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An introductory approach to Ludovico Einaudi 
Turin-born, he started taking lessons and playing piano at the age of six, greatly encouraged by his mother, a piano player herself. When he was 10 years old, he began playing guitar and at 16 he entered the Turin Conservatory to study composition. He continued later in the prestigious Milan´s G. Verdi Conservatorio, where he graduated in classical composition. Post-graduate studies followed under the guidance of Luciano Berio, with whom he participated in several musical and theatrical projects as Musical Assistant. In 1982, he was granted a scholarship for the prestigious Tanglewood Festival.
Einaudi´s musical career started by composing some chamber, band and dance-theatre-choreographic and multimedia works which were soon praised and performed in world renowned international music centers such as Teatro alla Scala, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Tanglewood Festival, UCLA Center for Perfoming Arts, Paris’s Ircam, Budapest Film Festival, etc.
His collaborative ventures in theater, video and dance resulted in the following works: Sul filo d´Orfeo (1984), Time-Out (1988), The Wild Man (1990), The Emperor (1991) and the opera-ballet Salgari (1995).
Movie scoring knocked also on his door, and he has ever since developed an intense and very successful career in this field, with twelve movies and four prizes for best scores awarded in Italy and abroad.
Very few composers have such a variety of musical definitions as Einaudi. His music is often described as minimalist, contemporary classical, impressionist, new-age, ambient, spiritual, improvisation, vanguardism, world music, introspective, intimate…. and we could go on, but let’s have the composer himself comment about his wide and eclectic musical scope.
The Interview When you left the Conservatory, were you strongly influenced by Berio´s avant-garde musical language or other classical composers of your time, or did you have a clear idea about the direction you wanted your music to go?
When I left the school, I spent several years experimenting different musical languages before having a clearer idea. I started from the avant-garde classical musical language, but soon I discovered that this world was too tight for me, and I gradually discovered a language where I could feel more related to, more connected with popular music.
How would you actually explain or define your non-classical musical roots and present trends?
My roots are very close to popular music in a very wide perspective, from rock to world music.
Your music makes one dream, touches deeply into one´s heart, a gift for the soul, one that lets the imagination run wild, a music that seems to be made of memories, inner feelings, those little things that happen in everyday life, the elements of nature… When translating all these sensations into music, from where do you get your inspiration?…. in your family´s vineyard, in the serene setting of the Piedmont hills, the hectic pace of Milano or Rome, or from silence and isolation?
I usually work in Milano, I could say that my best music was born in the city. When I am in a beautiful place, the environment becomes too strong, and it is more difficult to concentrate. If I am in the city, I can move more easily with my imagination.
Because of your background, your musical career seemed to be headed in the classical direction, but how then did you become involved in film scoring?
I started making some music with some friends that where making their first films, and they asked me to work with them.
In our opinion, your first cds. “Stanze”, “Le Onde”, “I Giorni”, look as if you were in search of an introspective, personal musical space, exploring new formulas to convey by means of the piano your reflections, emotions and remembrances. We feel this was very well achieved in two of your early cds: “Le Onde” and, above all, “Eden Roc”, since long a favourite of ours. Would you please elaborate on this subject?
With those albums I started to have a more precise idea of what I wanted to explore and, at the same time, I thought that I wanted to play my own music, instead of writing it for someone else. When I started performing my music, I found a good balance between abstract and practical dimensions. When you start playing in front of an audience you search a meaning in every note you play. Also, I felt that it was good to start to search my language from the piano, alone, and try to see what you could do without hiding yourself with other instrumental colours. It was like a reflection on my resources, emotions and life. Likewise, I was never happy about the performances of my music from other players, so I thought to better try to do it myself. Eden Roc was a step further in this direction where, added to my piano, I played with a string quintet, and Djivan Gasparian.
“Treno di panna” (1988) was your first feature film score. What memories do you have from scoring this film?. Why do you think Director Andrea de Carlo called you -an inexperienced film music composer at that time- to provide music for his movie?
I was a friend of Andrea De Carlo. We have had a common background, so I think this is why he asked me to work on the film; besides, he also liked what I was doing. We spent some time together writing some songs for the film. We both sing in two songs. It was fun.
For Director Michele Sordillo you scored two films, “Da qualche parte in città” (1994) and “Acquario” (1996) the latter of which was awarded the “Grolla d´oro” prize for best soundtrack. Can you please tell us about scoring these films and how your collaboration was with Michele?
With Michele Sordillo was a different kind of collaboration in the sense that he wanted to use as a musical base for the film some music I was composing for my albums “Le Onde” and “Eden Roc”. So we went to the studio and rerecorded some of this music with different timing based on the film sequences.
