lies in finding the balance between two opposing forces, as I said at the start: the professional, artistic dignity of a composer living with today's pressures, and the film's absolute need for an audience, because cinema without an audience doesn't exist. If a composer like Sciarrino recognizes that necessity — whether after a score gets rejected once, or by thinking it through in advance and finding the kind of compromise I mentioned earlier, between tonal and atonal — he could do this job beautifully; he has all the technical tools, he and many others like him.
MORRICONE: But there's a lack of trust — people would rather bring in a singer-songwriter who doesn't know how to write music, doesn't actually write it himself, but hums melodies that a trained composer then writes down, arranges, and hands to an orchestra — sometimes even conducts, as I've done myself in my time — while the singer-songwriter signs his own name to the film's music credit. That's an immoral act, and I hope future directors don't repeat it — hiring someone who doesn't know music to put his name on a film's score. I hope the future directors sitting here avoid that insult to music and to real composers, and think instead of the people who spent years and years studying to become musicians before they could even write a note. Think carefully, in the future, before calling in amateurs — many of whom are friends of mine, but everyone should do their own job. Even I, if you sat me down in a recording booth and asked me to sing, could manage a little something — but I don't do it, because everyone has their trade.
XV. An Uncompromising Failure, and Turning Down Old Gringo for Cinema Paradiso
MORRICONE: Before we forget — one film gave me real material to think about, and I mention it constantly: Un Uomo a Metà ("A Man in Half"). It was made by a director who had roughly 120 million lire in his pocket and put every bit of it into that one film — a passionate film, cold in how it was shot, but warm underneath; you'll see very careful, sought-after cinematography, every image considered. It was a film felt deeply by its director, savaged by an incredibly cruel critical reception at Venice, and it barely made it into theaters. That director went on to work only occasionally afterward, in educational television, and never made another feature — undone, I think, by that whole experience, and by the improvised way other people handled a work he'd thought about and wanted to make for years, almost like a testament. That director let me — because the sophistication of the images demanded it — write music I consider genuinely contemporary, in the sense I mean by that word: finally, music applied to cinema with the dignity of a composer working in his own time. That's what led me to keep recommending it — that, and the sheer beauty of the film, which really is beautiful.
A STUDENT: I wanted to ask something — to compose, do you prefer working from the screenplay, or from the finished, edited film?
MORRICONE: The relationship between cinema and music is always strange, mysterious — I've come to realize that whether a score feels "right" for a film depends on things beyond either the director's or the composer's control. A director has to trust a composer, has to believe he can do the job well, without any absolute guarantee the composer can offer beyond the guarantee of his name, of what he's done up to that point. And that's not really a guarantee at all — I've long argued that if you called ten different composers to score the same film, all ten could turn in music that's right and excellent. So what's the "right" music for a film? I don't know — it's an adventure. What a director needs, I think, is to build real rapport with a composer he trusts, whose technique he knows, maybe from work written outside of cinema too — and then commission that reflection from him. The composer, in turn, has to account for that reflection to the director, and discuss it — the discussion comes after the reflection, after the composer's proposals.
MORRICONE: As for whether I prefer working from a screenplay: there are screenplays I genuinely can't follow — I'll admit it, after a few pages I lose the thread completely, and I hand them to my wife, who can follow anything; that's probably a failing of mine. Other screenplays I understand perfectly. When I turned down Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, a few months earlier — between February and March — I told [Franco] Cristaldi I couldn't do it, I was already committed elsewhere. He insisted on sending me the screenplay anyway; I told him not to bother. He sent it regardless. When I read it, I reached the end completely undone by that final scene — extraordinary, from an extraordinary director, an idea that grows organically out of the film itself rather than being dropped in cheaply to move an audience. When that happens to me, I react: I called Cristaldi immediately, told him I was in, and dropped other films to do it — including a major American picture that would have paid far more: [Luis] Puenzo's film, Old Gringo. I gave that up to work on this one instead, because at a certain point that final scene — that's a case where I worked from the screenplay. In other cases I work from the director's own telling of the story — with Leone, for instance, who never lets me read a screenplay at all: he narrates the shots to me, describes the close-up, tells me everything, and only shows me the finished film once it's ready. I know him well enough by now.
A STUDENT: Sorry, I missed which scene of Cinema Paradiso you meant.
MORRICONE: The final one — where the projectionist's reel of every censored kiss he'd spliced out over the years, meant to be returned, is instead kept and left as a bequest to his friend.
XVI. Writing a Score as if It Already Existed
A STUDENT: What do you think of using classical music in film soundtracks?
MORRICONE: I think very highly of it — so much so that, after a lot of reflection, I found a way to apply my own music to a film as if it were pre-existing. You know that music, through its own strange, mysterious magic, can be applied to images — even music never written for those specific images — and produce an extraordinary result. Your own question shows this: applying old, pre-existing, classical music by the great masters of the past to a film works beautifully. It works because that music has coherent formal relationships of its own, clear internal cuts, because it is, simply, music that is itself. I think music that is fully itself is the music that works best in cinema — and that realization changed the way I write for it, in two ways. First: I now write my own music as though it already existed independently of the film — I write it after reading the screenplay, after seeing the film, so the film has influenced me completely, but when I actually write the music, I write it the way you'd talk to an analyst: nobody's ordered this music from me, it's simply what needs to come out, and it has to be a coherent, technically sound piece in its own right, not only an expressive gesture. I realized this precisely from wondering why pre-existing classical music works so often on film: if music not written for the film at all can work that well, why shouldn't music I write specifically for it work even better — since, unlike Mozart, I've actually seen the film and talked to the director, so I'm more accountable to it than he ever was. That pushed me to think about music in a new way: as if I had to forget the film altogether, while unconsciously keeping it present inside me, but leaving myself free to write an autonomous piece.
MORRICONE: This often means I write far more music for a film than I actually end up using. A confidence, to give you an example: the piece that plays over The Mission's closing credits never actually appears inside the film itself — only over the credits. I'd written it without even knowing it would be needed there; it was requested at the last minute, and I already had the score ready, because I'd written it to express something, to work through what I felt I needed to give the film, whether or not it ended up used. Often I find pieces I wrote for a film go unused because the film doesn't need them — but they still served their purpose, for me, as a way of working things out.
XVII. On Vangelis and the Ambiguity of a Suggestive Rhythm
A STUDENT: Do you know Vangelis's work? What do you think of it?
MORRICONE: He writes very pleasant, very good music. But tying this back to what I said earlier — there are many different ways to create emotion through music. I can create emotion with a scale, say; or with a certain rhythm, and it lands powerfully depending on the scene. But at that point it seems to me the composer — and I don't mean Vangelis specifically — is leaning on the explicitness of the image itself, contributing something that's really passive rather than active: because something as simple as a suggestive rhythm can, depending purely on context, be a heart pounding with anxiety, or a drum signal from somewhere in Africa, or any number of other things — precisely because it's so ambiguous, it's easy for the same music to produce the same sensations in a completely different film. That strikes me as a fairly degrading way of making cinema, even though Vangelis himself is a good composer, a good musician. But the way he uses the tools available to him — synthesizers — reproducing tonal music entirely in his studio, without an orchestra even when he could afford one, as a deliberate choice rather than for financial reasons, makes him, I think, a little more culpable than composers who do the same thing purely to save money.
XVIII. Composing Before or After the Edit
A STUDENT: Do you write the music before or after the editing?
MORRICONE: It depends on the film. Sometimes before, sometimes after — I prefer before, ideally before the editing itself, sometimes even before filming, partly because the editor can use the music to cut against, and the edit almost always turns out better when the music already exists. For one thing, the director loves it that way, because any brand-new piece of music he hasn't lived with yet is hard for him to fully accept — whereas if he has time with it, he can grow to love it. If the music arrives at the last minute, as usually happens, the director might like it in general but never come to value it on a poetic level. So my best results have always come when I wrote the music first, and the director's and editor's cut adapts itself to the music rather than the other way around — you see, I keep coming back to the word "pre-existing," which ties into the earlier question. The best marriage between music and film, I think, is never music that simply gets applied on its own, like a servant — always a servant — but real collaboration between two artistic entities, even though music is certainly subordinate to the film as a whole. That collaboration can only come through compromise, the way it does between two people living together. And when I do write after the fact, I do follow the cuts, accompany them, when I'm shown the finished edit — though sometimes I'm not even shown it, because they'd rather surprise me with the final cut all at once, to see whether my eyes widen or not. If they do, all is well; if not, we start over.
XIX. Program Music, Respighi, and Scoring the French Revolution
A STUDENT: I wanted to bring back a question my colleague asked, which you were a bit evasive about: have you ever done the reverse process — written the music first and then imagined images from it? I'm thinking of an animated short we watched, by [Bruno] Bozzetto, built around Ravel's Boléro. Starting from the music, do you ever imagine images — think, "this theme calls for a crowd," or "a close-up"? Have you tried putting yourself in the director's shoes that way?
