Welcome friends and mystical travelers. This is Ayn Cates Sullivan, host of Wisdom of the Ages where we invite the sacred into modern-day reality. So there are three things that, well, three things that really intrigued me are Scotland, music, and time travel. So in the Celtic tradition, three is quite magical. So today we get to explore all three of these with a little taste of magic. My guest today is Canadian author, Steve Moretti, and we will be discussing the first book in his Song for a Long Kingdom trilogy: Music is not Bound by Time. I really enjoyed it. I actually listened to the audiobook. And one thing I loved about the book is the music. I mean, I think in shamanic traditions, people understand that. So people around the world understand that music can really lead you into another space, into another time, and even into non-ordinary worlds.
So especially people who listen with their heart. So in book one, I’ll just give you just a little bit of a taste, Adeena’s dying Scottish grandmother has a gift for her lost music score that Adeena performs on the oldest surviving cello ever made in the United Kingdom. So that’s already pretty intriguing right there. As she plays, time transforms and a connection is made through the music to Katharine, another young cellist, and composer in Scotland, but the year is not the present, but 1745. So it’s really intriguing. The music’s fantastic and the audio. Let’s welcome author and screenwriter, Steve Moretti to Wisdom of the Ages.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
I don’t think I got your name quite right there. How do you say it?
Moretti likes the beer. If you’re in Italy, there’s a Moretti beer and we’ve got Moretti beer trays all over the place. So it’s Moretti like the beer. If you’re familiar with that, if not, well, it just rhymes with spaghetti, so.
It looks a little bit Italian. I was going to ask you what your Scottish roots are with this.
I don’t really have any Scottish roots Well, I could have a little bit on ancestry.com I think because my maternal side is from Belgium and it’s got all kinds of mixed-up stuff. And so there’s probably a little Scottish in there, but I don’t really have any Scottish roots to speak of. It’s mostly Italian and Belgian.
Interesting. Interesting. But you must have a deep love of music.
Yeah. Well, and the reason the whole book came about is, I don’t know if you’re familiar with Loreena McKennitt.
Sure.
Yeah. She’s a Canadian as well. And I was listening to her album like 10 years ago. And there’s one song on it, Penelope, which just really just a very haunting kind of song. And it was just, I don’t know what it was, there’s something about that song that it was basically about a woman, the way I interpreted who there was a love in the past that she just couldn’t connect with. And even if she could, and even if nothing good could come of it by connecting, she would still pursue it. And there’s just something about that idea and the power of a song to take you kind of way into another world that I got thinking that this would make a good movie. So I started writing a screenplay and then got really way too complicated for a movie. And I just started playing with the whole concept of it and it just kind of grew out of there. I always had that song, Penelope playing in my mind constantly when I was writing the first drafts of it.
And I wrote to Loreena and just, it wasn’t possible to use her song or her lyrics. So I thought, well, I just could probably write my own lyrics, and I ended up finding my son actually has a bit of a composer, so he started composing some music and then I found a composer in the Netherlands Paul Van Geldrop and he started working. And then I found a soprano singer who auditioned to read for the book and her talent wasn’t as much in narration, but she’s just the most amazing soprano ever. And all of a sudden the words for the song and the music came together and it was like, wow, this is amazing. I might be slightly biased here, but.
It was amazing. Yeah.
Yeah. They just interpreted it, so we ended up with our own song and that’s why the audiobook is important and the music is quite important in the story, most audiobooks don’t have that. Well, they might have a little bit of music, but I don’t think they have a kind of main musical piece the way ours does.Â
I thought it was a real genius. I’ve never heard an audiobook with a musical score that goes all the way through. That’s so beautiful. It’s very, very well done. I’m impressed.
Yeah. It’s because of Ania and her voice to me, I mean, the music is good, but if you hear it without the vocals, it’s completely different and she’s done versions with just her singing. So it was just kind of a magical type thing. And just the heart and soul that she brought to it, it was exactly what I kind of dreamed about to tell you the truth. So I was very happy about it.
Yeah. It’s amazing. Well, I’ve got to take a really quick ad break to talk about time travel and more about your book. Can you tell people where they can check out your books and your website, please?
Yes. It’s stevemoretti.ca.
Okay. Very cool. All right. So when we come back we’ll speak with Steve about his Song for a Lost Kingdom trilogy. Stay tuned, we’ll be right back.
To listen to the entire show click on the player above or go to the SuperPower Up! podcast on iTunes.
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