We are quite curious to know how you composed your 1997 Edgard Allan Poe work, primarily conceived as a soundtrack for films from the silent era?. Do you have in mind putting music to silent movies as other composers (Carl Davis, John Scott, etc.) did?
It was conceived as a project on Poe, with silent films and also some poetry. I scored “The Raven” with Jonathan Moore, an English actor/director making the reading with the music. So it was like a sort of multimedia work on Poe.
You scored Nanni Moretti´s “Aprile” (1998) in which some tracks from “Le Onde” were included. The same happened with “Fuori dal mondo” where tracks from “Eden Roc”, “Stanze” and “Salgari” also appear. Is there a specific reason for selecting music previously recorded to fill in these scores?
The reason is that Moretti and Piccioni heard some of my albums and asked me to use the music. Then with Piccioni I started to work in a deeper way composing original music for his films.
Your excellent score for “Fuori dal Mondo” (1999) finally drew attention to your name and was a real discovery for soundtrack lovers. This Oscar-nominated film was also awarded many prizes in Italy and abroad (5 David de Donatello, 4 Ciak D´oro, and in Germany, Chicago, Los Angeles and Montreal). Your music, beautiful and inspiring, is subtle, delicate, with a touch of sadness, but one that penetrates deeply. How did you approach the main two characters of the movie´s touching and tender story?
“Fuori dal mondo” was quite an easy experience, due to the fact that the editor of the film, Esmeralda Calabria, was very good in selecting the music from some musical ideas I gave for the film. She actually chooses what themes were connected to the characters. My inspiration was more connected to the general mood of the film.
“Luce dei miei occhi” (2001) was another very good, atmospheric score which won the 2002 Italian award for Best Film Score. Your music, scored for very few instruments, guitar, piano and cello, carries immense conviction regarding the emotional involvements of the characters but, in our opinion, the cd was somewhat marred by the songs. Did you consider that the five songs appearing on the cd fit perfectly well with the score, or was this imposed by the Director/Producer?
The songs were chose by Piccioni, they were not imposed, they needed to have those songs in the film and I agreed.
In 2001 you composed the music for the Greek film “Alexandria” by Maria Iliou, a movie that we do not have much information about. How did it happen that you were hired to score it?
Maria Iliou heard my music somewhere and, for production reasons, they were looking for an Italian composer so she called me.
Do you feel more comfortable working with the same director in several movies, as in the case with Michele Sordillo and Guiseppe Piccioni, where a kind of symbiosis can be set up, making it easier for you to catch what the Director musically wants to transmit, or do you think that working with different Directors provides you with new scope to explore other musical developments?
It depends, it´s nice to work with the same people, even if sometimes the risk is to repeat things in a working relation. I like also to change and work with different people.
Your subsequent magnificent score was for Francesca Comencini´s “Le parole di mio padre” (2001) based on Italo Svevo´s “The conscience of Zeno” a classic of the XX century Italian literature. Your music is elegant in both, harmonious and subtly minimalist, describing very well the soulfulness and excitements Zeno goes through. What can you tell us about scoring this film, and of your collaboration with Comencini?
I wrote a lot more music than what you hear in the film. The album contains all the music that is not in the movie. It was an interesting collaboration even if I was a little disappointed to not have most of my work in the film.
Another very remarkable score of yours was a TV remake of “Doctor Zhivago” (2002). We cannot avoid recalling the sweeping, unforgettable Jarre´s score for David Lean´s film. For this remake, your approach was utterly different. You developed an intimate vein together with some Russian ethnic touches, all supported by a string orchestra in which some solo instruments stand out (piano, cello, duduk). The overall result, introspective yet deeply rich in emotion, is compelling. It is very interesting to have two diverse musical approaches to the complex characters of Zhivago and Lara. Would you please tell us how you became involved in this project, and how you tackled the whole story, musically speaking?
It was a very interesting project for me, maybe the most difficult one. I had to compete with the famous Lara´s film and it was quite a big production, with a lot of people telling me what I had to do. But Campiotti, the Director, was on my side and I had a clear idea that I needed to root the music in the Russian folk tradition. It was very interesting for me to search and work with Russian musicians, and I´m very satisfied from my point of view. I remember my life was completely absorbed by this film for four months.
For Roberto Andò´s thriller “Sotto falso nome” (2004) you composed a score very different from what one can expect for this kind of films. The “Einaudi´s touch” is evident, but we also find a blend of musical genres, and some hints of Bernard Herrmann seem to be present here and there. Was Herrmann´s music one of your references for scoring this movie?. Also, how was it that Roberto Andò contacted you to score a thriller, a genre we believe you were not familiar with?