MORRICONE: Yes, sometimes I do — it's a bit complicated to explain. I might have to, for a French Revolution documentary I'm scoring for French television: I'm undecided whether to write a forty-five-minute piece, a kind of symphony — a rare, tempting opportunity for a composer — and let the director and editor apply it to the images afterward, so the music would come first, shaped purely by the events of the history, rather than the usual way around. I haven't decided. But in general, I can tell you that music shouldn't be born from that kind of direct pictorial prompting at all. It always makes me smile a little, even though I deeply respect the composer, a great orchestrator: Respighi's Pines of Rome — dawn at Villa Giulia, "The Pines of the Appian Way," "the Romans arrive," or The Fountains of Rome, "afternoon," "early morning" — understanding music that way, tied to a written program, doesn't appeal to me at all. That kind of music degrades itself, inviting the audience to pay attention less to the sound itself than to the program the composer or director has laid out in advance. For cinema, I don't even like thinking in terms of specific images before writing the music. If I'm thinking about the story of the French Revolution, I sit down to write a piece about the French Revolution — I don't think of a specific image, I think about the work as a whole; I write a symphony about the Revolution, full stop. There's still the problem of "tailoring" the images to pre-existing music — but that effort belongs to whoever animates the images to it, not to me. If a director later tells me, "it would be good if you put an idea like this here," he gives me that direction afterward, not beforehand — and he can absolutely do that. We all know the story of the French Revolution, how it unfolded, the deaths, the guillotines — I certainly represent that historical reality. But when I write, I'm not thinking of Marie Antoinette being led to the guillotine — I don't think about that; I think about the whole of that period, that moment, the flight from Paris — I think about the entire history, not a single image. The image strikes me once I actually see it; in general I try to avoid imagining one beforehand, partly because I'd probably imagine the wrong one — which is also, maybe, why I don't love reading screenplays: a film made by ten different directors from the exact same screenplay would come out as ten completely different films, so I have real trouble finding a musical line just from reading one.
XX. Theater, Film Projection, and a Final Recommendation
A STUDENT: Another question, unrelated to film scoring: what do you think of the experiment they did with William Tell at La Scala, using film projection alongside the music?
MORRICONE: That's not new. [Luca] Ronconi did something I think is entirely right for the theater: using cinematic projection within a stage production. I saw something similar many years ago, at the Palazzo dei Congressi — an opera based on a text by Peter Weiss, about Nazi crimes — I believe it was called L'Istruttoria ("The Investigation"), with beautiful music, I believe by Luigi Nono, where he used film projection: there wasn't really a live actor on stage in the ordinary sense, but a way of projecting the actor, filmed in various ways; in other cases they also used pre-recorded footage set by the director in advance. So what Ronconi did with the full, four-hour production of William Tell seems to me exactly right. It's been criticized by many, but [Riccardo] Muti rightly answered that in a traditional score — the way you can't simply graft new material into a Rossini opera at a traditionalist house like La Scala — the occasional graft of today's language doesn't bother him at all, and evidently it doesn't bother Muti either. I'd go further myself, sometimes — there are things in the tradition of certain librettos I'd happily rework. I liked the idea, though I never saw the actual staging, of a production of La Bohème done in Macerata, I believe by Ken Russell, where the character dies of a drug overdose instead of illness. I liked that as an idea, even without seeing how it was realized — though of course the music risks sounding a little out of place against a change like that; at that point you'd probably need to rewrite the music too.
A STUDENT: One last thing — could you name a contemporary Italian composer you rate highly?
MORRICONE: I can tell you that Nicola Piovani is one of those who works more seriously than a great many others — not that I don't know other composers doing honest, dignified work, I could name plenty. But — thank you.
Closing
(Applause and the session concludes.)
Transcript source: "Ennio Morricone al CSC – Musica per il Cinema," from the archive of the CSC (Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia) / Cineteca Nazionale, Rome. The recording documents a masterclass and audience Q&A given by Ennio Morricone; the exact date is not stated in the source, though internal references (to Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, released 1988, and its screenplay having been read "a few months" before the recording) place it around 1989–1990. This English version is a translation and light cleanup of a raw, heavily garbled Italian YouTube auto-caption transcript: run-on fragments were reorganized into coherent paragraphs, duplicated timestamp text was removed, and a small number of proper nouns mangled by automatic transcription were corrected from unambiguous context (for example, "shander" to Schoenberg, "weber" to Webern, "cristaldo" to Franco Cristaldi, "halmstad" to the Darmstadt school, "old rinco" to Old Gringo). Individual student questioners are not named in the source and are credited generically as "A STUDENT." A short, highly technical passage on the exact instrumentation and harmonic mechanics behind a scoring choice for Once Upon a Time in America was rendered at a higher level of generality where the source transcript was too corrupted to responsibly reconstruct the precise technical claim. No content was invented; where the transcript could not be confidently deciphered, meaning was generalized rather than guessed at in detail.
Về chủ đề trí tuệ nhân tạo, Jensen Huang là người đáng được lắng nghe nghiêm túc. Giám đốc điều hành Nvidia gần đây đã cảnh báo rằng AI đòi hỏi "những chuẩn mực xã hội mới." Nói cách khác, các quy tắc sinh tồn trong cuộc sống hàng ngày đang thay đổi, và thay đổi rất nhanh.
Để giải thích điều này, Huang so sánh với chiếc ô tô. Những chiếc xe đầu tiên vô cùng nguy hiểm khi lao vun vút vào các thành phố vốn được xây dựng cho ngựa kéo. Trẻ em chơi giữa đường phố, người đi bộ băng qua bất kỳ đâu tùy thích. Công nghệ xuất hiện tức thì; nhưng các quy tắc để sống sót với nó lại mất hàng chục năm mới theo kịp. Cuối cùng, các thị trấn xây dựng vỉa hè, đèn giao thông và tổ chức thi sát hạch lái xe. Trẻ em dần rời khỏi mặt đường nhựa, bởi cái giá của việc để chúng ở đó được đo bằng túi đựng thi thể.
AI đang buộc phải có chính xác sự điều chỉnh tương tự đó, nhưng trên một mốc thời gian bị nén chặt hơn rất nhiều. Về sau, sự tàn phá sẽ không còn được đo bằng xương gãy, mà bằng những giấc mơ tan vỡ và những tài khoản ngân hàng bị xóa sổ.
"Chúng ta đang chứng kiến sự ra đời của tầng lớp dưới đáy xã hội tiếp theo của nước Mỹ: một tầng lớp phụ thường trực, mù quáng về công nghệ trong lực lượng lao động."
Chúng ta đang chứng kiến sự ra đời của tầng lớp dưới đáy xã hội tiếp theo của nước Mỹ: một tầng lớp phụ thường trực, mù quáng về công nghệ trong lực lượng lao động. Ranh giới phân định của thập kỷ tới sẽ không còn là sự phân chia đơn giản giữa giàu và nghèo, mà là một hệ thống đẳng cấp hai tầng phân tách những người có thể điều khiển AI với những người không thể.
Hãy hình dung phiên bản văn phòng của thuyết Darwin kỹ thuật số này. Mọi người trên sàn làm việc đều dùng AI để tóm tắt báo cáo, kiểm toán bảng tính và soạn thảo những bản đề xuất nhàm chán mà chẳng ai thực sự muốn viết. Một nhân viên từ chối. Anh ta làm tất cả bằng tay, tự hào về "sự nỗ lực trung thực, của con người" của mình. Đến giờ ăn trưa, anh ta đã tụt hậu đến mức vô vọng. Các đồng nghiệp đã tạo ra gấp ba lần sản lượng của anh ta, tự động hóa các công việc theo dõi, và còn dư thêm 20 phút uống cà phê.
Trong thực tế mới này, sự cố chấp chính là một bản hợp đồng tự sát nghề nghiệp. Người ta lo ngại rằng thị trường sắp trừng phạt những kẻ bảo thủ với một sự tàn nhẫn mà chúng ta chưa từng thấy kể từ Cuộc Cách mạng Công nghiệp.
Đơn thuốc của Huang rất đơn giản: "Hãy cứ tiếp cận và sử dụng nó." Ngày nay, một người bình thường không có kiến thức lập trình nào vẫn có thể xây dựng một trang web, mổ xẻ một hợp đồng pháp lý phức tạp, hay lập dự toán ngân sách doanh nghiệp. Những kỹ năng từng bị khóa chặt sau tấm bằng đại học trị giá 100.000 đô la giờ đây bỗng dưng có thể tiếp cận với bất kỳ ai biết cách gõ một câu rõ ràng.
Sự thay đổi này sẽ sớm biến chiếc thang công danh truyền thống thành một vách đá dựng đứng. Giả định cơ bản của việc làm hiện đại đang dịch chuyển theo hướng ngụ ý rằng bất kỳ người trưởng thành có năng lực nào cũng có thể điều khiển các mô hình này. Nếu bạn nghĩ rằng tránh né AI khiến bạn trở thành một người thuần túy cao quý, hãy chờ đến khi bạn phát hiện ra rằng mức lương của mình đang bị vượt qua bởi một học sinh trung học cơ sở coi ChatGPT như một cái máy tính.
Lịch sử chưa bao giờ ưu ái kẻ hoài cổ. Người thợ rèn cười nhạo chiếc Model T đã không làm chậm dây chuyền lắp ráp của Henry Ford. Đại lý du lịch chế nhạo internet đã không ngăn được Expedia. Tương lai luôn giữ đúng hẹn của nó, bất kể ai từ chối xuất hiện.
Đây chính là lý do tại sao những cảnh báo của Huang có sức nặng như vậy. Ông đang mô tả một sự tái sắp xếp vĩnh viễn về giá trị con người. Một tầng lớp dưới đáy xã hội mới đang nổi lên, được định nghĩa không phải bởi những gì họ kiếm được, mà bởi những gì họ không còn có khả năng làm. Đối với hàng triệu người Mỹ, AI vẫn còn là một điều kỳ lạ — thứ để chơi trong năm phút rồi chế nhạo khi nó bịa đặt ra một sự kiện.
Các công cụ cải tiến với tốc độ theo cấp số nhân đến mức tàn nhẫn. Công việc gần đây còn đòi hỏi một chuyên gia và mức lương sáu con số giờ đây chỉ cần một người với một yêu cầu rõ ràng. Những bức tường bao quanh chuyên môn nghề nghiệp đang bị phá bỏ ngay trong thời điểm này.
