01  iso vocal The dissonant clang of a broken church bell had just invaded the oppressive silence, as two men stood facing each other in the middle of this dusty and single horse town street. Both were awaiting the sun’s zenith which was typically referred to as high noon. There was a very nervous looking time keeper standing nearby and  holding an unsteady arm up in the air, and at the end of his quaking fingers dangled a golden pocket watch suspended upon a chain of gold that was handed to him by one of the combatants standing ready to duel. The grizzled warriors, one of medium build with cold steel blue eyes was well weathered and mouthing the stub of an old cigar between his tobacco stained teeth. The other man, quick and cat like in his movements was tall, dark eyed, lean and hawk faced in appearance.

Photo by: Sylvia Wei Wang Riddle

Each of the two men were stone faced and calm  in contrast to the tense situation, but both were meeting here in this God forsaken place with a quiet and final purpose. To pit their six gun talents against one another, and to shoot each other dead! Now imagine if you will reading this scene from the script to an “as yet to be released” spaghetti western movie and being asked to write the musical score to it without ever even having seen the film itself. And even more amazing, on such a shoestring budget that you did not have access to a complete orchestra, and that you would have to make do with fill in sounds such as:  A rooster’s crow, A man whistling, A train’s whistle, and inexpensive percussion instruments like Pot’s and Pan’s. And also having to recruit the help of an old high school buddy  who played this new fangled instrument just recently invented called: An Electric Guitar….. That is just exactly what famed Italian composer Ennio Morricone had to contend with when commissioned to write the musical scores for films such as: The Good The Bad and The Ugly, Fist Full Of Dollars, Once Upon A Time In The West, Two Mules For Sister Sara and countless others (Wikkipedia “Ennio Morricone” for more detail. The son of Liberia and Mario Morricone, who was an accomplished Jazz Trumpeter, Ennio was born on 11/10/28 and wrote his first composition at the tender young age of 6.

Quite obviously a musical prodigy young Ennio went on to graduate from a highly regarded school of music in Italy by age 11. And from there immediately went to work composing music for a living. As I have discussed here in my previous post:  Tracking And The Art Of Zen, While out tracking and hunting an animal we must  visualize. And  this is precisely what  Ennio Morricone would do when commissioned to write the music for a particular film. He would first read the script and while in the process of reading the story a mental image would form along with what he considered the appropriate musical scoring, and all would be visualized long before even the first musical note would be committed to paper. As you follow the first set of tracks of an animal you must get inside the head of the creature and try to see the world as he sees it. Why did the animal stop in a particular spot?  Which direction did he look in while stopped? Is there a particular scent which permeates the area where he stopped and you are now standing? Again, visualize everything which you can imagine that the animal might see, hear, smell, touch and taste. It is then that you will become more in tune with your surroundings, and also in the process become a better tracker and hunter.