Roberto Andò called me because he was in trouble with another composer. They chose me because they heard some of “Luce dei miei occhi” music and tried some of it on the film as a temporary score. I was very intrigued by the idea of writing the music for a noir film, I love this genre. I was watching some films with Roberto before starting the work, from Basic Instinct to Mulholland Drive. I made some sketches and when I found the right melodic/harmonic world, I composed everything in a month, working on the film that was already edited. I enjoyed very much that work.
When scoring a film, generally speaking, are you allowed to compose freely according to your own judgment and perception of the story and the characters involved or does the Director –let´s not forget it is his/her movie- convey to you his/her own personal ideas which may happen to be different from yours?
It depends, every film it is a different story. I am conscious that every film needs its proper music, but I also think that within this concept you can find the space to write something that is special and find your creative space inside. Anyway, I tend to work only with those directors who are interested in a dialogue with me.
Your scores are often associated with drama or dark romantic movies. Do you consider yourself a versatile composer, in the sense that you would also feel comfortable scoring epic, adventure, historical or action movies?
Well, I think I could work on any kind of film, it just depends if I like it or not. I think I could have scored films like “Blade Runner”, maybe not “Tootsie” because I am not sure about writing for comedies, but who knows, maybe I could!
Are there many substantial differences in writing music for movies, theatre, choreographies and/or concert?. It is our understanding that for films and theatre there may be some limitations or constraints imposed by the work itself or the people involved in the project, whereas for a concert work, you have full freedom of expression to develop your own musical language, no one is imposing on you and you have no limitations on your creativity. Your comments please on these two subjects?
For me there is not a big difference in terms of inspiration that has always to be the best I can do. With films, theatre, etc, the difference is in terms of other people involved in the creative process. I think limitations give you sometimes a clearer focus on the way you have to go and also the project itself gives you the opportunity to explore worlds that maybe you would not touch by yourself. When you are alone, composing for yourself, you have to define yourself the idea and its limits which sometimes is even more difficult than writing the music.
It looks like small settings are the finer places for your music to be played. This creates an atmosphere which may help you to better express your feelings and emotions, and where communication between yourself and the audience can be better archived than in a large concert hall. However, your 2003 La Scala concert seemed to prove otherwise. What is your viewpoint about this?
Recently, I play a lot in big venues, with one, two, or three thousands seats, it depends a lot on the theatres, for example, the London Barbican has two thousands seats but you feel very close to the audience which I like a lot. Sometimes big spaces have this problem of creating too much distance and everyone feels lost. I love also to play in small old theatres of five or seven hundred seats, where the acoustic is prefect and the feeling with the audience too.
Let´s for a moment look back to your early cds not related to movie music. Your interest and admiration for African ethnic music seems to be evident in “I Giorni”; the moody, melancholic evocations of Russian-Eastern music in “Eden Roc” or the very personal, introspective “Le Onde”. Do you think your musical language is today gradually changing from those early days, in the sense that you now tend to focus more on intimacy and spirituality rather than popular, folk or ethnic music?
I am still exploring and learning things from other worlds, it is just my way of being spiritual and search the right emotions in my language.
We know you have very in-depth memories of your travels to Africa and the fascination you have for Mali which resulted in “Diario Mali” a cd. you recorded with Malinian kora virtuoso Ballaké Sissoko. Why are you so attracted by African music?
It is like discovering a very pure and ancient way of feeling, the roots that we have lost and destroyed. There are many things that I like, from the contact with the tradition, improvisation, the way music is part of everyone´s lives.
We have been talking so far about your movie career but, as mentioned in the foreword of this interview, classical music was the field in which you first started your composing career. What kind of classical music do you think suits you best to convey your message, ….chamber, dance, music for small ensembles, solo instruments or a large scale concert piece?
I do not know, I like the intimate sense of chamber music, but I also like big scale projects. I tend to compose more for small ensembles, maybe I prefer to feel the individual, but on the other hand, I adore the sound of a full string orchestra.
Your classical works are very poorly represented in cd. Is there something you can do to remedy this situation, or does the problem lie with the recording companies who are not much interested in recording your works, because they may think your classical music would not sell?
There are some works of the past that I would like to release in the future. I tend to think at albums as a whole concept rather than a compilation of different pieces. Maybe with the download era, I will make them available separately for download.
We would not like to finish this interview without raising the question we always ask all composers. What are your forthcoming projects in classical and very specially, film music?
My new album “Divenire” featuring the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra has been released recently, and in Spain it will be available in May. Shane Meadows´ film, “This is England” is going to be released in April in the UK. It has some previous composed music, and some original music which I composed for the film.
Many thanks, Mr. Einaudi, for allowing us to interview you. We are most grateful for your thoughtfulness, and we can only wish you the best of luck and continued success in your future musical projects. We certainly look forward to hearing more of your great movie scores.
16-june-2007
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