Sunday, May 23, 2010

This Week's "Music to Read By" Soundtrack

The first two songs in my updated playlist [see left panel; press play] are from movies. I thought they deserved a few words mention.

The first is Yo Yo Ma doing a version of "Gabriel's Oboe" from the film The Mission (1986).  The movie, starring Roberto DeNiro and Jeremy Irons, may have won the Palme d'Or and the Oscar for best cinematography, but for many it's Ennio Morricone's soundtrack that is the most memorable aspect of the film. Morricone, who has composed and arranged film scores for films as varied as The Untouchables and Cinema Paradiso, became famous scoring spaghetti westerns (40 of them) including The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. (If Clint Eastwood starred in it and you can whistle the music from it, Ennio Morricone composed it.)

The second song, "Yumeji's Theme" by Shigeru Umebayashi, was made famous in Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai's film, In the Mood For Love (2000). If I were taking movies to my desert island, for the photography and music alone, In the Mood for Love would come with.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:51 a.m.

    They are beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fantastic! As for Morricone though, don't just stop at the Mission and the Western scores. He did an incredible amount of work, most of which is worth checking out. I highly recommend a 3 disc set of his scores from the 60's and 70's called "Mondo Morricone Revisited" which focuses on his Horror, Giallo, Police and other such B genres. It's amazing. So sexy, funky, moving. It's really something else.

    If you're into Morricone, you should check out my Spaghetti Western Concept Rap album, called "Showdown at the BK Corral." It's basically a Spaghetti Western over 9 tracks - very influenced by Morricone. I'd love to hear what you think of it! You can download it for free at sunsetparkriders.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love "Yumeji's Theme" (and of course also the film "In the Mood for Love")

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for the impassioned responses. Dave, liked the site very much and was rather intrigued by the music. Best of luck with it.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Follow mendelsohnjon on Twitter