I was struck by the statistic on Radio 4’s The Morricone Affair that the composer Ennio Morricone had written more than 400 film scores. Without great success I tried to imagine the labour of such an opus.

• rounding up or down the the average film to 2 hours, it would take 800 hours simply to watch each film only once

• let’s double it if we agree that a substantial understanding of each film and film score is unlikely to unfold on one viewing/hearing – 1600 hours

• let’s add hour to each project for us to write a subjective commentary of the effect of the music on the film* and upon us – 2,000 hours

• or, add a further 3 hours for a critical (technical) commentary on how the music achieves this – 2,800 hours

• or, add a further 5 hours for a gifted musician to transcribe just some of the film score – 3,600 hours – or almost 103 weeks at 35 hours per week!

• then imagine the leap between this and the process of getting to know the film; writing a coherent, score and parts (most of this opus is pre-software); collaborating with the director on cuts, additions, alterations – and quite possibly rehearsing the orchestra for (and conducting it in) the recording

Interestingly, Morricone and director Sergio Leone realised, only when meeting to discuss work, that they had at one time been classmates.

* Morricone commented that the music must offer something which is not already being shown or said. He was also aware that the varied cultural background and emotional baggage that we all bring will result in many different hearings of the music.