Translated to English by Patrick Bouster from a French translation of the original Italian words.
Notes by the last translator.

Broadcast by the radio channel France-Musiques in 3 parts on Sundays October 20, 27 and November 3, 2002, at 12:00 PM. The discussions about the films mentioned were illustrated by film and music excerpts.

The questions are by Marc-David Calvet.

Part 1: The Mission and the Giuseppe Tornatore films

[On the question of the 4CD box compilation Io, Ennio Morricone]

It is the first time that a disc presents all the aspects from the work of a composer, in all his styles, even if some productions are only evoked, because it is impossible indeed in 4 hours and 30 minutes to show the whole life of a composer.
There are a lot of things, very representative of my occupation, and I believe it is a unique situation. The 4 CDs make up, musically and morally, a summary of the life of a composer.

You usually say: "I am first of all a music composer, and only after, a film composer." What did you mean by this?

A lot of people believe that I began with the cinema, and then started to write "absolute music"; it is not true. I began with writing "absolute music", and then I worked for the cinema because some directors called to me. I made experiences of arrangements for the radio, the television, the theatre... Therefore, I became known and was called for the cinema.

For the film The Mission, Roland Joffé wanted eclectic music...

The film story is true: it happened in a named Guarani Indians place near Amazon drainage area in south Americain in the 18th century, in a period, musically, of a renewal of the instrumental music. This music is brought by a priest, playing oboe, in South America. He brings not only the instrumental music, with his oboe, but the rules of the Trento's council (1), dating from the end of the 16th century. It established some rules to put some order in the liturgical music, for which Palestrina (2) is the main responsible. Here are the two roots of the occidental music, put in the film The Mission: the liturgical music rules and the instrumental music. A third element added is the ethnic music, from the Guaranis.

Concretely, on the special point of the natives' music of the Guaranis, did you have some contacts with ethnologists, who know precisely this music?

I know the music history, the music of this period, in South America, and in occidental countries. I could therefore put together the three elements.
There is a musical piece while the cardinal Altamirano is visiting the natives: Ave Maria Guarani...
(Very very beautiful!)
...which has nothing to do with the Guarani's music. It shows already the intrusion of the occidental liturgical music, by the Jesuits, after the Trento's council, transplanted in South America and badly sung. Because Indians could not sing like European people.
We looked for singers from diverse origins, who didn't sing well, who had voice problems, who did some "strange" sounds. There were therefore occidental and ethnic elements, united in this performance. We had to do some efforts to have this result. The director's idea was to take different people, with the help of several embassies, who did not know the music. I added another idea: to dispose the choir in an unusual manner. Classically, the groups of singers of a choir (soprano, tenor, ...) are put together, in order, for each singer, to hear his group. I chose to disperse the singers to break this order. I gave the signal to begin and it was a... I don't want to say the word![laughs].....(More see here)