The film “The Pianist at Sea” is another cinematic miracle created by Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore in the late 1990s. The film’s score was composed by the Italian composer Ennio Morricone, a great composer who has not only scored this film, but has scored more than 400 films worldwide.Anyone who has seen “The Pianist at Sea” knows that the main character of the movie is a person born on a ship. Perhaps the main character’s parents fell in love and gave birth to him after they got on the cruise ship, or perhaps they were not ready to meet this new life that came suddenly and chose to abandon him. Then, by the ship’s boiler worker Danny to stay, because no name, just the year is 1900, so everyone called him 1900. When he was very young, Danny the boiler worker simply did not have much time to take care of him and educate him, he spent every day crawling around on the floor of the ship. The ship was a miniature version of the world, with people of different colors and colors from all over the world, and they were all different from each other. 1900 spent his days playing on the ship, watching all kinds of people, watching the concerts held by the nobility on the ship at night, and among all the instruments he fell in love with the piano, perhaps because the wonderful and varied tone of the piano moved him. He had no teacher, the captain and the musicians would not let him touch the piano, so he could only practice at night when no one was around, learning by ear during the day and practicing at night. Finally, one day, he replaced the pianist on the ship with his excellent piano skills, and from then on, his legendary life began.
When mentioning the name of Ennio Morricone, many Chinese people certainly do not recognize it. But those who like literary films must have seen the “Homecoming Trilogy” directed by Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore – “The Beautiful Legend of Sicily”, “The Pianist at Sea” and “Cinema Paradiso”. These three films have long occupied the top of the list on major literary movie recommendation websites and posts. A good film’s soundtrack must be well done, even if it is a commercial movie, and can be closely connected with the film’s storyline, helping to set the atmosphere of the movie and create the content that the movie wants to express. Then the literary film in the film soundtrack requirements are even more demanding, “Piano Man at Sea” as a film that is always created around the story of the topic of music, the requirements for the film music score can be imagined.
Much of the theme music for “The Pianist at Sea” is jazz, and much of it was improvised. Because 1900 had not studied formally with his teachers, he was basically a wild card, so his alterations of Mozart’s works included a large number of other musical elements, such as blues, country, and other musical elements. With the technical dexterity of the 1900 performance, the piano performance in the film is so infectious that even people who do not know music will be brought into it. Ennio Morricone composed the theme music for the film, “Melody of Love”, which is not incompatible with the rest of the film’s soundtrack, but more complementary. This piece is very heartfelt and elegant, which criticizes the overly materialistic world, but also expresses the desire for true love and freedom.
The Melody of Love is inspired by 1900’s love for the girl he loves. The music appears ten times in the film, and each time it is closely related to the main characters in the film. The moving melody expresses 1900’s love for the heroine, and the improvisation shows the audience 1900’s excellent piano skills, which makes the main music highlight the theme of the film.
The Pianist at Sea” is known as one of the most unmissable movies of the 20th century. In addition to its legendary storyline and the actors’ performances, the credit of the original soundtrack is also not to be underestimated, especially for a literary film with a strong literary quality. The great Italian composer Giuseppe Tornatore is known for his deep and ethereal compositions and delicate and varied compositions, and with the film’s tumultuous storyline, the film is nearly perfect.
The whole movie in the process of watching people are always in the state of enjoying the music, and the director will also be according to the changes in the storyline when adding new characters, almost all use different forms of music or different shadow moon style to but divided them. For example, shortly after the beginning of the film boiler worker Danny holding 1900 lying in a hammock, the hammock clanking and oboe simple melody, such arrangements can quickly bring the audience into the film, so that the audience also empathize with Danny’s fall.
Different musical instruments have different expressive power, generally the larger the body of the instrument will be the lower sound, such as the violin than the cello sound to high, and double bass, the sound is very low, the Chinese Erhu pull out the sound to give people the feeling of very sad. The director used this feature of the instrument to create the whole atmosphere of the film, for example, the famous pianist Morton went on board the ship to fight with 1900, after Morton played together, 1900 unexpectedly played together a four-handed piece, the rapid tempo made everyone present stunned. The film then adds a string-based orchestra, and the effect of the strings on the atmosphere is very strong, which immediately brings out the climax of the film.
Piano Man at Sea is a classic work of cinematic art, and its enduring popularity cannot be separated from the film music. In this film, music is not the main character, but the soul of the whole film. The charm of the music in “The Pianist at Sea” has far exceeded the role and value of the film music itself.
