l’ r s r issue #16 december 2018

TANTI AUGURI Celebrating Ennio Morricone’s 90th BirthdayONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST 50th AnniversaryFROM LEONE TO TARANTINO A Western HistoryL’ISOLA RE-RECORDING InterviewSAN REMO 1960 Hidden Arrangements

...and more

ISSUE #16 December 2018

MAESTRO – THE ENNIO MORRICONE ONLINE MAGAZINE ISSUE #16 DEXEMBER 2018

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Table of ContentsPreface ........................................................................................................................................ 3

Happy 90th Birthday, Maestro Ennio Morricone........................................................................ 5

In breve....................................................................................................................................... 7

Old News.................................................................................................................................. 18

Top 15 Favorite Soundtracks – Interview with director Romain Lehnhoff ............................. 19

Western? – The Hateful Eight and Others ............................................................................... 21

The Whore, the Killer, the Revengeful and the Tramp – 50 Years Ago in the West .............. 29

L’isola re-recorded – Interview with Didier Thunus................................................................ 40

Le streghe ................................................................................................................................. 45

San Remo 1960 – A Special Edition ........................................................................................ 48

The Very First Concert of Ennio Morricone ........................................................................... 53

Titoli – Unreleased opening and closing titles in Morricone-scored movies........................... 55

Ricordo di Sergio Miceli .......................................................................................................... 61

License for all articles: CreativeCommonsCette œuvre est mise à disposition selon les termes de la Licence Creative Commons Attribution- Pas d’Utilisation Commerciale - Partage dans les Mêmes Conditions 2.0 Belgique

PUBLICATION PÉRIODIQUE D'ÉTUDE ET DE CRITIQUE DANS LE DOMAINE ARTISTIQUE. LES TEXTES

SONT PUBLIÉS SOUS LA RESPONSABILITÉ DE LEURS AUTEURS, QUI EN CONSERVENT LA PROPRIÉTÉ

DES DROITS D'AUTEUR ET INTELLECTUELS.

All the articles are of purely informative nature. We do not own the copyright of the imagesincluded in this document or of the audio clips accessible from it. All the rights on the imagesand the music are the property of their respective owners.

Chief editors: Patrick Bouster and Didier Thunus

Front cover design: Valeria Magyar

Front cover inlay: Anne-Catherine Mortiaux

Front cover image: Poster of concert in Krakow in January 2019

Back cover image: "Hommage à Ennio Morricone, 90 ans", 2018, by Philippe Aymond


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—————PREFACE—————

A Life Full of Workby Patrick Bouster

Very rare were the composers until now having reached the age of 90, and furthermore still active –although artists in general still work very late and don't really retire. Without the criterion of activity,difficult to evaluate, only John Scott comes to mind for film music, and Henri Dutilleux or Ravi Shankarfor other/absolute music. Some sparse ones came very close to this age: Stravinsky, Verdi, Rosza, Boulez,Duhamel. How Morricone is a rare personality is that he combines longevity, huge productivity even early,high quality and originality of style, and big fame, which makes the number of his “challengers” decreaseto one or two only. The man seems to still be in good health condition, and there is no coincidence in this:certainly he took care of his body, while many other people have bad nights, don't do sport, and makeexcesses (of alcohol, tobacco, junk food or other dangerous products). It proves as well that, helped byexceptional vitality and strong will, working hard and training the brain prevents the damages of old age.It illustrates the Latin maxim “Mens sana in corpore sano” (“A healthy mind in a healthy body”). I see inthat discipline and way of life a sort of life lesson, in comparison to lazy or insignificant people and so-called “stars” (out of charity, no name is given) who didn't make anything but to be born, and put theirvacuity on the net and social networks.

At this step of 90, the activity will be by far rarer in the cinema, but against the previsions and his ownstatements, concert conducting will continue, more for the pleasure to be with the audience. This new stepmeans still composing, disengaged from applied music constraints: his real nature and taste will be newlyexpressed just like he had wished at the very beginning of his career. A late period opens its doors, for apurpose he never abandoned: writing absolute music, having his oeuvre performed. What Morricone veryoften affirmed about fading in and out the music to illustrate a scene finally finds his transposition into hislife. The decrease, even in film music (see News below) will be real and strong but progressive, lettingapart films and directors one by one.

The creator experimented everything in his stakhanovist career: avant-garde, academic music, commercialinvolvements, disagreements followed by reconciliations, scores for UFO-like movies, big successes,regrets, B and even Z movies, aborted projects, pieces mixing score inspirations and contemporaneous stuff,astonishing refusals, documentaries of all sorts, original music for advertisings, etc. In this incomplete list,what will be the future gifts from the gifted artist? He will be able to score another spot of Tornatore if heasks him, to give an existing but unknown theme for a film or TV film, to lend absolute music to be usedto illustrate a purpose (cinema or other). I didn't understand his recent sentence (in the Il Corriere della serainterview, see News): “Film scoring is too much responsibility for me.” First, the composer isn't responsibleof the destiny of a film, the producer and director are. Is it due to the lack of success of En mai, fais cequ'il te plait, putting his name in large letters but not managing to find the public? Secondly, hisinvolvement wouldn't embarrass a film but would enhance it, save the exception that the music isn't adaptedfor it or is badly used. Third, such a prestigious name doesn't have to be present with a complete and longscore to be artistically part of a film: one theme, some sparse interventions put enough signature and stylismto be appreciated. All these arguments from the lovers and the audience don't work of course, because at90, it is logical to wish to do something else, to make place to more quietness.

Anyway, the composer will find what to do to be busy, because such a creator never really retires.

And as for the Maestro magazine, in spite of this situation, hugely predictable, it will continue. Becausethere are still many things to dig out, to discover, by researches, comments, in-depth articles and thematicaldossiers, to detail and know better the multiple facets of the composer's oeuvre, films and concerts. Andplease believe that by far, not all aspects and parts has been already explored.


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Omaggio, omaggi

For this 90th anniversary, a special issue was prepared – during a long period of time – and we planned toobtain some information and reactions about the Tornatore’s documentary, Lo sguardo della musica (“TheGlance of Music”), announced to be released in November this year. It would of course have been theperfect occasion to add another tribute and use it as cover image, but Tornatore was probably too busy tomake it ready for this date. News from Italy didn't come, so we decided to not postpone any further, after 6months. Anyway, you will find here numerous homages, not only directly linked to the 90 years, but perfectto suit this purpose. Throughout the issue, there are many: the events around the anniversary of course(“Novant'Ennio”), concerts of November, a Top 15 scores video, the retrospective at French Cinémathèque,drawn tributes, an in-depth article by the dear Randolph Carter, who comes back with even two articles, ananalysis of Once Upon a Time in the West, and explanations about L'isola reconstructed score recording.Even the article on Sanremo pays tribute to the composer, giving justice to his hidden arrangements forothers. A newcomer, Jean-Michel Coignard, took the time to write something about the very first concertconducted by Morricone. The substantial length of this issue will maybe compensate our delay. Goodreading for Christmas holidays and later.

A special thought to the memory of Francis Lai, Stelvio Cipriani and Charles Aznavour.

This issue is dedicated to Bernardo Bertolucci.

Ennio Morricone, at a public celebration broadcast by RAI TV, paid a moving homage to him : “It is notso extraordinary that I am here to remember about Bernardo? I am afraid to remember him now... He hasbeen a great director, a great person. In Novecento he has put all the good from a part and all the badfrom the other, a very correct thing; the film was not immediately understood. I want to remember him inthis moment in which Bernardo is calmer than us. (…)"“Non è cosi straordinario che io sia qui a ricordare Bernardo? Ho grande paura di ricordarlo adesso... è stato un grande regista,una grande persona. In Novecento ha messo tutti i buoni da una parte e tutti i cattivi dall'altra, una cosa giustissima, il film nonfu capito subito. Voglio ricordarlo in questo momento in cui Bernardo è più sereno di noi".

https://video.repubblica.it/spettacoli-e-cultura/addio-a-bertolucci-il-discorso-di-morricone-commosso-ho-grande-paura-di-ricordarlo-adesso/321729/322354?ref=twhv


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—————NEWS—————by Patrick Bouster (P.B.), Didier Thunus (D.T.), Nicola Schittone (N.S.), Frédéric Durand (F.D.),

Steven Dixon (S.D.) and Stefan Voss (S.V.)

Happy 90th Birthday,Maestro Ennio Morricone

Novant’EnnioOn 27th September 2018, an evening called “Novant’Ennio” was dedicated to the90th birthday of Morricone, at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. TheMaestro himself conducted his own works: La bibbia, Sicilo e altri frammenti,La leggenda del pianista sull’oceano and Mission. Three composers had createdpieces specifically for this occasion: Piccola serenata per il novantesimocompleanno di un giovane compositore by Dario Marianelli, In dono a Morricone(Aria d’auguri) by Salvatore Sciarrino and MillEnnio by Nicola Piovani. Therewas also music by Stravinsky, Bach and Petrassi. Carlo Rizzari and NicolaPiovani conducted the non-Morricone pieces. Italian president Sergio Mattarellawas present and talked to Morricone.Between 27 September and 8 October, the Accademia also held two exhibitions

in relation to the Novant’Ennioevening. One had on displaycostumes used in Morricone-scored movies,such as La leggenda del pianistasull’oceano, Maléna, Giù la testa,Indagine su un cittadino, or La storia veradella signaora dalle camelie. The other oneshowed pictures of Morricone conductingthe orchestra of the Accademia.

An encounter with Morricone and Piovaniwas also organized.

N.S., D.T.

On this occasion, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia published a book called“Novant’ennio - Omaggio a Ennio Morricone” ideated by musicologist Annalisa Bini, with thecontribution of SIAE. Its 215 pages are redacted by Emanuela Floridia and Cecilia Nanni, withan English translation by Nicolò Mingolini

The book starts with an introduction by Michele dall’Ongaro, president and art director of theconservatory, followed by 5 parts:- Greetings by Antonio Pappano, musical director of the conservatory, by Filippo Sugar,

president of the SIAE and by Gaetano Blandini, general director of the SIAE.- Contributions: “In poche parole, Ennio Morricone” by Giovanni D’Alò, president of the

IUC-Istituzione Universitaria dei Concerti; “Ennio Morricone: compositore” byAlessandro De Rosa, Morricone’s biographer, “Ennio Morricone, uomo del fa-re” byAlessandro Sbordoni on the activity of the Maestro in the Nuova Consonanza association,including a chronology of his participations from 1968 to 2017.

- Testimonials: “Basta!” interview by Michele dall’Ongaro from the TV-show Petruška(RAI 5) of 16 June 2012; “Io e Ennio” interview of Giuseppe Tornatore by Paola Pacetti;


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“Il dono più bello” by Valerio Cappelli, musical critic; “Metti, una sera a cena” interviewof Marina Cicogna, producer of the eponymous film, by Daniele Battaglia.

- Tributes by other composers: “In dono a Morricone, aria d’auguri” by Salvatore Sciarrinoabout his piece for trumpet created especially for the occasion; and by the other two livingItalian Academy Award winners: “Maestro in tutti i sensi” by Nicola Piovani, (La vita èbella, 1998); “A proposito di omaggio” by Dario Marianelli (Atonement, 2008).

- Archives: “A colloquio con Ennio Morricone” interview of the Maestro by Luca Pellegrinifrom the programme of the concert series of 7-10 November 1998; a chronology of almost20 years of concerts with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia from 1998 to 2016, i.e. 19productions for a total of 31 concerts, his discography with the orchestra and a list of

Morricone pieces premiered by theorchestra.