Đòn bẩy này có tác dụng theo cả hai chiều. Một cửa hàng tạp hóa ở góc phố giờ đây có thể triển khai phân tích dữ liệu mà trước đây đòi hỏi cơ sở hạ tầng đa quốc gia. Một công ty khởi nghiệp đầy táo bạo có thể ra mắt chỉ với một người sáng lập và một bộ thuật toán thay vì một đội ngũ 40 nhân viên. Quyền lực không còn gắn liền với kích thước tòa nhà bạn bước vào mỗi sáng, mà là khả năng điều hướng cỗ máy.
Bản thân tôi cũng không phải là người hâm mộ những ông chủ thuật toán mới của chúng ta, nhưng những người tận dụng AI không chờ đợi một mốc thời gian khoa học viễn tưởng nào đó trong tương lai. Họ làm việc nhanh, ngày càng có nhiều ảnh hưởng hơn, và để lại những kẻ thuần túy với một chiếc túi rỗng. Những ai chờ đợi có thể sẽ chứng kiến chiếc cửa bẫy đóng sập ngay dưới chân họ, tự hỏi tại sao phần còn lại của thế giới lại bỏ lại họ phía sau.
"Những robot đã xuất hiện. Chúng sắp sửa chia cắt xã hội Mỹ một cách tàn nhẫn thành hai nhóm riêng biệt: những người ra lệnh kỹ thuật số, và những người bị chúng làm cho hoàn toàn lỗi thời."
Jensen Huang lớn lên khi còn chơi ngoài đường phố trước khi những chiếc xe hơi chiếm lĩnh. Giờ đây những robot đã xuất hiện. Chúng sắp sửa chia cắt xã hội Mỹ một cách tàn nhẫn thành hai nhóm riêng biệt: những người ra lệnh kỹ thuật số, và những người bị chúng làm cho hoàn toàn lỗi thời.
John Mac Ghlionn là nhà văn và nhà nghiên cứu khám phá văn hóa, xã hội và tác động của công nghệ đến cuộc sống hàng ngày.Nguồn: The Hill
HTML Author: Claude Sonnet AI (Học Trò viết prompt)
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Vài dòng gửi tới bạn đọc: Tôi có viết một số bài tiểu luận, lọc lại thành sách. Sau đó tôi dùng Claude dịch sang các thứ tiếng Anh, Pháp, Ý và Tây Ban Nha.
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Trong chiều hướng thử nghiệm Claude AI, tôi nhờ nó viết HTML với song ngữ, Anh bên trái, Ý bên phải. Mục đích chính là lượm từ vựng tiếng Ý, hy vọng từ từ tôi sẽ đọc thông thạo.
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Sau đây là kết quả của các câu prompts của tôi với Claude Sonnet AI. Mời bạn cùng xem.
Essay from the book · Pensieri Sparsi Sulla Musica
Italian Learning Edition · English left, Italiano right
Reading Block 1 · Opening
English
Italiano
Around the summer of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was still raging across America as well as the entire world, stores were all closed, workers were either laid off or, if more fortunate, allowed to work from home, I happened to hear a truly unusual and captivating melody. YouTube has the nice feature of randomly selecting things similar to what you are listening to, except this song was really nothing like the ones before it. The melody was enchanting with its rising and falling notes, sometimes leisurely, sometimes urgent, and the musical phrases in the verse were not of equal length as we typically see in pop music. The title of the song was "Love Theme from Cinema Paradiso." (1)
Verso l'estate del 2020, quando la pandemia di COVID-19 stava ancora infuriando in America e nel mondo intero, i negozi erano tutti chiusi, i lavoratori erano stati licenziati o, se più fortunati, potevano lavorare da casa, mi è capitato di sentire una melodia davvero insolita e affascinante. YouTube ha la bella caratteristica di selezionare casualmente cose simili a ciò che stai ascoltando, ma questa canzone era davvero diversa da quelle precedenti. La melodia era incantevole con le sue note che salivano e scendevano, a volte rilassate, a volte urgenti, e le frasi musicali nella strofa non avevano la stessa lunghezza come si vede tipicamente nella musica pop. Il titolo del brano era "Love Theme from Cinema Paradiso." (1)
Later, when I investigated further, I learned that the song was written by Andrea Morricone, the second son of Maestro Ennio Morricone (1928–2020). Ennio only made a few small additions to make the song tighter. Andrea (born 1964) recently completed a concert tour performing his father's music in Japan and Europe — I wonder when he will bring his orchestra to perform in America? (12)
Più tardi, quando ho indagato ulteriormente, ho appreso che la canzone era stata scritta da Andrea Morricone, il secondo figlio del Maestro Ennio Morricone (1928–2020). Ennio apportò solo alcune piccole aggiunte per rendere il brano più serrato. Andrea (nato nel 1964) ha recentemente completato un tour di concerti eseguendo la musica di suo padre in Giappone e in Europa — mi chiedo quando porterà la sua orchestra a esibirsi in America? (12)
The more I listened to this song and other pieces the Maestro composed, the more I felt like stepping into a new world of sound, with intelligent phrase construction, perfect harmony, a pop music style, and a symphony orchestra using only musicians without synthesizers. I went down a "rabbit hole," paying no attention to other types of music I normally listened to, and just kept delving deeper into the life and career of the Maestro while collecting his film score compositions. Sadly, by the time I discovered him, he had passed away in July of that same year, 2020. Before that, I only knew of him very superficially as the person who wrote the music for "Chi Mai."
Più ascoltavo questa canzone e altri brani composti dal Maestro, più mi sentivo come se stessi entrando in un nuovo mondo sonoro, con una costruzione intelligente delle frasi, un'armonia perfetta, uno stile pop, e un'orchestra sinfonica che usava solo musicisti senza sintetizzatori. Sono entrato in un "rabbit hole", non prestando attenzione ad altri tipi di musica che normalmente ascoltavo, e continuavo ad addentrarmi nella vita e nella carriera del Maestro raccogliendo le sue composizioni per colonne sonore. Purtroppo, quando l'ho scoperto, era già morto nel luglio dello stesso anno, 2020. Prima di allora, lo conoscevo solo molto superficialmente come la persona che aveva scritto la musica per "Chi Mai."
Ennio Morricone — Musiques de Films — Volume 1
Reading Block 2
English
Italiano
Very conveniently for my research, Amazon at that time (and still does) had for sale a CD collection of his music, titled "Ennio Morricone — Musiques de Films — Volume 1." (3) The price was quite reasonable, around $90 for 18 music CDs, which works out to about $5 per disc — only 25% to 50% of the cost if one bought each disc separately.
Molto comodamente per la mia ricerca, Amazon a quel tempo (e ancora oggi) aveva in vendita una collezione di CD della sua musica, intitolata "Ennio Morricone — Musiques de Films — Volume 1." (3) Il prezzo era abbastanza ragionevole, circa $90 per 18 CD musicali, che corrisponde a circa $5 per disco — solo il 25% al 50% del costo se si comprasse ogni disco separatamente.
After bringing this collection home, I "ripped" it and put it on my iPhone to listen to gradually. With about 400 song titles and nearly 20 hours of listening time if played straight through, I was occupied with this collection for almost a full year before I knew clearly which song was on which CD and for which film title. One could say that for someone just beginning to listen to Ennio Morricone's music, this collection succeeded in introducing the Maestro's sound world. The first five discs are dedicated solely to director Sergio Leone; at first I wondered who this person was that he took up 25% of the total discs, but after investigating carefully, I understood that he played a special role in Ennio Morricone's career. The CDs in this collection have the advantage that most retain the original number of tracks from the original LP; only when there is a theme like "History of Italy" or "Faces of Italian Cinema," etc., do they excerpt the most representative, most famous tracks from the original LP.
Dopo aver portato a casa questa collezione, l'ho "rippata" e l'ho messa sul mio iPhone per ascoltarla gradualmente. Con circa 400 titoli di canzoni e quasi 20 ore di ascolto se riprodotta di seguito, sono stato occupato con questa collezione per quasi un anno intero prima di sapere chiaramente quale canzone era su quale CD e per quale titolo di film. Si potrebbe dire che per qualcuno che sta appena iniziando ad ascoltare la musica di Ennio Morricone, questa collezione è riuscita a introdurre il mondo sonoro del Maestro. I primi cinque dischi sono dedicati esclusivamente al regista Sergio Leone; all'inizio mi chiedevo chi fosse questa persona che occupava il 25% dei dischi totali, ma dopo aver indagato attentamente, ho capito che aveva un ruolo speciale nella carriera di Ennio Morricone. I CD in questa collezione hanno il vantaggio che la maggior parte mantiene il numero originale di tracce dall'LP originale; solo quando c'è un tema come "Storia d'Italia" o "Volti del Cinema Italiano," ecc., estraggono i brani più rappresentativi e famosi dall'LP originale.
The most interesting characteristic of Ennio Morricone's music is that every piece is structured like a pop song, with a beginning and ending, with drums, bass, etc., all complete. Usually an LP or CD of a film score has about two or three "themes"; depending on the film, the Maestro would create music tracks based on those themes. At first it seemed somewhat monotonous, but gradually, as the saying goes, "slow rain soaks deep," I became accustomed to this style of writing and sometimes even compared which instrument I most enjoyed hearing play the melody.
La caratteristica più interessante della musica di Ennio Morricone è che ogni pezzo è strutturato come una canzone pop, con un inizio e una fine, con batteria, basso, ecc., tutto completo. Di solito un LP o CD di una colonna sonora ha circa due o tre "temi"; a seconda del film, il Maestro creava tracce musicali basate su quei temi. All'inizio sembrava un po' monotono, ma gradualmente, come si suol dire, "la pioggia lenta penetra in profondità," mi sono abituato a questo stile di scrittura e a volte confrontavo persino quale strumento preferivo sentir suonare la melodia.
