I don't know what it is about Ennio Morricone's music, but I have a weakness for it. Along with Philip Glass, Morricone has been my favourite movie music composer for a very long time now. And although movie music can be fraught with tainted associations that can lead to unoriginal fiction, sometimes it can be very very helpful in all its dramatic peaks and valleys. And that's why with the exception of one score that I just can't ever listen to, I find myself draw to his movie scores in the process of drafting my stories.
Yes, he scored some of the world's most famous Spaghetti Westerns. But he also composed the score to The Mission. I've never seen The Mission. For all I know, it could be a bunch of imperialist apologist crap with a healthy handful of exoticism thrown in for good measure. Or perhaps I'm pre-judging it. I have no idea. All I know is that it's Jeremy Irons, Robert DeNiro, South America, and one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard:
Doesn't your soul just ache with the beauty of it? Doesn't it just soar? There needs to be an English word for that feeling (maybe there's already a German word for it?). That same feeling of mixed pain and pleasure that you get on looking at a vista of natural beauty, or when you've got your face smooshed into the tiny window of a commercial airliner, watching the ground sink away (oh, gee, am I really the only person who does that?)
What I'm saying is that Morricone's music goes beyond inspiration for me. To be out and out corny, it makes my spirit soar. And in listening to his music while writing, maybe I'm hoping that some of that magic will rub off on my work, and it makes my readers' spirits soar. Here's hoping! :)
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