2020年经济学人 电影配乐大师莫里康内(4)（在线收听）

Cinema-goers sensed how he melded thinking and feeling, that he played with sounds that spoke to his romantic nature and was able to conjure up, in music, heroic figures who resonated with audiences around the world, however different they might be. It was the music he wrote for “A Fistful of Dollars” that turned the unknown Clint Eastwood from a faux-western cowboy into a hero worthy of Homer— honourable, fearless and with a kind hidden heart—and the opening chords of Johann Sebastian Bach’s first song of St Matthew’s Passion, “Come, ye daughters, share my mourning” just before the rat-a-tat-tat drumbeat of French soldiers pouring out of their trucks, that helped transform Gillo Pontecorvo’s “Battle of Algiers” from a story about a nasty colonial spat into a tragic historical epic.

电影观众感受到了他是如何将思想和情感结合起来的，他演奏的曲调与他的浪漫天性息息相通，也感受到他能在音乐里营造出引发全世界观众共鸣的英雄人物，无论各地的观众有多么不同。正是他为《荒野大镖客》创作的音乐，让默默无闻的克林特·伊斯特伍德从一个冒牌西部牛仔变成了如《荷马史诗》里的人物般的英雄-光荣、无畏、内心善良——而约翰·塞巴斯蒂安·巴赫《马太受难曲》第一首歌的开场和弦，“来吧，女儿们，分享我的哀痛吧。”后面紧接的就是法国士兵从卡车里涌出时搭配的咚咚鼓声，这帮助吉洛·庞特科洛的《阿尔及尔之战》，从一个关于肮脏的殖民纷争故事，转变为一个悲剧性的历史史诗。

As with the ghostly harmonica in “Once Upon a Time in the West” and the soaring theme the Jesuit Father Gabriel plays on the oboe as he tries to bring God to the Amazon in Roland Joffé’s “The Mission”, many of his compositions outlived the films they were written for. Visiting journalists sometimes failed to realise he was having them on when he gently insisted that people go to the cinema to watch films, not to hear them. Deep down he knew that music could make a film unforgettable.

就像《西部往事》中幽灵般的口琴，以及罗兰·约非执导的《教会》中耶稣会神父加百利试图将上帝带到亚马逊时用双簧管演奏的激荡人心的主题曲一样，他的许多配乐作品比电影本身更经久不衰。来访的记者有时没有意识到，当他温柔地坚持人们去电影院是为了看电影，而不是听电影时，他是在捉弄他们。他内心深处知道，音乐可以使一部电影令人难忘。

That was why Sergio Leone so often had him compose the music before shooting started, rather than the reverse, which is the way films are usually made, or even insisted the actors listen to the soundtrack to get them into character. He had just one piece of advice when approached by John Zorn, then a budding cinema composer: “Forget the film. Think of the record.” Millions would agree.

这就是为什么塞吉奥·里昂总是让他在开拍前作曲，甚至坚持让演员听电影原声，让他们进入角色。而通常情况都是先拍电影再配乐。当约翰·佐恩找到他时，他只有一条建议：“忘记这部电影。专注于乐曲。数百万人都会同意这一点。