Ennio Morricone: In His Own Words
Reading Block 3
English
Italiano
The Maestro has a remarkable way of creating melodies and developing them into songs. Being someone who enjoys learning about how melodies are crafted, I used keywords like "Morricone motive" and "Morricone interview" to see what others had discovered about his compositional methods. On Amazon there was also a book written by a young musician named Alessandro De Rosa in collaboration with the Maestro, translated into English with the title "Ennio Morricone: In His Own Words" (4), so I bought it to learn more.
Il Maestro ha un modo notevole di creare melodie e svilupparle in canzoni. Essendo qualcuno che ama imparare come vengono costruite le melodie, ho usato parole chiave come "Morricone motive" e "Morricone interview" per vedere cosa altri avevano scoperto sui suoi metodi compositivi. Su Amazon c'era anche un libro scritto da un giovane musicista di nome Alessandro De Rosa in collaborazione con il Maestro, tradotto in inglese con il titolo "Ennio Morricone: In His Own Words" (4), così l'ho comprato per saperne di più.
This book was quite headache-inducing because it mostly discussed Italian, American, and French directors whose names I did not know; but because I wanted to understand better how the Maestro collaborated with directors, his compositional methods, etc., I persevered, reading only 5 to 10 pages at a time before getting a headache. The book is written very thoroughly, as the Maestro said, "the truest."
Questo libro era piuttosto impegnativo perché parlava principalmente di registi italiani, americani e francesi di cui non conoscevo i nomi; ma poiché volevo capire meglio come il Maestro collaborava con i registi, i suoi metodi compositivi, ecc., ho perseverato, leggendo solo da 5 a 10 pagine alla volta prima di stancarmi. Il libro è scritto in modo molto completo, come disse il Maestro, "the truest."
I also purchased several other books about the Maestro such as "Ennio Morricone: Master of the Soundtrack," "Reflections on the Music of Ennio Morricone," then a French book "Ennio Morricone, Perspective d'une oeuvre," even Italian books like "Ennio. Un maestro. Conversazione" and "Morricone, la Musica, il Cinema" (new edition, 25th anniversary), then used methods like scanning for text and putting it into Google Translation or Microsoft Word 365 to understand the main ideas! Additionally, I bought several sheet music books to fumble through playing on the piano, such as "Ennio Morricone: Anthology," "The Best of Ennio Morricone: Original Soundtrack Collection 1, 2 & 3," "The Legend of 1900," etc. Furthermore, there is an online community of Morricone music lovers who have compiled a complete list of the Maestro's works and publish a free PDF magazine called "Maestro" since 2013, with 23 issues to date.
Ho anche acquistato diversi altri libri sul Maestro come "Ennio Morricone: Master of the Soundtrack," "Reflections on the Music of Ennio Morricone," poi un libro francese "Ennio Morricone, Perspective d'une oeuvre," persino libri italiani come "Ennio. Un maestro. Conversazione" e "Morricone, la Musica, il Cinema" (nuova edizione, 25° anniversario), poi ho usato metodi come la scansione del testo e l'inserimento in Google Translation o Microsoft Word 365 per capire le idee principali! Inoltre, ho comprato diversi libri di spartiti per provare a suonare al pianoforte, come "Ennio Morricone: Anthology," "The Best of Ennio Morricone: Original Soundtrack Collection 1, 2 & 3," "The Legend of 1900," ecc. Inoltre, c'è una comunità online di amanti della musica di Morricone che hanno compilato una lista completa delle opere del Maestro e pubblicano una rivista PDF gratuita chiamata "Maestro" dal 2013, con 23 numeri fino ad oggi.
Cinema Paradiso, Butterfly, Once Upon a Time in the West
Reading Block 4
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Italiano
As I mentioned, Ennio Morricone's music can be listened to on its own without watching the film, because the song structure is just like a pop song, about 3 to 5 minutes long, well-organized and easy to understand — unlike classical music by grand masters like J.S. Bach, W.A. Mozart, L.V. Beethoven, etc., where once the structure becomes something like a Concerto, I dare not listen because I cannot understand what they are trying to convey. However, since this is music the Maestro wrote for films, I also tried buying a few films to watch. The most "impressive" was probably "Cinema Paradiso" — how perfectly the music tracks fit with the scenes and the emotions of the actors! The Love Theme I mentioned at the beginning truly matched the emotional state of the young man coming of age, loving and being loved, then waiting longingly, writing so many love letters that were all returned by the post office because the address had no recipient. "Once Upon A Time in the West" was the same — the music swelled as the lead actress ventured into the vast and unfamiliar Wild West, truly fitting the mood and setting.
Come ho detto, la musica di Ennio Morricone può essere ascoltata da sola senza guardare il film, perché la struttura del brano è proprio come una canzone pop, di circa 3-5 minuti, ben organizzata e facile da capire — a differenza della musica classica di grandi maestri come J.S. Bach, W.A. Mozart, L.V. Beethoven, ecc., dove una volta che la struttura diventa qualcosa come un Concerto, non oso ascoltare perché non capisco cosa stanno cercando di trasmettere. Tuttavia, poiché questa è musica che il Maestro ha scritto per i film, ho anche provato a comprare alcuni film da guardare. Il più "impressionante" è stato probabilmente "Cinema Paradiso" — come si adattavano perfettamente le tracce musicali alle scene e alle emozioni degli attori! Il Love Theme che ho menzionato all'inizio si adattava veramente allo stato emotivo del giovane che cresceva, amava ed era amato, poi aspettava con desiderio, scrivendo tante lettere d'amore che venivano tutte restituite dalla posta perché l'indirizzo non aveva destinatario. "Once Upon A Time in the West" era lo stesso — la musica si alzava mentre l'attrice protagonista si avventurava nel vasto e sconosciuto Far West, adattandosi veramente all'atmosfera e all'ambientazione.
Ennio Morricone — Musiques de Films — Volume 2
Reading Block 5
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Italiano
According to the book "Ennio Morricone: In His Own Words," Ennio composed music for nearly 500 films and television productions throughout his 60-year career — a truly admirable number. I thought to myself, if I were to pursue buying each LP or CD to listen to, I probably couldn't manage it, and they would be difficult to buy since LPs/CDs produced in Italy have long been out of print. So when I heard that Stephane Lerouge, the person responsible for publishing Volume 1, would release Volume 2 with 14 more Ennio Morricone CDs, I "enthusiastically" pre-ordered on Amazon and waited eagerly each day (5). Finally the collection arrived and I got to hear many more rare songs.
Secondo il libro "Ennio Morricone: In His Own Words," Ennio compose musica per quasi 500 film e produzioni televisive durante la sua carriera di 60 anni — un numero davvero ammirevole. Ho pensato tra me, se dovessi comprare ogni LP o CD per ascoltarlo, probabilmente non ci riuscirei, e sarebbero difficili da comprare poiché gli LP/CD prodotti in Italia sono fuori stampa da tempo. Così quando ho sentito che Stephane Lerouge, la persona responsabile della pubblicazione del Volume 1, avrebbe rilasciato il Volume 2 con altri 14 CD di Ennio Morricone, ho "entusiasticamente" preordinato su Amazon e aspettato con ansia ogni giorno (5). Finalmente la collezione è arrivata e ho potuto sentire molte altre canzoni rare.
Additionally, I also sought out some CDs that Volume 1 either did not include or only featured a few tracks from, such as "Butterfly," "Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone," "Morricone 60," "Morricone Segreto," "Malèna," etc. Sometimes the arrangements of each piece differ, and some tracks have vocals added, like "Metti, Una Sera A Cena" for example.
Inoltre, ho anche cercato alcuni CD che il Volume 1 non includeva o di cui presentava solo poche tracce, come "Butterfly," "Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone," "Morricone 60," "Morricone Segreto," "Malèna," ecc. A volte gli arrangiamenti di ogni pezzo differiscono, e alcuni brani hanno voci aggiunte, come "Metti, Una Sera A Cena" per esempio.
If you have persevered reading this far, you might be wondering what the writer wants by introducing Ennio Morricone's music without discussing compositional methods, etc., and only talking about buying this and that? Well, I went through a period of being stuck in my choice and listening of music. The Western music of the 60s, 70s, and 80s — listening to it over and over becomes tiresome and no longer suits my inner world. ABBA released an album in 2021 but their form is no longer what it once was. The Beatles released an interesting documentary last year titled "Get Back," but they also stopped playing together in 1970, and no matter how many "alternate takes" they release, there are only so many songs. Other bands from the 70s and 80s also have only a few good songs each.
Se avete perseverato a leggere fin qui, potreste chiedervi cosa vuole lo scrittore introducendo la musica di Ennio Morricone senza discutere i metodi compositivi, ecc., e parlando solo di comprare questo e quello? Beh, ho attraversato un periodo in cui ero bloccato nella mia scelta e ascolto di musica. La musica occidentale degli anni '60, '70 e '80 — ascoltarla più e più volte diventa stancante e non si adatta più al mio mondo interiore. Gli ABBA hanno pubblicato un album nel 2021 ma la loro forma non è più quella di una volta. I Beatles hanno pubblicato un interessante documentario l'anno scorso intitolato "Get Back," ma hanno anche smesso di suonare insieme nel 1970, e non importa quante "alternate takes" pubblicano, ci sono solo così tante canzoni. Altre band degli anni '70 e '80 hanno anche solo poche buone canzoni ciascuna.
