Composing for the Cinema: The Theory and Praxis of Music in Film

Gillian Anderson's translation of this Italian classic is a welcome addition to recent scholarship in the field. Although Morricone and Miceli discuss more about the events that take place before, during, and after composing, they discuss relatively little about the compositional process itself.

Know what you are getting if you decide to buy this book. This is a 310 page book on composing for film and fully 1/3 of it is bibliographic and end of chapter references, and there is not a single musical note in the entire book let alone even a single musical passage for teaching or analysis. Disappointing. I respect Ennio Morricone and love his music. He has composed 100+ film scores and yet we don't get a single musical bar from any of his scores in this book with commentary, theory, teaching moments? Really? For $25 I will return this book; if it drops to $9.99 I might buy it again, as an interesting read of interviews with a master film composer. Until then I will put my money towards the even more expensive 'On the Track' ebook for which I own two print copies; 'On the Track' contains hundreds of musical passages from film scores, with analysis, commentary, far more useful on a practical level than Morricone's book which is basically interviews with him on his wisdom (which again I respect and admire, just know what you are getting with this book, which will be just that, and no musical bars with analysis/commentary).

As a music composition amateur, I found this book an interesting window into the professional film music world -- and particularly into the minds of Ennio Morricone and Sergio Miceli. Since the book is a textual translation from a series of seminars, it is surely no substitute for actually attending or seeing the seminars; indeed, at times it was difficult to follow because Morricone or Miceli would refer to specific videos or musical passages being played for the audience, and the book is mainly text rather than visuals. I was also reading the book to see if I could understand the stories behind the soundtrack for "The Mission," and there were only a few pages written on this particular film; overall, the prospective reader should understand that this book is more about conveying lessons for film music composition in general rather than detailing the history and origins of Morricone's soundtracks in particular (though he does relate many stories along the way).Nonetheless, the text is useful in its own rite. I found especially interesting the taxonomy explained in Chapter 4 on the differences between the internal, external, and mediated levels in film music. I also appreciated interesting big-picture insights from Morricone and Miceli sprinkled throughout the book (e.g., on page 91: "the reason why music and cinema are in such agreement ... is temporality that the two arts have in common"; and on page 145, speaking of American science fiction films: "if our Italian mythology is in the remote past, America's mythology, apart from the epic poem of the West, is in the future"). I also appreciated Morricone's and Miceli's humble humor along the way. Among the parts that made me smile was Miceli's apparent admission in this didactic book about film music analysis that composition is a creative, partially improvised process, and musical analysis is often conducted in hindsight, on page 44: "Many [composers] belong to the generations that succeeded that of Morricone, and ... however good or bad they may be, their results have never started from a preanalysis of the type that I have just proposed, and of no other type either."Overall, I would recommend this book to the serious, patient film music composition enthusiast or student.

One of the best books on composing I have read, the pair of authors delve into relationships with directors — often missed and hugely important.

Ottimo

Excellent publication on cinema music - really enlightening in terms of music and questions answers sessions.

I love Ennio Morricone and was looking forward to this book but I thought it would have score analysis in it. Its a shame it doesn't. Still a good book but would have been good to have scores.