The whole is interspersed with manyblack and white photos ofMorricone’s performances asconductor in Santa Cecilia. The bookis available at the Bibliomediatecadell’Accademia Nazionale di SantaCecilia (Largo Luciano Berio, 3 -Roma) for the price of 30€ pluspostage (Corrire SDA is 5€ and takes2-3 days, Racc. Estero is 3€ and takes6-7 days).1

F.D., D.T.

Drawn TributesFrench artist and cartoonist Philippe Aymond specially made two drawings (painting, ink andcomputer technique) as a tribute to the Maestro. The artist was interviewed in Maestro #12about his Morricone scores inspiration for his work. The first homage, parodying a still fromThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly, really magnificent, is used as this issue’s back cover in fullpage. The second one, lighter, is featured here.

More humorously, RAI TV channel, via its Twitter account, displayed a crossed homage of thecomposer coinciding with Mickey Mouse's 90th anniversary this year (born on the big screenon 18th of November 1928). You can hardly recognize Morricone, transformed into a sort ofDisney-like character.

Finally, only for completeness sake, let’s cite a “would-be work” by Yuri Markov, using aconcert picture of Morricone's profile. But here we are far from art because he used a computerprogram called “Mediachance-Dynamic Auto Painter 6”. So despite the appearance, there is nopainting into this, only a transposition of an image.

P.B.

1 The book can be obtained by one of the following means:1) On Line through a Paypal donation on www.santacecilia.it/sostieni/index.html. Specify “Acquisto volume

Morricone” as reason.2) Via bank account (wire transfer) IBAN: "IT 31 I 01005 03240 000000009872" - SWIFT/BIC: "BNL II TRR"

- BNL - Gruppo BNP Paribas Agenzia di Via del Corso, 471 - 00186 Roma C/c intestato - Accademia nazionaledi Santa Cecilia Fondazione.

3) Via postal account (wire transfer) IBAN: "IT 68 S 07601 03200 000030406003" - BIC: "BPPIITRRXXX".4) Via postal account (postal bulletin) n. 30406003, payable to “Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia

Fondazione” with “Acquisto volume Morricone” as reason.As soon as the payment is made, send an e-mail to [email protected] with a copy of the receipt and your postaladdress.


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In breveConcerts

60 Years of Film MusicEnnio Morricone’s “60 Years of Film Music” tour is now well under way and I was able to seehim in Brussels on 24th of November. There is no big surprise in the programme: Legend of1900 / ”Fogli sparsi” suite / Nostromo suite / Leone suite / L’ultima diligenza di red Rock /“Cinema dell’impegno” suite / Mission suite. The encores are the Cinema Paradiso suite,Ecstasy of Gold and Abolisson. The main changes are inside the “Fogli sparsi” suite (“ScatteredSheets”). It used to be H2S/Il clan dei Siciliani/Metti una sera a cena/Nina/Come Maddalena.It is now Chi mai/H2S/Nina/Deborah’s Theme/Baaria/Ribellione. Only H2S and Nina arepreserved. The Leone suite is now made up of L’uomo dell’armonica/The Fortress/The Goodthe Bad and the Ugly/Ecstasy of Gold. On the other hand, the “Cinema dell’impegno” suite(“Social Cinema”) is intact, and Dulce Pontes is part of the tour. Her presence is really a plusfor the concert: she brings color (in all senses of the term), ethnicity, contact with theaudience…


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Don’t expect any improvement in the track listing though: Nina is still called Uno che gridaamore (in spite of Nicola’s efforts to convince the Maestro, by even playing the CD for him –I think the correction was made in later listings but the error is now back), Ribellione fromBaaria is called Tarantella from Allonsanfan. A minor error is to call Nostromo the intro tothe “Nostromo” suite, whereas the piece corresponds more to For Emilia, as it uses the Silverof the Mine theme and definitely not the Nostromo theme (aka Conradiana when sung byAndrea Bocelli), which is not part of the suite.

The audience’s reception is rousing as ever, with multiple standing ovations and acclamationsfrom everywhere whenever the Maestro shows up on stage. When you think of the so many 90-years-old lonely people who are barely surviving in a home for elderly, you realize that you arewitnessing a true miracle.

In Paris on November 23, some famous figures were inthe audience. On this picture, Ennio poses with StéphaneLerouge (record producer), Robert Hossein (Le casse,Le professionnel), Jacques Perrin (Il deserto deiTartari, Nuovo cinema Paradiso) and Pierre Richard(no Morricone-related movie but a huge figure of Frenchcinema).

Announced dates now go until February 2019, but otherswill most likely soon be revealed.

D.T.

Milano Festival OperaLast year, a pretty big concert tour took place inGermany and in other European countries, entitled“The Best of Ennio Morricone”. They were performedby the orchestra of the Milano Festival Opera andincluded pieces hardly ever heard live before, such asThe Men from Shiloh, La califfa, Il mercenario(L’arena), Per un pugno di dollari, Il mio nome èNessuno (Mucchio selvaggio), Two Mules for SisterSara (The Braying Mule and Sister Sara’s Theme),The Hateful Eight (La lettera di Lincoln) or Perqualche dollaro in più. The renditions were maybe notperfect, but there were very nice highlights with thepieces with choir and vocal soloists.

They sold a self-made CDR with their performances,but unfortunately it didn’t contain those rare pieces.

S.V., D.T.

New Movies

Retirement from film scoringThe composer publicly announced his retirement from film scoring in an interview for “Ilcorriere della sera” on 12th of September 20182: “I decided to give up the film scores, it is too

2 https://www.corriere.it/spettacoli/18_settembre_13/ennio-morricone-mia-musica-non-west-6f794dec-b6b9-11e8-83fc-d7dcaceaa02b.shtml?refresh_ce-cphttps://soundtrackbeat.com/2018/09/19/the-end-of-an-era-ennio-morricone-retires-from-the-movies/


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tiring, cinema needs that music works well for me and for the audience, there is so muchresponsibility. I have to take into account the director’s ideas. Once I sent to hell one from thiscountry [Italy], Flavio Mogherini3, when he asked me to imitate Tchaikovsky. I just refused twoAmerican assignments and one from an important Italian director. I will make an exception forTornatore only.”Is the Italian director Stefano Sollima, for the series Colt? We will never know. Anyway, thebig information is here, and very certainly definitive, but hidden amongst other statements abouthis music and concerts, which brings to believe that he didn’t spontaneously announce it.Sad news, indeed, but we should understand his wishes and needs, to be more quiet, at his age,and to be more with his family and to enjoy life.

However, he declared in the interview that he would go on writing (concert) music. The mostrecent piece he cited is a piece for two pianos and a strings ensemble: “I would like to live longwith my wife and then compose music but not for the cinema. The pure challenge for me is theresearch”.He added that standing up for 2 hours isn’t a problem for him, maybe opening the door to moreconcerts in 2019 and afterwards. A little later, he confirmed his boredom about film scoring inFrench weekly magazine “Le Point” of October 2018.

Once upon a Time in Hollywood: a possible refusalIf we link with the above information, nothing can be expected from the upcoming Tarantinofilm in terms of Morricone original score. Shot in the summer of 2018 according to manywebsites, with an impressive cast of stars (Leonardo Di Caprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, AlPacino, Kurt Russel, Bruce Dern…), it relates the assassination of Sharon Tate (Polanski’s thenwife) by followers of guru Charles Manson in 1969. It will be released in August 2019. Weknow that Morricone, in 2016, declared he would accept to collaborate again with Tarantino,provided he gets more time to write the music. But the announced retirement disturbs this idyllicperspective, save the case he already wrote something before the shooting, which is veryunlikely. A negative sign comes from the “music supervisor” line in the film crew data, but itmight also mean that other songs and musical stuff from the period will be used, not excludingan original score. The alternative is the use of Morricone pieces among the borrowed material.

Indirectly linked to this topic, a polemic was created after a Morricone interview to PlayboyGermany, for its December edition, in which he would very violently criticize Tarantino, theAcademy and the film music industry (even labelling Hans Zimmer “awful”). Spread on the neton 10th of November, the polemic forced the composer to react through an official message onhis Facebook page4. After mentioning that the interview took place on 30th of June 2018 atMorricone’s estate, Playboy admitted to have misquoted (parts) of the Morricone interview, bymanipulations from his freelance journalist, who declared later to be the only responsible.

Indeed, it was difficult to believe the violence of the words used, so hard and vulgar, especiallyabout a director who gave him the opportunity to get a real Oscar. The most likely is that theinterview really took place, but was tricked by use of old words, exaggerated, as said byPlayboy’s editor-in-chief, and furthermore terribly and very wrongly translated. Henry Stannywrote some wise lines about this trouble on the FSM forum5.

3 The movie in question can only date from before 1994, year of Mogherini’s passing. Morricone had scoredMogherini’s debut movie Anche se volessi lavorare che faccio? in 1974. The director is also the father of FedericaMogherini, current High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.4 https://www.facebook.com/maestroenniomorricone/5 https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?forumID=1&pageID=2&threadID=131940&archive=0(nickname “Morricone”).


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The Canterville Ghost: a confirmationIn a far more interesting and serious interview to German newspaper “Die Zeit”6, amongst otherthings, Morricone states: “I’ll finish the music for Kim Burdon’s The Canterville Ghost”. Wewere able to confirm this assignment in Maestro #7 (2015)thanks to the SIAE database, because there had been somedoubts since the original announcement from 2014. Theproduction for this animated film has been delayed severaltimes: to 2015, then to 2016, and recently to nothing, untilnow. And indeed it is a great piece of information, after theone about the retirement, proving that previous agreementsare respected. We can hope to discover it in 2019 if all goeswell.

P.B.

Lo sguardo della musicaUnfortunately, very little news has filtered about GiuseppeTornatore’s documentary on Ennio Morricone, which wassupposed to be released for the Maestro’s 90th birthday. Even whenthe two men were invited by RAI for the TV show “Che tempo chefa”, no reference to that project was made. The movie is marked“completed” on IMDb, and the cast has become quite impressive,with names like directors Quentin Tarantino, Dario Argento, OliverStone, Barry Levinson, Bernardo Bertolucci, Roland Joffé, PhilJoanou, Lina Wertmüller, Carlo Verdone, Marco Bellocchio,Liliana Cavani, Giuliano Montaldo, Vittorio Taviani, SilvanoAgosti, Clint Eastwood, Roberto Faenza, Mario Caiano, Enzo G.Castellari, producer Claudio Mancini, composers Hans Zimmer,John Williams, Quincy Jones, Mychael Danna, Nicola Piovani,

Franco Piersanti, artists Bruce Springsteen, Mike Patton, Joan Baez, Laura Pausini, Zucchero,Dulce Pontes, Ornella Vanoni, Gianni Morandi, Miranda Martino, Edoardo Vianello, PatMetheny, musicians Alessandro Alessandroni, Gilda Buttà, Enrico Pieranunzi, lyricists FrancoMigliacci, Sergio Bassetti, sound engineer Fausto Ancillai…The film is most likely simply delayed. We must not forget that Tornatore is also busy with twoother projects, with a probable Morricone involvement: the movie Geek and the TV-series BeatiPaoli.

D.T.