I also did not want to subscribe to Apple Music monthly — although it has a lot of music, 100 million tracks(!), with my habit of delving deep to understand compositional methods, the more songs I hear, the more confused I become, with no benefit. Vietnamese music (overseas and domestic), classical music, Jazz, new music from Europe and America are all the same — if I already rarely listen to them, I won't have the interest to listen, or if I do listen, it's only to reminisce about a golden era of overseas Vietnamese music.
Inoltre non volevo abbonarmi ad Apple Music mensilmente — anche se ha molta musica, 100 milioni di tracce(!), con la mia abitudine di approfondire i metodi compositivi, più canzoni sento, più mi confondo, senza beneficio. La musica vietnamita (d'oltremare e domestica), la musica classica, il Jazz, la nuova musica dall'Europa e dall'America sono tutti uguali — se già le ascolto raramente, non avrò interesse ad ascoltarle, o se ascolto, è solo per ricordare un'età d'oro della musica vietnamita d'oltremare.
I have photographed a set of 3 CDs called "Ennio Morricone — 50 Movie Themes Hits" that is quite rare; I saw it selling on Apple Music for only $15. These truly are selected tracks — if you have never listened to Morricone's music and you like pop and rock from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, this collection will probably satisfy you. With 500 film soundtracks, Morricone's music is an abundant source that you will probably never find boring. If you like listening to music on YouTube, the Ennio Morricone channel also has some free videos over an hour long, very convenient for you to enjoy his music. (2) (10)
Ho fotografato un set di 3 CD chiamato "Ennio Morricone — 50 Movie Themes Hits" che è piuttosto raro; l'ho visto in vendita su Apple Music per soli $15. Questi sono veramente brani selezionati — se non avete mai ascoltato la musica di Morricone e vi piace il pop e il rock degli anni '60, '70 e '80, questa collezione probabilmente vi soddisferà. Con 500 colonne sonore, la musica di Morricone è una fonte abbondante che probabilmente non troverete mai noiosa. Se vi piace ascoltare musica su YouTube, il canale Ennio Morricone ha anche alcuni video gratuiti di oltre un'ora, molto comodi per godervi la sua musica. (2) (10)
Ennio DVD
Reading Block 6
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Italiano
At the end of this year, I was fortunate to buy and watch a documentary about Ennio (6), directed by Giuseppe Tornatore (who directed Cinema Paradiso in the past). Fortunate because in America I was able to watch a European PAL format film — I thought I would never be able to see it since there was no North American version for sale. I happened to check if there was a player that could read formats other than NTSC, and learned that players are sold (on Amazon, only $40, Megatek brand) that can read all the different formats in the world, as long as it's DVD format — Blu-ray doesn't work. So I ordered both the DVD and the player, then watched the DVD — truly exceptional, and I learned many new things not mentioned in the books. Since Giuseppe Tornatore won the Oscar (Best Foreign Language Film) in 1990 with Cinema Paradiso until the Maestro passed away, they had worked together for over 30 years and understood each other very well. Tornatore himself recounted in the Bonus section that Morricone only agreed to make the film if Tornatore agreed to direct!
Alla fine dell'anno sono stato fortunato a comprare e guardare un documentario su Ennio (6), diretto da Giuseppe Tornatore (che diresse Cinema Paradiso in passato). Fortunato perché in America sono riuscito a guardare un film in formato PAL europeo — pensavo che non l'avrei mai potuto vedere poiché non c'era una versione nordamericana in vendita. Ho controllato se c'era un lettore che potesse leggere formati diversi dall'NTSC, e ho scoperto che vendono lettori (su Amazon, solo $40, marca Megatek) che possono leggere tutti i diversi formati nel mondo, purché sia formato DVD — Blu-ray non funziona. Così ho ordinato sia il DVD che il lettore, poi ho guardato il DVD — veramente eccezionale, e ho imparato molte cose nuove non menzionate nei libri. Da quando Giuseppe Tornatore vinse l'Oscar (Miglior Film in Lingua Straniera) nel 1990 con Cinema Paradiso fino alla scomparsa del Maestro, avevano lavorato insieme per oltre 30 anni e si conoscevano molto bene. Lo stesso Tornatore raccontò nella sezione Bonus che Morricone accettò di fare il film solo se Tornatore avesse accettato di dirigere!
The film was truly excellent. Tornatore reviewed Morricone's student years, the lists of songs the Maestro arranged for young Italian singers in the early 1960s, then the early films like "A Fistful of Dollars," the trilogy of "Once Upon A Time in The West," "Giù La Testa," "Once Upon A Time in America," the films of the 70s, then 80s like "Sacco & Vanzetti," "Allonsanfan," "Days of Heaven," "The Mission," "The Untouchables," "Cinema Paradiso," and finally "The Hateful Eight" in 2016 when he won the Oscar for Best Original Score of the year. The film gave us many details, such as how the Maestro felt guilty for a long period of two or three decades for having "worked for hire" for cinema, when he should have been writing "absolute" music like his teacher, Goffredo Petrassi.
Il film era veramente eccellente. Tornatore ripercorreva gli anni da studente di Morricone, le liste di canzoni che il Maestro arrangiò per i giovani cantanti italiani nei primi anni '60, poi i primi film come "Per un pugno di dollari," la trilogia di "C'era una volta il West," "Giù la testa," "C'era una volta in America," i film degli anni '70, poi '80 come "Sacco e Vanzetti," "Allonsanfan," "I giorni del cielo," "Mission," "Gli intoccabili," "Nuovo Cinema Paradiso," e infine "The Hateful Eight" nel 2016 quando vinse l'Oscar per la Miglior Colonna Sonora Originale dell'anno. Il film ci ha dato molti dettagli, come il fatto che il Maestro si sentì in colpa per un lungo periodo di due o tre decenni per aver "lavorato su commissione" per il cinema, quando avrebbe dovuto scrivere musica "assoluta" come il suo maestro, Goffredo Petrassi.
Another interesting detail is Morricone's compositional method: just like Beethoven of old when he went deaf, Morricone did not use keyboards — the notes were in his head, he just had to write them down, like writing an essay. He also wrote the entire orchestral score himself without delegating any part to anyone else! Truly, seeing is believing.
Un altro dettaglio interessante è il metodo compositivo di Morricone: proprio come Beethoven di un tempo quando divenne sordo, Morricone non usava tastiere — le note erano nella sua testa, doveva solo scriverle, come scrivere un saggio. Scriveva anche l'intera partitura orchestrale da solo senza delegare nessuna parte a nessun altro! Davvero, vedere per credere.
Love Theme from Cinema Paradiso e Metti, Una Sera a Cena
Reading Block 7
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Italiano
Fortunately, an online instructor, Dr. Christopher Brellochs, took the time to explain in detail the elements that make "Love Theme from Cinema Paradiso" so exceptional, staying with the listener — although the song is hard to remember, once remembered it will never be forgotten.
Fortunatamente, un istruttore online, il Dr. Christopher Brellochs, si è preso il tempo di spiegare in dettaglio gli elementi che rendono "Love Theme from Cinema Paradiso" così eccezionale, rimanendo con l'ascoltatore — anche se la canzone è difficile da ricordare, una volta ricordata non sarà mai dimenticata.
First, he explained the harmony, how the Cm7 chord is a "pivot chord" that makes the song sound like it's in G minor while also being in the related major key of Bb. Then he discussed the rhythm, with the insertion of a 2/4 measure into a 4/4 song. Next is a declaration with the note B, a rest of one and a half beats, then a leap down to D, then gradually filling in the notes to balance with the rest before. After that comes a glorious arpeggio (D F A C), etc. And so on, he thoroughly explained why the song is so beloved.
Prima ha spiegato l'armonia, come l'accordo di Cm7 è un "accordo perno" che fa sembrare la canzone in Sol minore pur essendo anche nella relativa maggiore Si bemolle. Poi ha discusso il ritmo, con l'inserimento di una battuta in 2/4 in una canzone in 4/4. Poi c'è una dichiarazione con la nota Si, una pausa di un tempo e mezzo, poi un salto giù al Re, poi gradualmente riempiendo le note per bilanciare con la pausa precedente. Dopo viene un glorioso arpeggio (Re Fa La Do), ecc. E così via, ha spiegato in modo approfondito perché la canzone è così amata.
Another song that is also very interesting for various reasons is "Metti, Una Sera a Cena" (8). In the DVD, the Maestro mentioned a similar example, the song "Se Telefonando," pointing out that he used a motive of only three notes — in this "Metti..." song it is C# D B. This is a method of using motives by limiting the notes, as Western classical masters of old often used, like using the letters BACH (B=B flat, A, C, H=B natural) as the notes of a motive.
Un'altra canzone che è anche molto interessante per vari motivi è "Metti, Una Sera a Cena" (8). Nel DVD, il Maestro menzionò un esempio simile, la canzone "Se Telefonando," sottolineando che usò un motivo di sole tre note — in questa canzone "Metti..." è DoRe Si. Questo è un metodo di usare i motivi limitando le note, come i maestri classici occidentali di un tempo usavano spesso, come usare le lettere BACH (B=Si bemolle, A, C, H=Si naturale) come note di un motivo.
Reading Block 8
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Italiano
The special point is that there are only three notes, but because it's in 4/4 time, Morricone cleverly placed each note C#, D, B at the beginning of each small phrase, making the musical phrase very syncopated but very fresh because the notes fall on different accent points. After repeating the phrase once more, the Maestro was very clever in spreading out the notes upward and changing keys, turning these three motive notes into E F D! The rhythm and intervals between notes remain the same, but because these are new tones, the music becomes fresh while still feeling familiar. Finally, he created a new motive with more than 3 notes (G# A B B F#), then developed that motive into a melody played over the foundation of the original three-note melody!!!
