Music and authorship

Yesterday morning, the Sala Laguna hosted the talk “The Protagonist (of Cinema) Is Music,” one of the many events on the Confronti program at Giornate degli Autori. Introduced by Francesco Ranieri Martinotti, this one took the form of a dialogue between Pivio (ACMF president) and Michele Braga, composer of the score for Balcanica by Nicola Sorcinelli (on the GdA competition slate).

Taking Balcanica as its departure, the conversation turned to the theme of music for films in general. Braga’s approach is unusual and eclectic. The composer declared he preferred first films over the ‘greatest of’ variety, since the vivacity and openness of directors starting out make a good match with Braga’s own love of experimentation. Specifically, scoring Balcanica allowed him to do new things with the tuba and learn about the political situations of artists in depth – particularly musicians in Afghanistan.

In Braga’s view, films constitute a collective effort in which, however, it is very often the composers themselves who don’t acknowledge the key importance of what they do – an auteurial endeavor plain and simple, just like that of the directors, writers, and so on. According to Braga, “As authors of a work, the word ‘authorship’ goes with ‘responsibility’. […] For a film to succeed, it is highly important that a composer, as well, is aware of his or her role as an author.”

Such a stimulating discussion as this one could hardly overlook one of the hottest issues at this writing, above all when the talk is of creative professions and authorship: artificial intelligence. Although neither of the two speakers came out openly against the use of AI, the overall atmosphere at the event suggested a certain diffidence on the topic, especially on Braga’s part. In the various missteps and imprecision of work done by humans, in fact, he identifies what it is that leads to “a certain kind of music.” A reason why Braga continues to prefer working with individual musicians.

The conversation ended on the notes of a longer version of the musical theme of Balcanica: further proof that music is not just a sidekick to cinematic creation but its very heart.