A new documentary about Sergio LeoneJean-François Giré, a French western expert made a new documentary about Leone7, plannedto be broadcast on French/German TV channel Arte on 16th of December 2018. Entitled SergioLeone, une Amérique de légende, it will run 52 minutes but a long version has been edited,first for the Cinémathèque and for a DVD, Giré told us. The initiative was made possiblethrough a crowdfunding via the web site kisskissbankbank. The trailer in English and someadditional information and pictures can be found on Vimeo8.

Of course, we will come back on these events and more about Leone later.

6 https://www.zeit.de/kultur/film/2018-11/ennio-morricone-komponist-filmmusik-soundtrack-oscar-romTranslated to English on the forum of website “jwfan” (reprised by FSM board):https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?forumID=1&pageID=1&threadID=131940&archive=07 http://www.unfilmalapatte.fr/films.asp?id=3&t=sergio-leone-une-amerique-de-legende8 https://vimeo.com/189304247


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P.B.

Events

Sergio Leone at the French CinémathèqueThe Cinémathèque in Paris (cinema museum, patrimony film preservation and releases,retrospectives, homages and events, publications…) organizes an exhibition on Sergio Leone’soeuvre from 10th of October 2018 to 27th of January 20199.

Several rooms display film excerpts, filmed interviews, costumes, weapons,rare pictures, stills, and some Morricone partitures for Leone films. Commentedvisits allow the public to understand better the preparation, the film process,Leone’s origins, his artistical personality.Different events took place. Sir Christopher Frayling gave a conference afterthe projection of For a Few Dollars More10. Then he signed the catalog of theexhibition: “La révolution Sergio Leone”, a collective book in French (500pages) mastered by him and Gian Luca Farinelli (manager of the “FondazioneCineteca di Bologna”, which preserves and restores old Italian films), publishedby “Les éditions de la table ronde”, 201811. Very instructive, containing rareand unpublished stuff and interviews, it is worth reading, for francophonepeople. Among the material, a Morricone interview by Frayling fromNovember 1989, for a BBC2 documentary: “Viva Leone!”. On this occasion, Italked briefly to him, giving him the 3 last issues of Maestro printed, unknown

to him, for which he thanked me with the words: “You touched my heart.” A nice moment.Other events and homages took place and will take place later in relation to this exhibition, suchas the projection of a new documentary by Jean-François Giré on 20th of October (see below)and of Once upon a Time in the West, with a presentation by Claudia Cardinale, on 10th ofNovember 2018.

Masterclass at the French CinémathèqueThe Cinémathèque also organized, without apparent link to the Leone events, a retrospectiveon the composer’s oeuvre, with a projection of 12 films between the 22th and the 26th ofNovember 2018. Additionally, he participated to a masterclass animated by the Cinémathèquemanager Frédéric Bonnaud and film music expert and producer Stéphane Lerouge, before theprojection of Indagine… No questions could been asked by the public nor signatures could berequested. In the introduction, he read a text about film music making. Ennio’s words weretranslated from Italian to French for the audience. Thanks to Olivier Desbrosses who was in theattendance, we have a quite complete transcription of the lecture. It has been published in fulland in French on the web site Underscores12, and a few relevant excerpts are translated below.

"The music of a film can be imagined even before theshooting, just as we can imagine the faces of thecharacters, the frames, the editing... But it is only atthe moment when it is materially applied to the filmthat it is born truly as film music, because theencounter and the eventual amalgam of music andimage offer essentially poetic and empiricalcharacteristics. I'm talking about music applied to the

9 All details here, but in French only: http://www.cinematheque.fr/cycle/exposition-sergio-leone-462.html10 Available here (in English with an interpreter in French): http://www.cinematheque.fr/video/1304.html11 http://www.cinematheque.fr/le-catalogue-de-l-exposition-sergio-leone.html12 http://www.underscores.fr/a-la-une/evenements/2018/11/ennio-morricone-a-la-cinematheque-francaise/


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film, and that's the case because in the editing room, that's exactly what is done. Thisapplication can be done in different ways, according to different functions. The main functionof music is generally to make explicit the feel, the theme, the thread of the film. This theme canbe conceptual or sentimental. In terms of music, this is of little importance, since thecharacteristics are identical, whether applied to a conceptual or sentimental theme. Better still,these functions allow to conceptualize feelings, or to put feeling in concepts. From then on, themusic has an ambiguous function, an ambiguity that is explained by the fact that it is bothdidactic and emotional. What music adds to images, or the transformation it operates on images,remains a mystery very difficult to define.

I would say empirically that there are two ways of applying music to the image sequence, andtherefore to attach other values to it: we are talking about horizontal or vertical application.The horizontal application concerns the surface, in relation to the images that are projected onthe screen. It is therefore a specific line and sequence that applies to another linearity, toanother sequence. In this case, the added values are rhythmic values that bring something new,invaluable, and strangely excessive to the mute rhythmic values of the edited images. Thevertical application, which is technically done in the same way, while also following thelinearity and the sequence of the images, finds its source elsewhere, in the depth, and it thusacts rather on the sounds than on the rhythms. The values it adds to the rhythmic values of theediting are impossible to define because they go beyond the cinema and bring the cinema backto reality, where the source of the sounds has a real depth, not illusory as on the screen. Inother words, the cinema images that are filmed from reality, and therefore identical to realityas they are printed on the film and projected on the screen, lose their real depth and take anillusory depth, which in painting we call perspective, even if it is infinitely more perfect. Thecinema is flat, and the depth of a road that goes to the horizon is illusory. The more poetic thefilm, the more this illusion is perfect. His poetry is therefore to give the viewer the impressionof being inside things, in a real depth, not flat. The musical source, which is not on the screenand which is born in a physical elsewhere, pierces the flat or illusively deep images of thescreen by opening them to the confused and boundless depths of life.”Frédéric Bonnaud asks him about his prolificity during the 60s-70s where he was able to scoreup to 12 films: "I am very happy to see someone finally telling the truth about the amount ofmovies I scored13. […] Twelve films a year, that's what I was able to do, sometimes I had somany requests that I had to say no but there were directors, friends, with whom I really wantedto work, and I had to make choices. So, no time for the family, no time at all for having fun. Butmusic is my passion!”After repeating that Tarantino has given him total freedom on The Hateful Eight, he cites onlyone moment of disagreement with the director, during a press conference in London: “I hadbeen looking for an explanation for the film's violence, saying that perhaps he was showing thisviolence from the point of view of the victims, to also reflect the suffering of the viewer watchingthe film. He waited for me to finish, and then said, "No, I just wanted to show the violence." Butapart from that point, we have always been in agreement!”

D.T.

Bari International Film FestivalThe Bari International Film Festival 201914 will take place between April 27 and May 4 andwill pay a tribute to Ennio Morricone with the projection of 44 films scored by him, from LinaWertmüller’s I basilischi (1963) to Giuseppe Tornatore’s Baarìa (2009), chosen amongst the

13 This refers to the many times where the Maestro is told that he actually scored more than 20 movies per year inthe late 60s and early 70s. Nevertheless, based on the precise count done in Maestro #15, Morricone scored 101movies between 1968 and 1972 (5 years). So, the average number per year is 20.14 https://news.cinecitta.com/default.aspx?pag=55&nav=IT&lng=it-it&cnt=75922


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520 entries [sic] from his immense filmography. Some of the directors who worked with himwill be present. In the Teatro Margherita, an exhibition of film posters will be on display.

N.S., D.T.

R.I.P.

Bernardo Bertolucci (1941-2018)One of the most important Italian directors ofthe past century has died on 26th of November.Bernardo Bertolucci was known for the verycontroversial L’ultimo tango a Parigi and theAcademy Award winning The Last Emporor,and has worked with Ennio Morricone onPrima della rivoluzione (1964), Partner(1968), Novecento (1976), La tragedia di unuomo ridicolo (1981), and only anecdotallyon La luna (1979). He was also one of thescreenwriters for Sergio Leone’s C’era unavolta il West (1968).

Bertolucci has not waited for Morricone to be famous to work with him: they were both part ofthe emerging artists of the early Sixties in Italy – the director was even 13 years younger thanthe composer: he was only 22 when he made Prima della rivoluzione. Later, Bertolucci wasalways prompt to comment positively on the works of the composer, claiming many times thatMorricone should be commissioned a new national anthem for Italy. Ryuichi Sakamoto,composer for The Last Emperor, remembers in an anecdote that in order to put pressure onhim when he was facing a challenging situation, the director would tell him “Morricone woulddo it”15.

In a video on RepTV, a very moved Morricone appears in a ceremony of homage to Bertolucci16.He remembers, amongst other things, that Bertolucci had doubts about which composer tochoose for Prima della rivoluzione, and that Novecento was not an instant success.

Bertolucci will be remembered as a provocative director who was using his films to express hispolitical views. He made his final movie in 2012, called Io e te.

Stelvio Cipriani (1937-2018)Stelvio Cipriani was a contemporary of Morriconeas he was active between 1966 and 2015 as filmcomposer in Italy. His first score was even for anItalian western The Bounty Killer aka The UglyOnes. He was naturally influenced by hispredecessor but soon found his personal touch. Hewent on scoring westerns and police movies butwas to become a specialist of love dramas,especially after his successful score for Anonimo

Veneziano (1970) for which he won the Nastro d’Argento. Other major works include Caniarrabbiati (1974), Mark il poliziotto (1975), Tentacoli (1977)… He is recognized as one ofthe most important Italian soundtrack composers in history, and his music finds its place in

15 https://www.facebook.com/filmlinc/videos/10155921876943160/16

https://video.repubblica.it/spettacoli-e-cultura/addio-a-bertolucci-il-discorso-di-morricone-commosso-ho-grande-paura-di-ricordarlo-adesso/321729/322354?ref=twhv


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modern movies by Quentin Tarantino, François Ozon or Guy Ritchie. Cipriani died on October1st, 2018.

Francis Lai (1932-2018)Another major figure of film music passed away on 7th ofNovember 2018, aged 86. Francis Lai was an iconic melody makerfor French and American movies, who became famous withClaude Lelouch’s Un homme et une femme (1966) and receivedan Oscar for Love Story (1970). His style, made of catchy tunesand lush orchestrations, has been around for decades and isrecognizable by the general public. He was a self-taught musicianand was never able to write his own arrangements, however he

knew exactly what he wanted and didn’t give free reins to hiscollaborators in order to come up with exactly the sound he had in mind.He is famous for having used awkward instruments such as the OndesMartenot or the electronic accordion. His sound became his trademark.Sometimes his name became associated to projects where he wasn’t eveninvolved, just because the arrangers had worked the Francis Lai way.This was the case of this cover compilation album of 1973 banking onFrancis Lai’s name even though the music was by several other

composers and the arrangements by Michel Colombier.

Morricone was never an imitator, but if I have to name one Morricone piece that has the FrancisLai sound, it would be Preludio d’amore from Così come sei (1978)17.

Charles Aznavour (1924-2018)A huge figure of French music, Charles Aznavour died on October 1st. Morricone had arrangedseveral of his songs in the early Sixties, as described in Maestro #15.

D.T.

New Releases

L’isola (2-CD Recording Arts 2X905)The totally unreleased original score, very last effort of Morricone for Negrin, a 12 episodesTV-series (2012-2013), really deserved a proper edition. Alas RAI cancelled its CDpublications, due to budget constraints. Pre-existing Morricone music had been added to thescore, but the music specifically written for it is truly a must-have. We are dealing with a rich,epic, moving, ample, varied score. It is detailed in Maestro #3, and in #8 about its SIAE data.Reconstructed through synthetic means by EverKent (see his interview elsewhere in this issue),I Solisti e Orchestra del Cinema Italiano mastered the project, after their several otherMorricone-related projects detailed in other Maestro issues. Of course opinions diverge,including inside this fanzine’s editorial team, but this long, demanding and valuable effort toapproach a Morricone inedited score has to be fully respected. Each one of us will make hisown opinion about the result, between re-recording and cover version. At least it gave an ideaof what could be the score if published. As the 2-CD cover mentions, and because it is true, letus write that “the score is brilliant, masterful, imposing”.