Il punto speciale è che ci sono solo tre note, ma poiché è in tempo 4/4, Morricone ha abilmente posizionato ogni nota Do#, Re, Si all'inizio di ogni piccola frase, rendendo la frase musicale molto sincopata ma molto fresca perché le note cadono su diversi punti di accento. Dopo aver ripetuto la frase ancora una volta, il Maestro è stato molto intelligente nel distribuire le note verso l'alto e cambiare tonalità, trasformando queste tre note del motivo in Mi Fa Re! Il ritmo e gli intervalli tra le note rimangono gli stessi, ma poiché questi sono nuovi toni, la musica diventa fresca pur rimanendo familiare. Infine, ha creato un nuovo motivo con più di 3 note (SolLa Si Si Fa#), poi ha sviluppato quel motivo in una melodia suonata sopra la base della melodia originale di tre note!!!
In the Maestro's musical world there are many more fascinating points like this, such as the 3 melodies and rhythms intertwined in "On Earth As It Is In Heaven" (9) or "Vita Nostra" from the film "The Mission," or the wonderful melodies (Main Theme, Deborah's Theme, Childhood Memories) from "Once Upon A Time In America," "Giù La Testa," "The Most Beautiful Wife," etc., etc.
As in previous times when I explored the music of Maestros Paul Mauriat and Raymond Lefèvre, they had already passed away by the time I sought out their music. This time was the same, but better late than never. Ennio Morricone's music has been part of my personal spiritual life for over two years now. I hope if you already know his work, you will listen more deeply, listen again; if you don't know it yet, you should explore further, buy and watch the DVD about the career of a great composer whom his successor Hans Zimmer views as his inspiration and motivation, and whom he considers the greatest talent of the 20th century in film music (11).
I shall pause here and look forward to meeting you in the next rambling essay. Little Saigon, last day of 2022.
Nel mondo musicale del Maestro ci sono molti altri punti affascinanti come questo, come le 3 melodie e i ritmi intrecciati in "On Earth As It Is In Heaven" (9) o "Vita Nostra" dal film "Mission," o le meravigliose melodie (Main Theme, Deborah's Theme, Childhood Memories) da "C'era una volta in America," "Giù la testa," "La moglie più bella," ecc., ecc.
Come nelle precedenti occasioni quando ho esplorato la musica dei Maestri Paul Mauriat e Raymond Lefèvre, erano già morti quando ho cercato la loro musica. Questa volta è stato lo stesso, ma meglio tardi che mai. La musica di Ennio Morricone è parte della mia vita spirituale personale da oltre due anni ormai. Spero che se già conoscete il suo lavoro, ascolterete più profondamente, ascolterete di più; se non lo conoscete ancora, dovreste esplorare ulteriormente, comprare e guardare il DVD sulla carriera di un grande compositore che il suo successore Hans Zimmer considera la sua ispirazione e motivazione, e che considera il più grande talento del XX secolo nella musica da film (11).
Mi fermo qui e spero di incontrarvi nel prossimo saggio. Little Saigon, ultimo giorno del 2022.
Vocabulary
Every key word in this essay — start here if you are reading this essay first. Each essay is self-contained.
Nouns
abitudine(f.)
habit, custom
"Ho l'abitudine di ascoltare musica ogni sera." — I have the habit of listening to music every evening.
accordo(m.)
chord; also: agreement
"L'accordo di Do minore crea un'atmosfera malinconica." — The C minor chord creates a melancholic atmosphere.
album(m., invariable)
album
"Il nuovo album è uscito a gennaio." — The new album came out in January.
ambientazione(f.)
setting, backdrop
"L'ambientazione del film è la Roma degli anni '50." — The setting of the film is Rome in the 1950s.
anno(m.)
year
"Ho studiato italiano per un anno intero." — I studied Italian for a whole year.
arrangiamento(m.)
arrangement (musical)
"L'arrangiamento orchestrale è molto elaborato." — The orchestral arrangement is very elaborate.
arpeggio(m.)
arpeggio — a chord played note by note
"Il pianista suona un arpeggio ascendente." — The pianist plays an ascending arpeggio.
ascoltatore(m.) / ascoltatrice (f.)
listener
"La canzone rimane con l'ascoltatore per giorni." — The song stays with the listener for days.
atmosfera(f.)
atmosphere, mood
"La musica crea un'atmosfera di nostalgia." — The music creates an atmosphere of nostalgia.
attore(m.) / attrice (f.)
actor / actress
"L'attore ha recitato in molti film famosi." — The actor performed in many famous films.
basso(m.)
bass — the lowest musical voice or instrument
"Il basso suona le note più gravi della canzone." — The bass plays the lowest notes of the song.
batteria(f.)
drums (drum kit)
"La batteria tiene il ritmo della canzone." — The drums keep the rhythm of the song.
battuta(f.)
measure, bar (music); also: joke
"La canzone ha una battuta in 2/4 in mezzo al 4/4." — The song has a 2/4 bar in the middle of the 4/4.
brano(m.)
piece (musical), track, passage
"Questo brano dura esattamente tre minuti." — This piece lasts exactly three minutes.
canale(m.)
channel (YouTube, TV, etc.)
"Il canale ha più di un milione di iscritti." — The channel has more than a million subscribers.
caratteristica(f.)
characteristic, feature
"La caratteristica principale di questa musica è la semplicità." — The main characteristic of this music is simplicity.
carriera(f.)
career
"Ha avuto una carriera straordinaria di sessant'anni." — He had an extraordinary sixty-year career.
cinema(m., invariable)
cinema, the film industry; also: movie theater
"Il cinema italiano degli anni '60 era molto creativo." — Italian cinema of the 1960s was very creative.
colonna sonora(f.)
film score, soundtrack
"La colonna sonora del film ha vinto l'Oscar." — The film score won the Oscar.
comunità(f., invariable in singular)
community
"C'è una grande comunità di appassionati di musica online." — There is a large community of music lovers online.
concerto(m.)
concert
"Il concerto si terrà sabato prossimo." — The concert will take place next Saturday.
costruzione(f.)
construction, structure
"La costruzione delle frasi musicali è molto intelligente." — The construction of the musical phrases is very clever.
destinatario(m.)
recipient, addressee
"La lettera è tornata perché non c'era destinatario." — The letter came back because there was no recipient.
dettaglio(m.)
detail
"Il documentario rivela molti dettagli sulla sua vita." — The documentary reveals many details about his life.
disco(m.)
disc, record, album
"Ho comprato diciotto dischi in un'unica collezione." — I bought eighteen discs in a single collection.
documentario(m.)
documentary
"Il documentario su Morricone è stato diretto da Tornatore." — The documentary about Morricone was directed by Tornatore.
emozione(f.)
emotion, feeling
"La musica esprime emozioni che le parole non possono descrivere." — Music expresses emotions that words cannot describe.
estate(f.)
summer
"Ho scoperto questa musica verso l'estate del 2020." — I discovered this music around the summer of 2020.
figlio(m.)
son; also: child
"Andrea è il secondo figlio del Maestro." — Andrea is the Maestro's second son.
film(m., invariable)
film, movie
"Ho guardato il film tre volte." — I watched the film three times.
fine(f.)
end, ending
"Ogni brano ha un inizio e una fine ben definiti." — Every piece has a well-defined beginning and end.
formato(m.)
format
"Il lettore può leggere tutti i formati del mondo." — The player can read all the formats in the world.
inizio(m.)
beginning, start
"Il motivo appare già all'inizio della canzone." — The motive appears right at the beginning of the song.
intervallo(m.)
interval (musical: distance between two notes); also: break, intermission
"Il salto di una quinta è un intervallo molto comune." — The leap of a fifth is a very common interval.
ispirazione(f.)
inspiration
"Hans Zimmer considera Morricone la sua ispirazione." — Hans Zimmer considers Morricone his inspiration.
istruttore(m.)
instructor, teacher
"L'istruttore ha spiegato l'armonia in modo molto chiaro." — The instructor explained harmony very clearly.
lettera(f.)
letter (written correspondence)
"Ha scritto tante lettere d'amore che non sono mai arrivate." — He wrote so many love letters that never arrived.
lettore(m.)
player (DVD player); also: reader
"Ho comprato un lettore che legge tutti i formati DVD." — I bought a player that reads all DVD formats.
melodia(f.)
melody
"La melodia è incantevole e difficile da dimenticare." — The melody is enchanting and hard to forget.
mondo(m.)
world
"La musica mi ha fatto entrare in un nuovo mondo sonoro." — The music made me enter a new world of sound.
motivazione(f.)
motivation
"La sua motivazione per studiare musica era la passione." — His motivation for studying music was passion.
musicista(m./f.)
musician
"L'orchestra era composta da musicisti professionisti." — The orchestra was made up of professional musicians.
negozio(m.)
shop, store
"Durante la pandemia tutti i negozi erano chiusi." — During the pandemic all the shops were closed.
nota(f.)
note (musical); also: annotation, grade
"Il motivo è formato da sole tre note." — The motive is formed by only three notes.
orchestra(f.)
orchestra
"L'orchestra sinfonica non usava sintetizzatori." — The symphony orchestra did not use synthesizers.
pandemia(f.)
pandemic
"La pandemia ha cambiato il modo in cui ascoltiamo musica." — The pandemic changed the way we listen to music.
parola chiave(f.)
keyword (literally: key word)
"Ho cercato con parole chiave come 'Morricone motive'." — I searched with keywords like 'Morricone motive'.
partitura(f.)
musical score (complete written notation for all instruments)
"Scriveva l'intera partitura orchestrale da solo." — He wrote the entire orchestral score alone.
pausa(f.)
pause, rest (musical); also: break
"C'è una pausa di un tempo e mezzo prima della nota successiva." — There is a rest of one and a half beats before the next note.
