Early next morning.
Joshua arrived outside Madam Schroder’s mansion in a horse carriage. A rare occasion, Ciri had ‘slept in’ today. Because of that, Joshua was alone.
Last night, Joshua wrote a letter to Madam Schroder informing her that he will pay her a visit today. Because of that, the middle-aged butler was already waiting for Joshua’s arrival.
Joshua followed the middle-aged butler into Madam Schroder’s mansion. A relaxing yet passionate singing voice sounded from within the mansion.
The middle-aged butler brought Joshua back to the study. Madam Schroder was sitting on her desk writing something. When Joshua walked in, she raised her head.
“You mentioned in the letter that your visitation today is for the sake of ‘Léon: The Demon’s’ music accompaniment?”
Madam Schroder stopped writing and looked at Joshua. Joshua nodded his head in response.
“Like how stage plays needed to be adorned with music, music is also extremely important for movies,” said Joshua.
“Colum, bring over the musical scores.”
Before Joshua could bring out the musical scores he wrote last night, Madam Schroder ordered the middle-aged butler to take out a thick and heavy book from something resembling a safe.
The middle-aged butler even put on white gloves before touching the book. With how stern he looked, it was as if that book recorded some sort of taboo magic.
The thick book was placed on the table before Joshua. The middle-aged butler opened the book. What was recorded in the book was not magic. Instead, they were songs, pages of songs compiled by the composers of this world.
“Mister Joshua, go ahead and pick a couple that you feel is suitable for the movie,” said Madam Schroder.
Even though the country of Norland had a semi-modern political system like a parliamentary republic, the other countries still possess an absolute monarchy or constitutional monarchy for their political systems.
In other words, the social class system with nobles still exists in this world. Farucci was one such country. Because of that, most of the songs composed by the composers from Farucci were privately owned. Only after receiving the composers’ permission would a choir or orchestra be allowed to perform their songs.
If commoners, wandering minstrels or bards dared to publicly perform the music of a certain important composer, they could be punished or even imprisoned.
In a nutshell, that was the music ‘copyright’ of this world.
Fortunately, the majority of the composers were very open-minded. Take ‘Seron’s Song’ that was being performed in Madam Schroder’s mansion for example, it was a song that could be sung by anyone.
It was no wonder the butler was so stern when he was flipping through the pages of this book of musical scores. Those musical scores were all the works hand written by famous composers. If this was earth, it would be akin to a collection of musical drafts from Ludwig van Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach, Robert Schumann, Franz Schubert and other renowned classical music composers.
In several tens of years, merely an incomplete piece of paper from the many pages of compositions in that book would be able to sell for hundreds of thousands on the internet.
Of course, that was considering that the people of this world were ‘idle’ with ‘nothing to do’ like the people on earth.
“Madam Schroder, I thank you for your consideration. But, I’ve already written the musical accompaniments for ‘Léon: The Demon.’”
By showing Joshua the book of musical scores, Madam Schroder’s intention was extremely clear. She was basically telling him that he can use any of the scores in that book. Her behavior was simply that of a tyrannic female CEO.
However, Joshua tactfully declined Madam Schroder’s kind intentions. If he wanted to remake ‘Léon: The Demon’ as faithful to the original as possible, he must use the original scores for the movie.
“You’ve already written the musical accompaniments?”
Madam Schroder narrowed her brows at Joshua’s response. It wasn’t that Madam Schroder was looking down upon Joshua. It’s just that Joshua was simply too young. Even though he was a demon, he does not give off the airs of an older person from his every action.
In Farucci, the master composers were all old fellows over fifty years of age. Of course, there were some geniuses that were able to grab fate by the throat. Unfortunately, those geniuses were from other countries.
But, art does not distinguish national borders. The book of musical scores Madam Schroder presented to Joshua contained masterpieces from master composers all over the world. She does not believe that Joshua’s compositions would be able to match those masterpieces.
“That’s correct.”
Joshua took out the pile of musical scores he wrote last night and handed them to the middle-aged butler. The middle-aged butler passed the musical scores to Madam Schroder. Madam Schroder began to flip through the pages.
“I don’t believe a movie’s musical accompaniments needed to be outstanding on their own right. The most important thing is whether or not it suits the movie.”
Except for special circumstances, no one will bother to pay attention to a movie’s soundtracks while watching the movie. Perhaps a certain scene would be vivid in one’s mind after watching the movie. But, generally, the audience would have forgotten about the soundtracks by then.
The most important aspect for musical accompaniments in movies was to set the atmosphere.
“I understand what you’re saying.”
Madam Schroder was the person who had made the Black Swan Theatrical Troupe into what they’ve become today. When writing scripts for stageplays, she had personally hired composers to compose scene-specific music.
Unfortunately, Madam Schroder did not bring with her any famous composer to Norland. If she was to return to Farucci, it would take several weeks of travel. That was why she told Joshua to pick musical scores from the book to accompany the movie.
Madam Schroder began to focus on Joshua’s musical scores. As she was a person well learned in music theory, her fingers began to rhythmically tap her desk as she read the scores.
The several scores for background music were quite normal. They would only be said to be pleasant to the ears. It did not bring about a shocking sensation to Madam Schroder like when she read the script for ‘Léon: The Demon.’
But, as they were the musical accompaniments for a movie and Joshua was so young, Madam Schroder would instead find it unbelievable if Joshua managed to produce musical scores capable of stunning her.
It was only with the last score that Madam Schroder felt an urge after reading it. The song was titled ‘Shape Of My Heart.’ It was the only song with lyrics.
“Is this all the songs?”
Madam Schroder put down the thick amount of papers. Overall, apart from the song for the end credits, she was slightly disappointed with the rest of the musical scores. Having seen the masterpieces from many of the late master composers, it was very hard to satisfy Madam Schroder with those musical accompaniments.
“I actually have another song. However, that is not a musical accompaniment for ‘Léon: The Demon.’”
Joshua took out the musical scores for ‘Star Sky.’ Even though it was a single song, it took up a pile of papers. The middle-aged butler passed along that pile of papers to Madam Schroder.
A single song? Seeing the confident look on Joshua’s face, Madam Schroder picked up the score expecting to have the thought of criticizing him afterwards. But, once the instruments for the song began playing in her mind, she started feeling her blood burning hot...
“Mister Joshua, speak your price.”
After taking several minutes to skim through the song, Madam Schroder placed down the pile of papers and took a deep breath. After calming down her emotions, she entered the state of a tyrannic female CEO again.
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Translator YangWenli:
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