Forza G (Cinevox CDOST PK035)Just 2 minutes have been added compared to the first release in 2002 by the same label. Fact isthat Patrick Ehresmann and others had already filled the CD with the maximum of material,

17 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhEcyeucT7Q


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omitting the most insignificant cues only. Well, for those interested in confetti, please note thatSospesi tra le nuvole (3) received more seconds, and Prove d’acrobazia has been completedwith the whistling part, removing the background.

La cage aux folles I, II & III (Music Box Records MBR-145)Announced in early December, Music Box surprises us by gathering the 3 scores into a doubleCD, with a suitable pink cover. Good idea, chiefly for those who missed the last CD of the 2first films by GDM (013), already a little expanded with some cues from the 2 opuses. Thereremains more unreleased material in the both, and a few in the third one, but the labels have tofollow the composer's instructions. Opus III appears as it was on the Digitmovies CD from2008, which added 6 tracks the original LP. But the improvement here is the remastering,showing that MBR always wishes to bring something more and quality in their products.

Nuovo cinema Paradiso (Quartet Records QR-354, Spain)Quartet re-releases the score from the first Tornatore-Morricone collaboration, with the exactsame contents as the GDM edition of 2003. It adds neither the different version of Maturità thatappeared on “The Platinum Collection” in 2007, nor other inedits heard in the film.

C'era una volta il West (BEAT Records CDX1034, Italy)Very last release for December 2018, BEAT reissues the iconic score and the biggest successby Leone and Morricone, in the most expanded program of 27 tracks, as published in 2005by GDM. Roughly for the 50th anniversary, they publish a limited edition of 500 copies,including a special number of 51 copies (1 per year) ranged by year displayed in a woodenbox, with a picture of Franco De Gemini, famous harmonica player, founder of BEAT.

We are already done for the new CDs! Hoping that the future period will bring more novelties.A certainty: Two Mules for Sister Sara will soon be published by La-La Land Records, withinthe patrimonial collection Heritage, after other scores like Colossus by Colombier and the twoAirport scores by Schifrin and Cacavas. We hope (and believe with some logic) that anexpanded score is planned.

Vinyl LPsHere is the huge list of vinyl records released during the past 6 months: Un esercito di cinqueuomini (BTF VM LP209, Italy) reprises the original LP. Faccia a faccia (Monte Stella MSR1320004, Spain) reprises 20 tracks, so it contains a little part of the bonuses from GDM CDfrom 2001. Il federale (Doxy 0889397381431, Russia) presents all the available tracks. Graziezia (Transversales TRS 006, France) contains nearly all the tracks from the Digitmovies CDfrom 2013 minus 4 tracks. Slalom (Dagored RED254LP, Italy), after its LP from 2000 but withother contents, reprises most of the tracks except 8 which were previously published, mainlyon some LPs and some CDs from 2006 and 2013. Svegliati e uccidi (Dagored RED253LP,Italy) reprises the entirety of the available material, of 26 tracks. Per pochi dollari ancora byGianni Ferrio (Penta Music PTM010) contains all the tracks and even repeats some track partsfrom Morricone’s theme Penso a te, borrowed for the score. Cometa comes back in the market


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with a compilation called “Music Is My Life” (CMT 53, Italy), including Colpi di piume etempesta from Si salvi si vuole, already completely published by same label. Finally, Dagoredagain, reprises the same original LP of Holocaust 2000 (Dagored RED250LP, Italy), with 17tracks.

Special film release (DVD, Blu-Ray)Bertolucci’s masterpiece, Novecento, aka 1900, has just been released as a 3-DVD and Blu-Ray set, with numerous bonuses. Label Wild Side produced it for the European market, in 3languages: Italian, French, English, contrary to the previous one language editions.

Finally built in 2 films, the whole runs 318 minutes, restored in 4K. About theextras, they contain an interview with Bertolucci on the film’s genesis, therestoration with Gian Luca Farinelli, manager of Cineteca di Bologna,interviews with De Niro and Storaro, and a making-of by Gianni Amelio on thecinema of Bertolucci. Note that all the material is available on DVD and Blu-Ray in the box (3 discs each).18 The USA had already released it in 2012 in 3discs on DVDs19.

It also exists in Blu-Ray. After the recent death of Bernardo Bertolucci, it is theperfect occasion to watch again his true masterpiece with an awesome, iconicscore by Morricone.

Other releases (cover versions, …)“The Morricone Duel: the Most Dangerous Concert Ever”. The Danish National SymphonyOrchestra had the idea of uniting highlights by Morricone, Herrmann and Rota and to playthem in a unique concert, that took place in 2017 in Copenhagen. And what we can say isthat it is impressive, a re-creation but rather respectful of the film music, even for theMorricone tracks. A LP and a DVD and Blu-Ray have been published, released on 9th ofNovember this year.20

P.B.

The track Barabbas (the bolero record version) appears on the CD “The Vikings” recentlyissued by Prometheus (XPCD 181) and performed by The City of Prague PhilharmonicOrchestra & Chorus conducted by Nic Raine. It has a length of 5:14 and is to my ears theoriginal arrangement as written by Morricone. In the booklet however, there is no creditfor Morricone.

S.V.

18 More information in French about the project and the content here:https://www.digitalcine.fr/4k-bluray-dvd/tests-bluray-dvd/38683-1900-en-coffret-blu-ray-dvd-livret-chez-wild-side/19 https://www.amazon.com/1900-Three-Disc-Collectors-Robert-Niro/dp/B00782O7LG/ref=tmm_dvd_title_020 More information and videos of the concert here:https://www.euroarts.com/labels/6488-morricone-duel-most-dangerous-concert-everTrailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=H3xcgwJ6fXAVideo showing more pieces: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT1NJwEi6nw


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Books

Translations of Inseguendo quel suonoAlessandro De Rosa’s biography of Ennio Morricone continues to be translated in severallanguages. It now exists in English, in French, in Spanish and in Polish, each time with adifferent cover image.

Ennio, un MaestroA similar type of book has now also appeared, called “Ennio, unMaestro”, containing a conversation between GiuseppeTornatore and Ennio Morricone. We will have to come back onthis one in the next issue, because it seems to contain here andthere some interesting information.

Other books also appeared during this rich period surroundingEnnio’s 90th birthday. One of them is simply called “Il Maestro”and is written (in French) by Jean-François Tifiou. No furtherinformation for the timebeing.

Finally, issue number 18 ofthe Cuadernos de FilmotecaCanaria is dedicated to EnnioMorricone, this time inSpanish. Preceding numbershad been dedicated todirectors such as Fellini,Antonioni, Almodovar,Mankiewicz, Kusturica, Loach, Kazan, Chabrol, Preminger,Fassbinder, Fritz Lang, Minelli, Bergman, or cinematographerNestor Almendros, whereas number 10 was dedicated toBernard Herrmann.

Lontane presenzeFinally, a book called “Lontane presenze… L’universo poeticodi Ennio Morricone”, written by Stefano Cucci, has just beenreleased as we were putting the last hand on this issue.

D.T.


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Old NewsPino Donaggio on The MissionAfter Leonard Bernstein and George Martin, it is now up to Pino Donaggio to join the list ofcomposers hired to score The Mission (1986). In a recent interview21, the Milanese composerclaimed he had been chosen to score Roland Joffé’s movie, until the producer (presumablyFernando Ghia, as we know he is the one who chose Morricone) heard the music from OnceUpon a Time in America and fell in love with it. This listing becomes impressive, and the newname even less expected than the previous ones. The question is now: who was not asked toscore The Mission? The film makers seem to have gone through many different mind sets aboutthe best way to score their movie, knowing it would be a key element of its success. They wereright, as it ended up being Morricone’s Oscar-nominated masterpiece that has remained throughthe decades one of the most popular film scores ever composed.

This frustrating state of affairs would not change the year after for Donaggio, as his most faithfuldirector Brian De Palma would also go for Morricone for his next movie, The Untouchables(1987).

D.T.

Who is Jimmy Makulis?Dimitrios Makulis, known as Jimmy Makulis, is not a name that springs to mindin any of the Morricone musicography circles. What we do know about Jimmy ishe had a thoroughly successful career in Germany in the decades '50s and '60s. Healso competed on behalf of Austria in the 1961 Eurovision Song Contest with thepiece Sehnsucht (“longing”). The artist picked up just one point (from the UK jury)and finished in joint last place. His entries in the German singles charts were farmore promising, one even containing an arrangement made by the great EnnioMorricone.

The song we are dealing with is Ieri ho incontrato mia madre (Paoli-Renin) from1963, a most familiar title for those who collect sixties Morricone arrangements. This, of courseis an original Gino Paoli vocal, a piece sung by the man himself as originally released on 45RCA PM-45 3244. Like most Paoli songs Ieri ho incontrato mia madre is a slow, warm andlow risk song. I say low risk because too many of Paoli's songs were repetitive and none toodaring. Ieri ho incontrato mia madre does use a nice romantic piano throughout. The piano waswell used in Paoli's works, one example being the brilliant Io e tu from 1965 which boasts asuperb Morricone piano introduction that must surely have inspired composer Alan Silvestri'sForrest Gump score from 1994.

Jimmy Makulis' version on his 1964 single (label - Vogue Schallplatten DV 14185) is the exactsame arrangement as Paoli's original. So Morricone did not return to the studio tocreate a new one. And, if we delve further into the 1960s we will find yet anothersinger using the very same Morricone's arrangement of Paoli's song. In 1967 singerUdo Jurgens renders his version vocalizing over Morricone's 1963 originalarrangement. It is by far the best of the lot and is even a few seconds longer at theend as the piano keeps on rolling. This nice little piece can be found on many 1967albums by Udo Jurgens under the German title Traume, die bei Nacht dir begegnen.Those 1967 albums include “Was ich dir sagen will” (Club Auflage S*R 76937) andthe gatefold collection “Einestern Stunde der Musik” (Stern 88 201 y). But so far nosingle from Udo Jurgens has ever been found. S.D.

21 https://www.cinematografo.it/news/pino-donaggio-a-movie-mag/


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—————INTERVIEW—————

Top 15 Favorite SoundtracksInterview with Director Romain Lehnhoff

by Patrick Bouster

via email on 4th of September 2018 –translated from French by P.B. and D.T.

– original text in French:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1svr7PFH-

AcDWM_5i0f5QylRPCzEs_zeY/view?usp=sharingVideo available here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWNAT3_f2fU

Your video is of excellent quality (shooting,photography, direction...). Are you awarethat you made a true film? And are you closeto the cinema business or a passionatefilmgoer and film scores lover?Thank you, it is very nice. My wish was to givethe illusion of a professional film in spite of thelack of means, and I am happy it works. Somepeople wrote to me to say that they watched itthree times, or that they played it in loop! Ithas been shot with the natural light and Imanaged to create some homogeneity between

the scenes, in particular with the calibration. I have an artistic training, I come from Fine arts,but I have never attended a cinema school. My training comes simply from seeing a great dealof movies. For the rest, I am self-taught with no professional material. Today I direct shortfilms, and then to answer your question, I am quite all at the same time: close to the profession,filmgoer, and score lover!