pioggia(f.)
rain
"Come si suol dire: la pioggia lenta penetra in profondità." — As the saying goes: slow rain soaks deep.
prezzo(m.)
price
"Il prezzo era molto ragionevole per una collezione così grande." — The price was very reasonable for such a large collection.
produzione(f.)
production
"Ha composto musica per quasi 500 produzioni cinematografiche." — He composed music for nearly 500 film productions.
regista(m./f.)
film director
"Tornatore è il regista del documentario su Morricone." — Tornatore is the director of the documentary about Morricone.
ritmo(m.)
rhythm
"Il ritmo sincopato rende la canzone molto fresca." — The syncopated rhythm makes the song very fresh.
rivista(f.)
magazine
"Pubblicano una rivista PDF gratuita dal 2013." — They have published a free PDF magazine since 2013.
salto(m.)
leap, jump; in music: a large interval between two notes
"C'è un salto giù al Re dopo la pausa." — There is a leap down to D after the rest.
scena(f.)
scene
"La musica si adattava perfettamente alle scene del film." — The music fit perfectly with the scenes of the film.
sintetizzatore(m.)
synthesizer
"L'orchestra usava solo strumenti reali, senza sintetizzatori." — The orchestra used only real instruments, without synthesizers.
spartito(m.)
sheet music
"Ho comprato diversi libri di spartiti per studiare al pianoforte." — I bought several sheet music books to study on the piano.
stile(m.)
style
"Il suo stile di scrittura è unico e riconoscibile." — His writing style is unique and recognizable.
strumento(m.)
instrument (musical); also: tool
"Quale strumento preferisci sentire suonare la melodia?" — Which instrument do you prefer to hear playing the melody?
successore(m.)
successor
"Hans Zimmer è considerato il successore spirituale di Morricone." — Hans Zimmer is considered Morricone's spiritual successor.
talento(m.)
talent
"Zimmer lo considera il più grande talento del XX secolo." — Zimmer considers him the greatest talent of the 20th century.
tema(m.)
theme (musical); also: topic
"Ogni film ha due o tre temi principali." — Each film has two or three main themes.
titolo(m.)
title
"Il titolo del brano è 'Love Theme from Cinema Paradiso'." — The title of the piece is 'Love Theme from Cinema Paradiso'.
tonalità(f., invariable)
tonality, key (musical)
"Il Maestro ha cambiato tonalità a metà della canzone." — The Maestro changed key in the middle of the song.
traccia(f.)
track (on a CD/album); also: trace, trail
"Ogni CD della collezione ha molte tracce originali." — Each CD in the collection has many original tracks.
vita(f.)
life
"La musica di Morricone è parte della mia vita spirituale." — Morricone's music is part of my spiritual life.
voce(f.)
voice; vocals
"Alcuni brani hanno voci aggiunte nell'arrangiamento." — Some pieces have vocals added in the arrangement.
Verbs
abituarsi— reflexive -are · to get used to
to get used to, to become accustomed to
Presente
Passato Prossimo
Futuro
io
mi abituo
mi sono abituato/a
mi abituerò
tu
ti abitui
ti sei abituato/a
ti abituerai
lui/lei
si abitua
si è abituato/a
si abituerà
noi
ci abituiamo
ci siamo abituati/e
ci abitueremo
voi
vi abituate
vi siete abituati/e
vi abituerete
loro
si abituano
si sono abituati/e
si abitueranno
"Con il tempo mi sono abituato a questo stile musicale." — Over time I got used to this musical style.
ascoltare— regular -are · to listen to
to listen to, to hear
Presente
Passato Prossimo
Futuro
io
ascolto
ho ascoltato
ascolterò
tu
ascolti
hai ascoltato
ascolterai
lui/lei
ascolta
ha ascoltato
ascolterà
noi
ascoltiamo
abbiamo ascoltato
ascolteremo
voi
ascoltate
avete ascoltato
ascolterete
loro
ascoltano
hanno ascoltato
ascolteranno
"Ascolto musica ogni giorno mentre lavoro." — I listen to music every day while I work.
aspettare— regular -are · to wait for
to wait (for), to expect
Presente
Passato Prossimo
Futuro
io
aspetto
ho aspettato
aspetterò
tu
aspetti
hai aspettato
aspetterai
lui/lei
aspetta
ha aspettato
aspetterà
noi
aspettiamo
abbiamo aspettato
aspetteremo
voi
aspettate
avete aspettato
aspetterete
loro
aspettano
hanno aspettato
aspetteranno
"Ho aspettato con ansia l'arrivo della collezione." — I waited eagerly for the collection to arrive.
cercare— regular -are (c→ch before i/e) · to search
to look for, to search, to try
Presente
Passato Prossimo
Futuro
io
cerco
ho cercato
cercherò
tu
cerchi
hai cercato
cercherai
lui/lei
cerca
ha cercato
cercherà
noi
cerchiamo
abbiamo cercato
cercheremo
voi
cercate
avete cercato
cercherete
loro
cercano
hanno cercato
cercheranno
"Ho cercato la sua musica per mesi prima di trovarla." — I searched for his music for months before finding it.
chiedersi— reflexive -ere (like chiedere) · to wonder
to wonder, to ask oneself
Presente
Passato Prossimo
Futuro
io
mi chiedo
mi sono chiesto/a
mi chiederò
tu
ti chiedi
ti sei chiesto/a
ti chiederai
lui/lei
si chiede
si è chiesto/a
si chiederà
noi
ci chiediamo
ci siamo chiesti/e
ci chiederemo
voi
vi chiedete
vi siete chiesti/e
vi chiederete
loro
si chiedono
si sono chiesti/e
si chiederanno
"Mi chiedo perché questa melodia sia così difficile da dimenticare." — I wonder why this melody is so hard to forget.
comporre— irregular -ere (like porre) · to compose
to compose (music); also: to compose (text), to make up
Presente
Passato Prossimo
Futuro
io
compongo
ho composto
comporrò
tu
componi
hai composto
comporrai
lui/lei
compone
ha composto
comporrà
noi
componiamo
abbiamo composto
comporremo
voi
componete
avete composto
comporrete
loro
compongono
hanno composto
comporranno
"Ha composto musica per quasi cinquecento film." — He composed music for nearly five hundred films.
comprare— regular -are · to buy
to buy, to purchase
Presente
Passato Prossimo
Futuro
io
compro
ho comprato
comprerò
tu
compri
hai comprato
comprerai
lui/lei
compra
ha comprato
comprerà
noi
compriamo
abbiamo comprato
compreremo
voi
comprate
avete comprato
comprerete
loro
comprano
hanno comprato
compreranno
"Ho comprato tutti i CD che riuscivo a trovare." — I bought all the CDs I could find.
conoscere— irregular -ere · to know (a person)
to know (a person or place), to be acquainted with; to meet for the first time
Presente
Passato Prossimo
Futuro
io
conosco
ho conosciuto
conoscerò
tu
conosci
hai conosciuto
conoscerai
lui/lei
conosce
ha conosciuto
conoscerà
noi
conosciamo
abbiamo conosciuto
conosceremo
voi
conoscete
avete conosciuto
conoscerete
loro
conoscono
hanno conosciuto
conosceranno
"Lo conoscevo solo superficialmente prima di comprare i suoi CD." — I only knew him superficially before buying his CDs.
crescere— irregular -ere · to grow
to grow, to grow up; uses essere as auxiliary
Presente
Passato Prossimo
Futuro
io
cresco
sono cresciuto/a
crescerò
tu
cresci
sei cresciuto/a
crescerai
lui/lei
cresce
è cresciuto/a
crescerà
noi
cresciamo
siamo cresciuti/e
cresceremo
voi
crescete
siete cresciuti/e
crescerete
loro
crescono
sono cresciuti/e
cresceranno
"Il protagonista del film cresce e impara ad amare." — The film's protagonist grows up and learns to love.
delegare— regular -are · to delegate
to delegate, to assign to someone else
Presente
Passato Prossimo
Futuro
io
delego
ho delegato
delegherò
tu
deleghi
hai delegato
delegherai
lui/lei
delega
ha delegato
delegherà
noi
deleghiamo
abbiamo delegato
delegheremo
voi
delegate
avete delegato
delegherete
loro
delegano
hanno delegato
delegheranno
"Non ha mai delegato nessuna parte della partitura ad altri." — He never delegated any part of the score to others.
entrare— regular -are · to enter
to enter, to go in; uses essere as auxiliary
Presente
Passato Prossimo
Futuro
io
entro
sono entrato/a
entrerò
tu
entri
sei entrato/a
entrerai
lui/lei
entra
è entrato/a
entrerà
noi
entriamo
siamo entrati/e
entreremo
voi
entrate
siete entrati/e
entrerete
loro
entrano
sono entrati/e
entreranno
"Ascoltando questa musica sono entrato in un nuovo mondo." — Listening to this music I entered a new world.
guardare— regular -are · to watch
to watch, to look at
Presente
Passato Prossimo
Futuro
io
guardo
ho guardato
guarderò
tu
guardi
hai guardato
guarderai
lui/lei
guarda
ha guardato
guarderà
noi
guardiamo
abbiamo guardato
guarderemo
voi
guardate
avete guardato
guarderete
loro
guardano
hanno guardato
guarderanno
"Ho guardato il documentario tre volte di seguito." — I watched the documentary three times in a row.
imparare— regular -are · to learn
to learn, to memorize
Presente
Passato Prossimo
Futuro
io
imparo
ho imparato
imparerò
tu
impari
hai imparato
imparerai
lui/lei
impara
ha imparato
imparerà
noi
impariamo
abbiamo imparato
impareremo
voi
imparate
avete imparato
imparerete
loro
imparano
hanno imparato
impareranno
"Ho imparato molte cose nuove guardando il documentario." — I learned many new things watching the documentary.