Why this video, featuring some films not always known, gathered in a rather original top15? But the timing is good, with the numerous homages for his 90th anniversary this year...My goal was to share my passion and make the web users discover or be curious, inciting themto search out in the more obscure works of Morricone, to not be limited to his most famouspieces. His career is so considerable! Somebody wrote to me to say that he fell in love with themusic from Cosi’ come sei thanks to my video, and I liked that. Hindsight, there are obviouslysome regrets, like for not having included Five-Men Army, Sacco and Vanzetti, Le trioinfernal, Giornata nera per l’Ariete, Il grande silenzio, Vergogna schifosi to name but a few,but the list is very long… I wished however to included some well-known themes. I includedThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The Mission and Once upon a Time in the West, becausethey are expected and it is always pleasant to hear them again.

During my youth, I rarely spent a day without listening to a record by the Maestro. By the way,I found that again in making the film: during the 3 months of editing, I listened again and againto Morricone from morning to evening, and I hesitated between the numerous titles. The hardestwas to finally choose!

Among the reasons which incited me to make this video, this year I was sure to get the fundsfrom a funding agency, for a medium-length film that I began to shoot last year in New York(during the festival for which my short film Pseudo: Carmen was selected). I still have to shootsome parts in France, for which I need funds. In the end, the selection committee preferredanother project, a priori a more feminist topic, more in the tune with the spirit of the times. Ablessing in disguise finally, since this video on Morricone is partly born from this frustration.

We guess that model Dovile Stap’s involvement was as good as volunteer for this kind of"amateur" movie, without other real means than your own. How did you convince her,she who is paid to shoot and pose for productions such as TV commercials and picturesfor magazines? We can tell you that her play works really well, a presence of a


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professional level... And such a girl would give the taste to listen to Morricone’s to anuneducated rapper!I paid her a little though, but she was nice, indeed it was very far from the wages she earns onmodelling projects! Fortunately, there are in Paris many models and comedians who arealways interested in small shootings, even for amateur movies, provided the project is excitingfor them. It was all the more pleasant as Dovile entered enthusiastically into the spirit, with alot of humour and professionalism. As I can draw, I made a complete and detailed storyboard,as for an ordinary movie, showing all the sequences to shoot, while letting us free to improviseas well. It helps to convince and gives an idea of the final result. Dario Argento said that hisstoryboard had saved him while he was lost on his first shooting, L’uccello dalle piume dicristallo. It is indeed very practical when one begins in the cinema, and it allows to makeunderstand to the team and actors what we expect from them, much more quickly than with onlyverbal explanations. In the present case, I even didn’t have a team. Myself and Dovile shot thevideo with only the both of us, with very few budget, without assistant, sound engineer normakeup artist. During the shooting, I apologized to her about the lack of means, but she simplyreplied that what was important was the result.

There are so many heteroclite things and of great quality in Morricone’s music, that onecould ask what will remain in posterity, varying according to the listeners. Beyond thewestern, will it be the giallo, the movies of Verneuil, of De Palma, Tornatore, Bolognini,and so on, some Italian TV movies like La Piovra, or the “small” films, unpretentious likeAnche se volessi..., according to the tastes. What is your opinion?There is a huge mass of things in Morricone’s oeuvre still unknown to the public, often writtenfor more intimate films. I would like that his fascinating experiments for the "giallo" periodwould be put again to light. He was ahead of his time. Maybe a part of these tracks will bereused by some future directors, like it has been several times, particularly Tarantino whooffered a second life to L’arena [from Il mercenario], among others. In their times, Lautnerand Belmondo, and a famous ad for dogs, allowed Chi mai to know an even more importantsuccess, and today it is printed in all the memories. Morricone’s music brings an importantvalue to the pictures, and music-loving directors know that. So I think that the directors whowon’t find among the living composers will dig out his repertoire. And if their films aresuccessful, maybe we will be surprised to hear again tracks which will go to posterity. There ismusic rather known as well, but which has to be rediscovered, like the awesome theme fromBarbablù…Still today, I think that Morricone keeps on surprising us. Even if they won’t be in the posterity,I like very much his more recent works, like Lucia, a TV movie from 2005, or even more recentones like the original pieces for The Hateful Eight, or the nice theme from En mai fais ce qu'ilte plaît that soon becomes obsessive.

You are interested in Morricone but certainly in other composers as well: did you directother videos?Yes, I shot another video "Top 15" on John Barry at the beginning of the year, with Fanny Piot,a young actress and model who played innearly all my films. Here she appears only atthe beginning, it is still visually sketchy andof lower quality. I think I’ll improve it,maybe even shoot it again. Right now Ialready began the editing of several videos,one on François de Roubaix who was likeour French Morricone, alas too soondeparted. I hope I’ll have time to completethem this year and to make other ones!


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—————CHRONICLE—————

Western?The Hateful Eight and Others – Part 1 of 2

by Randolph Carterdedicated to Sergio Miceli translated by D.T. – original Italian text available here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b_EtxG6tXeOVgit1SEs9mmVz9-mtt5pJ/view?usp=sharing“I do not consider this a western. Instead it seems more like a historical adventure movie, in asense. The characters are described with such meticulousness and such universality that thefact that they wear cowboy hats is only a possible setting, a mere detail.” Ennio Morricone22

IntroitusTo tell the whole truth, the hope had never beenlost: we mean that Ennio Morricone went backto score a western, a very fortunate vein for himthat gave him, between the second half of theSixties and the early Seventies of last century,fame and many gratifications (it is evensuperfluous to remember that the birth of the

22 in "Inseguendo quel suono. La mia musica, la mia vita. Conversazioni con Alessandro De Rosa", Milano,Mondadori, 2016, p. 136.23 The reasons for the indomitable vitality of the American western are to be found in its link with the "birth of thenation" or to a historical process revisited mythically. On the contrary (as Moravia noted), the Italian westernoriginates from the "myth of myth" ("L'Espresso", 4 January 1967), that is a reworking in a different way of formsand contents, a bubble that swells up to explode and to dissolve. After Tex e il signore degli abissi (1985, DuccioTessari) – more an adventure film than a western, despite the subject being the famous character created by GianLuigi Bonelli and designed by the legendary Galep, Tex Willer, that undisputed hero of the western comics inItaly, that in some stories had anticipated the violence and the dozens of victims that would make the success ofthe genre –, no other was made for a long time. In 1998 there was a curious – and totally flopped – attempt toexhumation with Il mio West, extravagant and pretentious pastiche directed by Giovanni Veronesi, played bycomedian Leonardo Pieraccioni and by no less than Harvey Keitel and David Bowie in the role of the bad guy plusa very young and half naked Alessia Marcuzzi (destined to later television performances), with pleasant music byPino Donaggio. Marco Giusti called it a "half disaster" and we can’t really blame him. (M. Giusti, “Dizionario delwestern all’italiana”, Milan, Mondadori, 2007, page 312). In contrast, in the U.S. from the nineties of the lastcentury till today, there are some dozens of titles, not always excellent and yet a testimony of endurance. It doesn’tcompare yet to the lush vitality of the horror movie – one of the genres that has not known moments of crisis oreclipse – rather a faint persistent gleam. The genre explores new paths, evolves / involves into micro and subgenres,deviates from the old and new archetypes, sometimes literally de-generated; dying and moribund, condemned tothe extinction by the change of taste and of the imaginary, dead but still walking, terminally ill, subject in agonyto astonishing metamorphoses and deformations, immortal monstrum. In Italy, in the new millennium, there hasbeen some attempts, not deprived of interest, to re-propose it. Worthy of note at least Quella sporca sacca nera,a feature film by Mauro Aragoni from 2014 (http://www.vidoevo.com/video/SF91V0hycWuRpWDZGT1U/quella-sporca-sacca-nera-il-film-pleto-spaghetti-western-2015). Born as a web series and later turned into a film, shot for nextto nothing mainly in Sardinia plus some scenes in the desert of Nevada, rewarded with prizes and awards (RomeWeb Festival 2014, Los Angeles Web Festival 2015), it oscillates between leonian hierarchy – taste of detail,magniloquent slowness, close-ups and very-close-ups, laconic and sententious speech – and Tarantino pulp gore– with profusion of blood and disgraceful butchery (and here the models could be, in addition to the Americandirector, Questi and Fulci) - and is a bizarre and interesting operation on the genre at times suggestive, sometimesrepelling, not without its nauseosa fascination. The music of Antonio Manca (a suite of about 15 minutes isavailable on the net: https://soundcloud.com/antonio-manca-2/quella-sporca-sacca-nera-) is remarkable, it refusesemphasis and lyricism, prefers dry and anxiogenic sounds, distills here and there echoes of the most difficultMorricone revisited with intelligence and corresponds more to the horror than to the western. Recently, it was awestern that opened the Rome Film Festival (October 26-November 5, 2017), Scott Cooper’s Hostiles with its

"Morricone case" coincides with the one of the"Leone case" in 1964, a perfect outburst thatallowed both to escape from anonymity). Afterthe unhappy episode of Occhio alla penna in1981, the Roman maestro didn’t engage in thegenre anymore, almost extinct in Italy andnevertheless always redeemed in the U.S., fromClint Eastwood to Tarantino's revisitations 23 .


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Yet the composer did not lack proposals in thisfield, from Eastwood and perhaps also others:he always declined, officially for a reaffirmedloyalty towards Leone24; in reality, it was moreto mark the separation from an experience that,although positive, had marked him, for thepoorly informed – the majority – with a labelthat is difficult to get rid of25. To the point that,after having accepted – after hesitations andhesitations – to write the score for Tarantino'sfilm, he didn’t fail to point out that it was not awestern, only an adventure movie, and that thehats and tin stars that were shown, as is often thecase in American films, don’t mean anything.Power of the words, which here apotropaicallyexorcises the specter of a past with which theaccounts have not yet been settled, ready toreappear and be admonished. Also note that,against all odds, whenever he refers to thewestern, he mentions only Leone, for whom hehas scored five films (which are ascribable tothe genre only by convention) and overlooksother directors: a sign, more than a lapsus, of aconscious desire for dismissal. Certainly theexperience with Leone was fundamental, bothfor its outcomes and for future outlooks, and itcan rightly be said that "[...] Leone's westernmovies entail an almost complete evolutionaryarc for Morricone"26. Until The Hateful Eight,the point of arrival (or restart?) of a journey thatbegan long ago in sound no less than in images.Indeed, it is Morricone himself who invented

rocky peaks and endless plains, galloping horses,clashes with Native Americans, tents under a sky fullof stars, scalps taken from the corpses of Whitepeople, in short, all the classic ingredientsappropriately reviewed and corrected. Not tomention the project in progress called Colt, sixepisodes directed by Stefano Sollima for the LeoneFilm Group, inspired by an original idea by SergioLeone, very promising. It is the story of three kidssuddenly thrown into the adult world. They knownothing about life, they have always lived with theirparents in a poor mining town, but soon they findthemselves alone and with a gun in their hands.Through a story settled around six gunshots, shot insix episodes, they will become adults in a Westwhere law and crime are on par. The first shot forcesthem to run away from home. The second one makesthem free for the first time in their life. The third oneobliges them to violate the law. The fourth one setsthem against each other. The fifth one causes the endof one of the three. The sixth one turns them intocriminals (source: http://leonefilmgroup.com/films/colt/).

Sometimes they come back.

the musical personality whose variations haveensued over time. He inaugurated the nobleItalian model (Leone but also Sollima, Petroni,partly Corbucci) underlining the slippagestowards the grotesque and the abnormal; heaccompanied the comic-cheerful drift(sometimes paying the price); and finally, aftera long silence, he signed Tarantino’s peculiarexercise. Absent, for timing reasons, from theAmerican panorama before the Europeanrevisions, those particular or epic-lyric or"excessive" and extravagant sounds mustunquestionably be ascribed and accredited tohim, always alternatives to the Americansymphonies, distinguishing musically the neo-subgenre and translating perfectly its spirit - andits style - under the banner of the hyperbole.Hence, if on one hand identifying the Italianwestern with Morricone seems to be a reductiveoperation – not even mentioning that "the musicof spaghetti westerns [sic] is not so easy todefine nor to circumscribe" 27 –; on the other

24 "I never wrote music for westerns after SergioLeone’s death. [...]. I received many proposals, evenrecently, with important actors, but I can not. Before,I could, but not anymore. For me the westernremains him." (interview by S. Cappelletto in “LaStampa”, 15/10/2003; cfr. also “Inseguendo quelsuono”, op. cit., p.154).25 Referring to the commercial success of somewestern music scored by Morricone between 1964and 1967, Sergio Miceli writes: "There is enough forMorricone, like it or not, to be doubly labeled: as theauthor of soundtracks and as a specialist in thewestern genre with guaranteed return" (S. Miceli,“Morricone, la musica, il cinema”, Modena-Milano,Ricordi-Mucchi, 1994, p.185).26 S. Miceli, op. cit., p. 158; Miceli refers to thecompositional technique of modularity, present inInvenzione per John and destined to future quiteinteresting development.27 S. Bassetti, “Suonala ancora, Ramon!”, in A.Castagna - M. C. Graziosi, “Il western all’italiana”,Milano, Federico Motta Editore, 2005, p. 35.Consideration to be extended to stories, directors,


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hand, the musical personality of that venturethat today seems unlikely and prehistoric, is inthe Morriconian sounds and timbres - it is notby chance that those who walked in hisfootsteps are many, with often results oftrivialization and involgarment or hardlydignified epigonism, only sometimes (we mustremember Bruno Nicolai) more incisive whileremaining in that riverbed. Certainly they weremany to try their hand at the new vein, actorsand directors 28 and composers. To limitourselves to the latter, Rustichelli andLavagnino (both from the previous school,

actors: about five hundred films, a panorama that isanything but uniform, full of variations and nuances.On this subject, the literature is abundant. For adetailed bibliography: M. Giusti, op. cit., pp. 679-695.28 Next to the Fidani-like traders, the honest Lupo-like craftsmen, the outstanding craftsmen such asSollima, Petroni, Corbucci, appear unexpectednames such as Lizzani, Canevari and even TintoBrass. And what about Pasolini doing therevolutionary priest in Requiescant and NinettoDavoli with a machine gun in the same film? Therewas really a place for everyone.29 He started with sounds close to themagniloquence of the American models, which arehowever from the start (Centomila dollari perRingo, El Cisco) contaminated by ideas derivedfrom the new trend (the Jew’s harp of El Cisco, themelancholic and dreamy cadences of Ballata perRingo). After the splendid score for I giorni dellaviolenza (a personal revisitation of Elmer Bernstein),the Italian style gets closer, in this case Morriconian,with very explicit references (Django spara perprimo, Anda muchacho, spara!, Indio Black andothers), but keeping, even in the scores mostinfluenced by his forerunner, a recognizable timbre,his own: going along with the choir and the strings.Corri uomo corri is perhaps his masterpiece. AsLuca Beatrice said, he perfectly translated the spiritof the new western: "Nicolai represents the deepestmeaning of the musical style that the Italian westernoffers on the screens of the whole world" (L. Beatrice,“Tema per un western immaginario”, in ID., “Alcuore, Ramon, al cuore. La leggenda del westernall’italiana”, Firenze, Tarab Edizioni, 1996, p. 173).An excellent musician really, at ease in all genres. Itis a pity that he passed as a meteor. He was activeuntil the early eighties and yet little cited at the timeand still underrated today outside the specificcontext, often misjudged as a mere disciple(reviewing the original soundtrack from Djangospara per primo published for the first time in 1988by the label Intermezzo-IM 012, Roberto Pugliesedismissed it in a few lines as "a bad Morriconianbusiness by Nicolai" ("Segno-cinema" 31, January

provided richly symphonic contributionspartially adapted to the new diegetic needs),Ortolani and Piccioni (both innovative inrelation to American models and alternative tothe master's inventions), Nicolai 29 and Ferrio(very personal too, as well as prolific), De Masi(initially very tied to a traditional underscoringbut going towards solutions closer to therenewed model without too many traces of themorriconian fashion) and Nora Orlandi 30 ,

1988, p.59) or considered as one of many and noteven amongst the best. Sergio Miceli, in hisponderous manual, hurls it in a note, praising him asan experimental composer in the setting up ofancient dramaturgical works such as “Hecuba” and“Birds”, resizing him as a film musician: "Theactivity in cinema is not of great importance due tothe poor quality of the productions (Italian western,horror) except for Cammina cammina" (S. Miceli,“Musica per film. Storia, estetica - Analisi,tipologie”, Milan Ricordi - Lim, 2009, p.388, No.149). It is surprising that a critic of his acumen hasgrouped in a mechanical relationship the quality ofthe film and of the music, when experience teachesthat the link is neither granted in one sense nor in theother. And then, were it not really the B movies, thegenre films – laboratory containers – whichstimulated the inventiveness of the composers?Morricone has never been as daring andexperimental as in thrillers, by Argento or not. Goingback to Nicolai, John Mansell is right when he says"It is astonishing that such a musical giant’s passingwent almost unnoticed and news of his death [August1991] only filtered through some months after theevent. His passing in my opinion left a black hole inthe world of Italian film music that has yet to befilled." (Notes from the CD Don Giovanni in Sicilia,Kronos Records KRONGOLD 012, 2015). It's nicethat the Treccani Biographical Dictionary gives hima worthy mention (edited by Claudia Caneva),accompanied by a small bibliography(http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/bruno-nicolai_(Dittà-Biografico)/):the black hole is gradually being filled, also thanksto the numerous records in recent years that broughtto light authentic treasures of music.30 Anomalous but significant presence, authentic"lady" of Italian music for cinema, author of a fewvibrant scores pervaded by great sensitivity andgrace, both in westerns and thrillers (where itmanages to create truly gripping effects). Read theinterview in http://www.colonnesonore.net/contenuti-speciali/interviste/4646-la-prima-storica-compositrice-italiana-di-musica-per-film-intervista-esclusiva-a-nora-orlandi.html.


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Armando Trovajoli31 and Stelvio Cipriani32; andthen Piero Umiliani, Marcello Giombini (thetwo Sabatas grant him a respectable position),Egisto Macchi, Daniele Patucchi, Carlo Pes (hisProfessionisti per un massacro is an authenticjewel; the Morriconian lesson is felt, but doesnot dominate), Lallo Gori (actually notexcellent), Benedetto Ghiglia (very personal inAdios Gringo, more scanty in El Rojo), ElsioMancuso (paraphrasing Morricone up to thecaricature, which does not preclude an overallenjoyment), Carlo Savina, GianfrancoReverberi, Berto Pisano, Pino Donaggio, IvanVandor, Mario Migliardi (interestingelectroacoustic elaborations in Matalo!, whichhave effects of hallucination), Bixio-Frizzi-Tempera, Guido & Maurizio De Angelis (hereand there their level goes down, and quitesubstantially); up to the complete strangersGioacchino Angelo, Felice Di Stefano,Marcello Gigante – did we forget someone?Surely. Very few miss the call: Giorgio Gaslini,Mario Nascimbene, Nicola Piovani, Nino Rotaare the most significant absences. Those areindeed musicians who are very distant from thewestern because of their sensitivity and poetics;and yet, precisely for this reason, it would havebeen interesting to find out what sonorities theywould have given birth to. Think of Nino Rota.If, on the one hand, the musical universe of theMilanese maestro could appear completelyforeign to the genre – to which the circusatmospheres would not fit, the traditionalsymphonism, the taste for "jokes" and thecultured and ironic pastiche, the profusion ofcheerful and popular elements (althoughappropriately revisited), the lively and sparklinggrace, the carefree melancholy of manyRotanian pages; on the other hand, the western

31 Author of only one score, for Vancini’s I lunghigiorni della vendetta in 1967. Great musician,however not at ease in the western as evidenced bythe aforementioned score, excessively sunny.32 Really unclassifiable. He draws heavily in his firstscore (The Bounty Killer, 1966) to the Morriconianformulas, emphasizing and exasperating them(shamelessly deguello-like trumpets, twelve-stringelectric guitars, great campana tolls, horse-galloprhythm); all paradoxically softened, made pleasantand soft by timbric and captivating movements –because his music, all of it, shuns from harshness anddisharmony, so much so that he seems to give thebest of himself when he shapes his notes onsentimental themes, "romantic" (someone has calledhim the Italian Francis Lai: E. Comuzio, “Colonnasonora. Dizionario ragionato dei musicisti

genre being more a container of different forms,the inventions of Fellini's musician would havedonated to those films unusual sounds: lightyears away from ritual formulas, from brutalrealism, from baroque with no limits, frombizarre instruments, with pounding rhythms;they would have – maybe – attenuated the effectof reality through an asynchronous andcontrapuntal use of music. One can wonderwhether directors and producers have evercalled him for a western, or he refused to scorefilms that he considered extraneous to hismusical conception. In one case as in the other,a lost opportunity. 33

The side of the shadowAfter various and variously motivatedhesitations – ranging from the well knownreticence to the anxiety of confrontation with ayounger director, moreover one who had usedhis music in some previous works and thereforelinked to those forms that the composerintended to transcend 34 – and encouraged bydirectors he used to work with, Morriconeaccepted the prestigious assignment. IndeedTarantino had requested it since 2003 for KillBill, then in 2009 for Inglourious Bastards; hehad managed to get a piece (Ancora qui) for

cinematografici”, Roma, Ente dello SpettacoloEditore, p. 306). Nonetheless, his music still appearstoday endowed with a certain period charm and adiscreet recognizability. Related to today's Italiancinemusical panorama, a professional. In the westerngenre, his most personal work is Blindman, less tiedthan others to the common stereotypes.33 You can read about music in the Italian western F.Biella - M. Privitera, “Quando cantavano le colt.Enciclopedia cinemusicale del western all’italiana”,Monza, 2017, Casa Musicale Eco: a digest as evernecessary, a precious compass to orient yourself inthe sea of an unparalleled experience in terms ofquality and quantity.34 Cfr. E. Morricone, op. cit., p. 136.


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Django Unchained (2012); finally in 2016 atrue, complete collaboration. The composertherefore returns – after more than thirty years –to the cinematographic genre to which his namefor many is still associated.