ordinare— regular -are · to order
to order (a purchase); also: to put in order, to command
Presente
Passato Prossimo
Futuro
io
ordino
ho ordinato
ordinerò
tu
ordini
hai ordinato
ordinerai
lui/lei
ordina
ha ordinato
ordinerà
noi
ordiniamo
abbiamo ordinato
ordineremo
voi
ordinate
avete ordinato
ordinerete
loro
ordinano
hanno ordinato
ordineranno
"Ho ordinato il DVD su Amazon e l'ho ricevuto dopo una settimana." — I ordered the DVD on Amazon and received it after a week.
perseverare— regular -are · to persevere
to persevere, to keep going, to persist
Presente
Passato Prossimo
Futuro
io
persevero
ho perseverato
persevererò
tu
perseveri
hai perseverato
persevererai
lui/lei
persevera
ha perseverato
persevererà
noi
perseveriamo
abbiamo perseverato
persevereremo
voi
perseverate
avete perseverato
persevererete
loro
perseverano
hanno perseverato
persevereranno
"Ho perseverato nella lettura del libro anche quando era difficile." — I persevered in reading the book even when it was difficult.
raccogliere— irregular -ere · to collect
to collect, to gather, to pick up
Presente
Passato Prossimo
Futuro
io
raccolgo
ho raccolto
raccoglierò
tu
raccogli
hai raccolto
raccoglierai
lui/lei
raccoglie
ha raccolto
raccoglierà
noi
raccogliamo
abbiamo raccolto
raccoglieremo
voi
raccogliete
avete raccolto
raccoglierete
loro
raccolgono
hanno raccolto
raccoglieranno
"Ho raccolto una collezione di oltre trenta CD del Maestro." — I collected a collection of over thirty CDs by the Maestro.
rendere— irregular -ere · to make / to render
to make (something become), to render; also: to give back
Presente
Passato Prossimo
Futuro
io
rendo
ho reso
renderò
tu
rendi
hai reso
renderai
lui/lei
rende
ha reso
renderà
noi
rendiamo
abbiamo reso
renderemo
voi
rendete
avete reso
renderete
loro
rendono
hanno reso
renderanno
"Ennio apportò alcune modifiche per rendere il brano più serrato." — Ennio made some changes to make the piece tighter.
salire— irregular -ire · to rise
to rise, to go up, to climb; uses essere as auxiliary
Presente
Passato Prossimo
Futuro
io
salgo
sono salito/a
salirò
tu
sali
sei salito/a
salirai
lui/lei
sale
è salito/a
salirà
noi
saliamo
siamo saliti/e
saliremo
voi
salite
siete saliti/e
salirete
loro
salgono
sono saliti/e
saliranno
"La melodia sale verso le note più alte con grande eleganza." — The melody rises toward the higher notes with great elegance.
scendere— irregular -ere · to go down
to go down, to descend; uses essere as auxiliary
Presente
Passato Prossimo
Futuro
io
scendo
sono sceso/a
scenderò
tu
scendi
sei sceso/a
scenderai
lui/lei
scende
è sceso/a
scenderà
noi
scendiamo
siamo scesi/e
scenderemo
voi
scendete
siete scesi/e
scenderete
loro
scendono
sono scesi/e
scenderanno
"Dopo il salto verso l'alto, la melodia scende gradualmente." — After the leap upward, the melody descends gradually.
scoprire— irregular -ire · to discover
to discover, to find out, to uncover
Presente
Passato Prossimo
Futuro
io
scopro
ho scoperto
scoprirò
tu
scopri
hai scoperto
scoprirai
lui/lei
scopre
ha scoperto
scoprirà
noi
scopriamo
abbiamo scoperto
scopriremo
voi
scoprite
avete scoperto
scoprirete
loro
scoprono
hanno scoperto
scopriranno
"Ho scoperto questa musica per caso su YouTube." — I discovered this music by chance on YouTube.
scrivere— irregular -ere · to write
to write
Presente
Passato Prossimo
Futuro
io
scrivo
ho scritto
scriverò
tu
scrivi
hai scritto
scriverai
lui/lei
scrive
ha scritto
scriverà
noi
scriviamo
abbiamo scritto
scriveremo
voi
scrivete
avete scritto
scriverete
loro
scrivono
hanno scritto
scriveranno
"Scriveva l'intera partitura senza usare tastiera." — He wrote the entire score without using a keyboard.
sentire— regular -ire · to hear / feel
to hear; to feel; to listen (informally)
Presente
Passato Prossimo
Futuro
io
sento
ho sentito
sentirò
tu
senti
hai sentito
sentirai
lui/lei
sente
ha sentito
sentirà
noi
sentiamo
abbiamo sentito
sentiremo
voi
sentite
avete sentito
sentirete
loro
sentono
hanno sentito
sentiranno
"Ho sentito per la prima volta questa melodia in estate." — I heard this melody for the first time in summer.
smettere— irregular -ere · to stop
to stop (doing something), to quit
Presente
Passato Prossimo
Futuro
io
smetto
ho smesso
smetterò
tu
smetti
hai smesso
smetterai
lui/lei
smette
ha smesso
smetterà
noi
smettiamo
abbiamo smesso
smetteremo
voi
smettete
avete smesso
smetterete
loro
smettono
hanno smesso
smetteranno
"I Beatles hanno smesso di suonare insieme nel 1970." — The Beatles stopped playing together in 1970.
sperare— regular -are · to hope
to hope
Presente
Passato Prossimo
Futuro
io
spero
ho sperato
spererò
tu
speri
hai sperato
spererai
lui/lei
spera
ha sperato
spererà
noi
speriamo
abbiamo sperato
spereremo
voi
sperate
avete sperato
spererete
loro
sperano
hanno sperato
spereranno
"Spero che ascoltiate questa musica con attenzione." — I hope you will listen to this music attentively.
suonare— regular -are · to play (instrument)
to play (a musical instrument); to sound; to ring
Presente
Passato Prossimo
Futuro
io
suono
ho suonato
suonerò
tu
suoni
hai suonato
suonerai
lui/lei
suona
ha suonato
suonerà
noi
suoniamo
abbiamo suonato
suoneremo
voi
suonate
avete suonato
suonerete
loro
suonano
hanno suonato
suoneranno
"Mi piace sentire il violoncello suonare la melodia principale." — I like to hear the cello play the main melody.
usare— regular -are · to use
to use, to make use of
Presente
Passato Prossimo
Futuro
io
uso
ho usato
userò
tu
usi
hai usato
userai
lui/lei
usa
ha usato
userà
noi
usiamo
abbiamo usato
useremo
voi
usate
avete usato
userete
loro
usano
hanno usato
useranno
"Morricone non usava tastiere per comporre." — Morricone did not use keyboards to compose.
Adjectives & Adverbs
abbondante
abundant, plentiful
"Con 500 colonne sonore, è una fonte abbondante di musica." — With 500 soundtracks, it is an abundant source of music.
affascinante
captivating, fascinating — same form for m. and f.
"La melodia era davvero insolita e affascinante." — The melody was truly unusual and captivating.
ammirevole
admirable — same form for m. and f.
"Sessant'anni di carriera — un numero davvero ammirevole." — Sixty years of career — a truly admirable number.
casualmente — adverb, invariable
randomly, by chance
"YouTube seleziona casualmente cose simili a ciò che ascolti." — YouTube randomly selects things similar to what you listen to.
eccezionale
exceptional, outstanding — same form for m. and f.
"Il documentario era veramente eccezionale." — The documentary was truly exceptional.
fortunato — fortunata (f.)
fortunate, lucky
"Sono stato fortunato a trovare un lettore DVD universale." — I was fortunate to find a universal DVD player.
gradualmente — adverb, invariable
gradually, little by little
"Mi sono abituato gradualmente a questo stile di scrittura." — I gradually got used to this style of writing.
impegnativo — impegnativa (f.)
demanding, challenging; headache-inducing
"Il libro era piuttosto impegnativo da leggere." — The book was quite demanding to read.
incantevole
enchanting, charming — same form for m. and f.
"La melodia era incantevole con le sue note che salivano e scendevano." — The melody was enchanting with its rising and falling notes.
insolito — insolita (f.)
unusual, uncommon
"Era una melodia davvero insolita rispetto a tutto ciò che ascoltavo." — It was a truly unusual melody compared to everything I was listening to.
monotono — monotona (f.)
monotonous, repetitive
"All'inizio la musica sembrava un po' monotona." — At first the music seemed a bit monotonous.
notevole
remarkable, notable — same form for m. and f.
"Ha un modo notevole di creare melodie." — He has a remarkable way of creating melodies.
purtroppo — adverb, invariable
unfortunately, sadly
"Purtroppo, quando l'ho scoperto, era già morto." — Unfortunately, by the time I discovered him, he had already passed away.
ragionevole
reasonable — same form for m. and f.
"Il prezzo era abbastanza ragionevole per diciotto CD." — The price was quite reasonable for eighteen CDs.
raro — rara (f.)
rare, uncommon
"Questo set di CD è piuttosto raro da trovare." — This set of CDs is quite rare to find.
sincopato — sincopata (f.)
syncopated — accents falling on unexpected beats
"La frase musicale è molto sincopata ma fresca." — The musical phrase is very syncopated but fresh.
stancante
tiring, exhausting — same form for m. and f.
"Ascoltare la stessa musica più e più volte diventa stancante." — Listening to the same music over and over becomes tiring.
superficialmente — adverb, invariable
superficially, in passing, only on the surface
"Lo conoscevo solo molto superficialmente prima." — I only knew him very superficially before.