But it is too easy to call it a western. Tarantino’smovie is multifaceted, an interrelation of andbetween genres. The temporal setting (1865,immediately after the Secession War) andlocation (Wyoming), the costumes, weaponsand shootings recall the ploys of the genre. Onthe other hand, there are also many unsettlingelements: the prevalence of closed spaces35, thedominance of the dialogues in the first threequarters of the film, the insistence on the

35 The large format Panavision 70 mm is,paradoxically, efficient: as stated by director ofphotography Robert Richardson, the "wide" frameallows to show all the walls, generating a sense ofclaustrophobia (quoted by R. Nepoti in “LaRepubblica”, 29 January 2016).36 Paolo Mereghetti speaks of a "false step","verbose version and splatter of Ten little Indians";the film is resolved "in a catalog of his [thedirector's] mania and obsessions, but deprived of thestrength that an authentic directing is able totransmit to the cinema practice" ("Corriere dellaSera", 29/01/2016). Alessandra Levantesi Kezichsees the film as a sort of "theater western" andidentifies the models not only to Sergio Leone andhis followers, but also to Agatha Christie, to writerElmore Leonard and "in a certain English theater,from Aycebourne to Pinter , transferred to a westernsetting"; the film, "at times enjoyable [...], losespoints in the interminable epilogue: too pulp-gore[...], stretched for too long when the games arealready made" ("La Stampa", 04/02/2016). Someother judgments, caught on the fly: “The HatefulEight is a film that evokes others, but without havingthe cheer of Corbucci and Fulci, and fleeing from the

slaughter in the last half hour. Subsequently,Agatha Christie, the Elizabethan theater andcountless other things were called upon; addingto it the snow, an element not previously unusedbut infrequent. Let's say that with The HatefulEight, Tarantino performed an exquisitelypostmodern operation: a lover of B-movies(including their music), aware of theimpossibility and uselessness (after the gloriousAmerican and European precedents) to re-propose a genre historicized and becomecommon heritage, opts for a patchwork ofdecontextualized situations and formulas, winksat the thriller, at the theater, at horror, mixeseverything and gets an unclassifiable film,whether you like it or not, however interestingand unscrupulous "reconstruction" ofyesterday’s and today’s models. There is nolack of cinematic memory: it starts out asStagecoach (of course the Redskins and the Sunare missing), it cites Il grande silenzio for thesnowy setting, it does not disdain horror (andhere we think of Carpenter's The Thing, onwhich we will have to come back). Criticism,while praising the directorial skill, the wisdomof the shots, the taste for the quotation and thepastiche, grieved over the fact that thesequalities were transformed into a game thatbecomes an end in itself, and regretted thelogorrhea of much of the film, which is offsetby the last half hour of ultraviolence36.

hieratic silences of Leone. Indeed, here the dialoguedominates (G. Fofi, http://www.internazionale.it/opinione/goffredo-

fofi/2016/02/09/the-hateful-eight-tarantino-recensione); "[...] thedirection is fluid and wise; the performers perfect;the soundtrack by Ennio Morricone (Oscar nominee),brilliant" (R.Nepoti, “West al sangue” in “LaRepubblica”, cit.); "The film is solid and well madefrom every point of view, but it is so full of aesthetics,writing and direction that it leaves almost no spacefor the viewer. [...] The Hateful Eight amuses andexcites, stimulates and interests, but it is not madefor identification: better know it first, it doesn’tmanage to move deeply".(http://www.internazionale.it/opinione/matteobordone/2016/02/0

4/hateful-eight-tarantino-recensione); "[...] opaque anddecadent cinema yet still full of charm" (NationalFilm Evaluation Commission); "[...] brilliantdialogues, impeccable screenplay, beautifulsoundtrack, dark, alarming and full of omens, theelegance of style, more than ever classic andtraditional, magical photography" (E. Lo Castro,"The Sicilian newspaper", 02/07/2016); "[...]unpleasant feeling of gratuitousness and sometimesof a delirium that makes the film not only ugly [...],but incredibly boring [...] at least Morricone's musicis beautiful" (F.Ferzetti, "Il Messaggero", 01/02/


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What music, therefore, would fit a so unusualfilm of a genre that had already known so manychanges and revisions? Given that Morriconedid not intend to re-propose the successfulsolutions of the past, it should be added that theparticularity of Tarantino’s mise en sceneaccommodated the already uncompromisingstandpoint. Furthermore, director and producerhave left him carte blanche: "[Tarantino] leftme complete freedom. What should I write? Iasked him. What you like, he replied." 37 Indeed,the music sounds more "absolute" thancinematographic. It sounds dry, not veryamiable, dark and obsessive (with a singlemelodic oasis), not at all "western", ratherinspired by a sinister symphonism, slightlyMalherian, slightly Bartockian, veryMorriconian. A "4-count symphony" accordingto the definition of its author38, characterized bymelodic unity and timbre, wide-ranging (the"movements" Ultima diligenza per Red Rockand Neve expand well beyond the canonicalduration, lasting 7:30 for the former and 12:17for the latter), severe, demanding. What the"four counts" are is not easy to establish, sincethey would appear to be six (Ultima diligenza,Neve, L’inferno bianco, Sei cavalli, Raggi disole sulla montagna, La lettera di Lincoln),corresponding to six different musical moments(the rest being variants or short versionscompared to "integral" ones). A detailedanalysis is not necessary here, having atdisposal the one, magnificent and acute as

2016). Opinions diverge, but there is a unison in thepositive judgment on music (which is, in this case,what matters most).37 Interview by P.Negri, “La Stampa”, 24/09/2016.38 “The supporting axis consists of four-countsymphony” (interview by V.Cappelli, “Corrieredella Sera”, 27/01/2016).39 http://www.colonnesonore.net/recensioni/cinema/4142-the-hateful-eight.html See also, of the same,“Grazie Maestro! Ennio Morricone vince l’Oscar perThe Hateful Eight”(http://www.colonnesonore.net/news/premi-e-concorsi/4267-grazie-maestro-ennio-morricone-vi). Let’salso mention the large dossier in “Maestro – TheEnnio Morricone Online Magazine” #10, pp. 22-37,with the nice reviews of L. Giorgini and S. Dixonand the painstaking work of D. Thunus on thequandary of the multiple discographic editions (vinyl,cd, with and without dialogues...).40 But it must be said that those scores appeared –then – arduous and "extreme" also in relation to the

always, by Roberto Pugliese 39 . Rather someextemporaneous consideration, with nopretense of systematicity, suggested by thelistening experience. As mentioned above, weare dealing with the less amiable Morricone –and less loved and known, at least by the generalpublic, or by those who always expect, inconcerts, the same pieces to be played(inevitable as they are); little inclined to melodyand therefore scarcely communicative (if by"communication" we mean the directlyemotional grip), sour and almost repelling.Certainly, one of the happiest outcomes of along-standing process of synthesis has nowbeen fully and convincingly achieved. It is, soto speak, on par with The Thing, Ogro,Rampage: dry, slithered scores. Not theradicalism of Un tranquillo posto dicampagna anymore (where the musicianproposed, not by coincidence, a 10 years old"absolute" piece from 1958, Musica per undiciviolini, with the overlapping of a female voiceand percussion in a dramaturgical / diegeticfunction), or Teorema, or Un uomo a metà40.It is however not an easy listening experience41

already at the epidermal level – of the ear –; itrequires repeated listening in order to attain anexquisitely intellectual pleasure, to be builtinside and with the thought – not alien howeverto a subtle subterranean suggestion of sound:pseudo-melodic fragments, hints thatimmediately get truncated but yet sufficient tokeep the emotional attention aroused, to

most known and appreciated melodic vein of thecomposer.41 In our opinion, it seems that all of Morricone'smusic is demanding, even the most tonal one: sofascinating for its traps, mysterious practices,various subtleties, abstruse hammering, underlyingexperimentation. The apparent simplicity of manymelodies conceals ingenious and elaborateconstructions, a disguised complexity that only theexpert is able to grasp – to the profane remains thelistening pleasure, which is not little. Sergio Miceli’smonograph and the composer's declarationsilluminate what might be called the backstage of amusic that, like the works of Verdi or Puccini (or, inanother context, the novels of d'Annunzio) is double-sided and multi-faceted: it satisfies the needs ofevery type of user, the "emotional" and musicallyinexperienced listener, the refined connoisseur, themusicologist who will find there ample material forhis exegesis. Just like the cinema of Sergio Leone, asynthesis of simplicity and complexity, of animmediate hold but at the same time sophisticatedand elaborate.


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encourage listening. In short, to quote Miceli,the intent to communicate is never far forMorricone, even when he moves away from theestablished habits of the audience. In this sense,The Hateful Eight is exemplary. Certainly, it isneither a score that mimics – by updating andembellishing them – the music styles conceivedin the past for the western, nor a classical-symphonic work (think Max Steiner or ElmerBernstein) nor an alternative path inauguratedby Morricone to be continued by others. IfTarantino's film is "out of the ordinary", thesame can be said of its music (which, from thispoint of view, adheres to perfection). Howeverit would be simplistic to read the score inrelation to the film, to "justify it" in the light ofits point of departure. In the score manymotivations converge: the need to adhere to thestorytelling; the willingness to deviate fromone's "habits"; the continuation of a personalline of research, of harmonization between verydistant languages and timbres, which hasalways fascinated the composer.

In the main theme (Ultima diligenza di RedRock) the short melodic section entrusted to thetwo bassoons produces a rough, stingingcantability, deprived of cheap thematics, in adark crescendo suspended between the epic – anegative epic bitterness, with no bright colors ortriumphalist accents – and the alarming,authentic soul of the whole score and of thestory inexorably projected towards the horribleand protracted bloodbath of the lastunsustainable half-hour. The heavy, envelopingand meditative atmosphere of the "firstmovement" endures and worsens in thesubsequent ones. The prevalence of dark tones,the exasperatedly slow uttering of the notes andof the passages – for example in the extendedversion of Neve, progressive accumulation ofsegments supported by a continuous anduniform pedal that produce the effect of a forcedimmobility, palpitating with funereal presages,distant threats approaching, a stasisdynamically projected towards the Evil; theevident trespassing in the atonalism of Raggi disole sulla montagna – sound filaments entrustedhere to the strings and there to the woods,

42 An approach that recalls a previous compositionentitled precisely Tensione minimalista by Ennio &Andrea Morricone, written for the TV movie Ultimo(1998).43 R. Pugliese, “Grazie Maestro! Ennio Morriconevince l’Oscar per The Hateful Eight”, cit.

disrupted, decomposed, de-structured thatproduce the sense of an illusory stillnessresembling more to the void (the absence) thanto concrete positive effects; the neurotic thoughcontrolled dynamism of L’inferno bianco, anauthentic example of "minimalistic tension" 42

(especially in its first section); the threateningand cold expansion of strings and winds in thebrief but incisive Sei cavalli: musical events thatevoke the most hermetic and disturbingMorricone, and where the "dark side"43 of thecomposer emerges. This makes us think againof The Thing. We can identify affinitiesbetween the two scores that, although differentin the organic (strings and electronic insertionsfor Carpenter’s film, strings and massivepresence of woodwinds for Tarantino’s),determine climates of tormenting wait – the"thing from another world", the unavoidablebloody conclusion – cumulating note after notein a quiet and tense progression: music, in bothcases, not of action but that prepares the action,the event, the horror that before its epiphanyalready puts leaden shroud on people andthings.

The Thing’s ghost indeed hovers on TheHateful Eight. Tarantino declared he has beeninspired by, in addition to his own ReservoirDogs, Carpenter’s film of which he takes thesnowy landscape and the nightmare of a latentand pervasive threat. And Morricone inserted,in addition to music specially composed, a fewpieces from The Thing (in addition to afragment from Exorcist II), probably to fillsome gaps due to the limited time available towrite all the music needed44.

The piece that is closest to the score created forCarpenter is Neve, which in its slow progress ischarged with an imminence of tragedy thatcould remind Humanity-Part I: althoughdifferent in structure and in its organic, the spiritof the two compositions is the same, bothmoving towards a disquieting minimalism, bythe book. Morricone references himself withoutexplicitly self-asserting – incidentally, "Ireference, I do not imitate" 45 . The albumspropose both the full version and the shorterone; however only the long version does justice

44 Morricone doesn’t rule out future collaborationswith Tarantino, as long as the director gives him thetime he needs (“Inseguendo quel suono”, op. cit., p.137).45 Ivi, p. 328.


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to a composition conceived for subsequentdevelopments and accumulations: the shorterones instead distorts the "progressive" form ofthe piece.

Another similarity – let’s say a spiritualcloseness – can be found between the secondsegment of L’inferno bianco (“White Hell”) andBestiality (not coincidentally reused in the filmand subsequently recuperated in concert). Heretoo no superficial analogy; rather an identicalneurosis, a relentless restlessness, a paroxysmalproliferation, a hammering of crazy(bestialized?) sound fragments. There – inCarpenter’s – the initially obscure timbre of thestrings which is sharpening with each repetitionuntil it becomes inhuman cry and liquefieswhen descending; here, in Tarantino’s, sharpand disjointed phrases again by the stringscounterpointed by threatening brass andpercussion reminiscent of obscure tribalisms inthe timbres but "modernly" unstructured in theirregular rhythm, disheartened, decomposed,disharmonic. The music achieves a negativebeauty: that of the "hell", "white" becausesnowy, a snow full of malignant suggestions,which is charged with all the horror of theabsolute light, evocative (far more than blackcan be) of unmentionable terrors and dismayed.

Inside the leaden haze that surrounds thethaumaturgical listener, a light of music creepsin and shines, of absolute beauty, an intenselyrical glimpse, opening to new heavens,longing for lost worlds and times, a mirage ofabsolute, imminence of forebode revelations.La lettera di Lincoln, a passage entrusted to theradiance of the trumpet on the softenedbackground of the orchestra, opens with amodality of calm and anti-rhetoriccommemoration and then unfolds into broader

horizons, lights of wonder, infiniteindefiniteness. In an ideal suite, it could be thefinal phrasing, the take-off of flourishingthoughts of hope certainly not from this earth –"celestial" music in the least obvious meaning,an act of faith; not an impossible – and unlikely– "happy ending", rather a mystical projection.And also, inside the economy of the score, atimbric, thematic and melodic change, an act ofgratifying gratitude. Really a gift from acomposer who – as Calvino said of the classics46

– has never finished saying what he has to say,still able to astonish (amaze?), at the thresholdof 90 leaving us open-mouthed with the simpleand absolute force of beauty. A beauty that hasnot been overlooked by the critics and hasearned official recognition from the GoldenGlobe to the Oscar. The latter more thandeserved and belated. Yes, because – it isuseless to hide it – the real Oscar was that of2016 for Tarantino’s film, not the other one of2007 for his “career”. We never liked that"consolation prize", an embarrassing attempt topay compensation after five vain nominations.Besides, the Oscar is a gratification ad opus, notad personam: it rewards the nominee for aspecific creation, not for a forfait. What ispositively striking is the choice of quality madeby the Academy, in the sense that the attentionhas gone to an angular, convoluted anddisharmonic score: actually the antithesis of theproduct packaged to please everyone, that fillsthe ear and does not engage the intellect. TheMaestro can be satisfied with a prize thatenhances his conception of music, that is thecoexistence of tonality, modality and atonalismwhich is the authorial figure of many of hisscores.

To be continued in Maestro #17

46 Cfr. I. Calvino, “Italiani, vi esorto ai classici”, in“L’espresso”, 28 June 1981, pp. 56-58; then in ID.,“Perché leggere i classici”, Oscar Mondadori,Milano 1995. That the composer still has things tosay is proven by, in addition to the score forTarantino, En mai fais ce qu’il te plaît and Lacorrispondenza and, when it comes to “absolute”music, Varianti per Ballista Antonio e Canino Bruno,all works realized during the period 2016-2017. ForChristian Carion’s war drama, music proceeds in thedirection of a rarefied melodic element,dematerialized sounds, a nuanced and inconclusivechant: approaches dear to the Maestro, tendenciespresent for some time in his writing, pursued and

increased in recent years, almost wanting to berelieved from the unsustainable weight of the"indication" in favor of an "indicator" that finds itsstrong point in melodic indeterminacy, that is, musicthat, outside of itself, does not have to – does notwant to – "express" anything: a revolt, perhaps noteven on purpose, against the pressing dramaturgical-diegetical demands of film music, condemned to theexplicit expression – for using Massimo Mila’sterms –, to the thematism, to the emphasis of eventsand states of mind. Then, the polychromy conceivedfor Tornatore's film is impressive, shifting fromminimalism to significance, from revisitedclassicism to dreamy and sidereal rock.


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—————ANNIVERSARY—————

The Whore, the Killer, the Revengefuland the Tramp50 Years ago in the West

by Didier Thunus

I’m probably not the only one for whom Once Upon a Time in the West played a major rolein the passion that I developed for Leone’s cinema and for Morricone’s music. Yet it took verylong for me to see the movie. For some reason, it was never on TV, and in that time, it wasn’tas easy as today to see all the movies you wanted to see – especially if you lived in a smallvillage far from movie theatres. You had to fall back on other, less satisfactory, options. If likeme you are from Belgium or France and old enough for having lived through the seventies, youprobably remember the famous French TV-show aired on Sundays on TF1 called “La séquencedu spectateur”: 3 times 10 minutes from movies of all sorts. West was in it about once a year,and this was the sole opportunity for me to see parts of that film. I was eagerly waiting for thefinal duel scene to show up again, and was glued to my seat whenever it did. This long wait andfrustration, this never-ending period of longing-for-more developed in me a holy-grail kind ofaching. A young teenager acquiring his sensitivity to art and beauty was an easy target. Formore than a decade, I was seeing only the tip of the iceberg. It alone was already captivatingme, and I knew there was a whole submerged part still to be uncovered.

Dilatation of Time

When you see Once Upon a Time in theWest, you understand what Sergio Leonehad in mind since the beginning. Yourealize that with the Dollars trilogy, he wasonly warming up. Those three earliermovies may be masterpieces in their ownright, they do not showcase the director’sintent as well as his fourth western of 1968.

The latter surpasses its predecessors both inthemes and in style. The three ClintEastwood vehicles were certainly alreadyvery innovative, but they often made use oftricks and techniques that are known to“work”, in order to preserve the appeal,such as cavalcades, twists in the plots,emphasized cruelty. It still madeconcessions to the viewers, as if the directordid not dare yet to be fully himself. Now we


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know he had another purpose: Once Upona Time in the West is the slowest of themovies. Its story could have resulted in a 1-hour clear-cut film, but what mattered toSergio Leone was to make a deep, lastingimpression on the spectators. By slowingdown his narrative, he amplified the impactof his message. The film doesn’t only havethe longest opening credits in the history ofcinema, it has the longest everything. Thereare some shootings throughout the movie,some scenes of tension, but the filmdevelops at a pace that is barely bearable bythe average audience. After the openingtrain station scene and McBain’s familymassacre, and before the final showdown,there is not so much happening. Noteverybody is a cinema expert or a fan ofclever filmmaking who can appreciate thesmartness of a camera angle or the qualityof the editing. The scenes where Jillsearches McBain’s house or where Frankspeaks to Morton could have beendownright boring. Somehow, there is stillenough to keep the spectators on tip-toes.The development of the characters, themystery around their intentions, theenigmatic flashbacks... The scene whereCheyenne is killing Frank’s men one afterthe other from the rooftop of a train whereHarmonica is kept prisoner, is a smart onein that respect. It is like Leone was saying:ok it is very slow, but bear with me, you’llsee, it’s gonna be fun, you won’t regret it.However it is only when Frank will rideback to Sweetwater in order to faceHarmonica for the final confrontation, thatwe are able to measure the distancetravelled. We are now holding our breathand can’t wait for the denouement.

The term “dilatation of time” has often beenused for characterizing this movie. The filmis like a rope for which the strong beginningand the formidable ending make up thehandles, hard and inflexible, whereas therest of the movie makes up the braided wirein between, bendable and soft. The two

47 Sure enough Giù la testa does not have “OnceUpon a Time” in its title (except in France), butneither had The Good, the Bad and the Ugly the

handles can be moved close to each other atwill, as if there was nothing in between. Yetthere is something, something withoutwhich you don’t have a rope anymore, andits intertwined laces are unbreakable. Thefact that the movie lasts almost three hoursis a purely practical fact. In reality, Leonemanaged to rub out the duration of hispicture.

A Multi-Layered Screenplay

Actually, what Sergio Leone really had inmind after The Good, the Bad and theUgly, was already the project that ended upbeing Once Upon a Time in America. Ifhis filmography looks pretty neat with itstwo trilogies – the “Dollars” trilogy and the“Once Upon a Time” trilogy47 – neither ofthem was premeditated. They both resultedfrom the changing dispositions of theproducers. In 1968, Leone had no choice butmake yet another western. So he reluctantlyheaded to the Spanish Sierra Nevada againand to the US to shoot it, but with a biggerbudget, with American stars, anddetermined to give it its own uncompro-mising touch thanks to the freedom he could

word “Dollars” in its own (except during pre-production).


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now enjoy. The screenplay, originallywritten with Bernardo Bertolucci and DarioArgento, was then re-worked with SergioDonati, finally credited after having workedin the shadow for Leone’s second westernFor a Few Dollars More. However I can’thelp seeing Bertolucci’s touch in the mostquirky turns of the story, such as theambiguity around Jill’s rape by Frank. Thedirector of Last Tango in Paris or La lunawas a specialist of abstruse relationshipsbetween man and woman. The contributionof Mickey Knox, author of the dialogues,should not be underestimated either.

It is worth noting that the Italian title of themovie C’era una volta il West actuallymeans “Once Upon a Time, the West”. SoLeone did not intend to depict a singularstory somewhere in the Wild West, but toportray the West itself – its whole story.When he shoots a scene inside MonumentValley, like John Ford did before him, hemeans it not to be merely a beautifullandscape for a given scene, but to representan allegory of the Far West. Flagstone andSweetwater (the two cities or would-becities between which his characters travel inthat scene) are imaginary, so why would thelandscape between them be the realMonument Valley we all know. It isn’t. It isjust a parable that speaks to oursubconscious. The characters are not simplya bunch of people that happened to havebeen involved in the same story: theyrepresent the passing from a period wherepeople had to fight for their lives by meansof their physical strength, defending valuessuch as family, country, traditions, belief,justice, to a time that will be dominated byruthless businessmen, where the only valuethat prevails is money. Except for Morton,the businessman in question, all the mainprotagonists belong to the “obsolete”category. Those who will survive are thosewho will be able to cope with the new stateof things: Jill because she is smart enoughto adapt, and Harmonica because he has

48 Argument based on Trevor Willsmer’s notes onthe special collector’s edition DVD of the movie byParamount Pictures in 2003.

understood what was going on and can takethe necessary distance. Frank himselfadmits that he is not able to become abusinessman even though he believes thatthis would be the smartest way to go; andCheyenne is an outlaw, killed by Morton ina symbolistic turn of the plot – not shownon screen, as if the murder itself didn’tmatter much: only its metaphor does.Morton himself dies, but as said byHarmonica towards the end of the movie,there will be other Mortons to come andtake over.

But maybe Harmonica did not surviveactually. Indeed, in the original director’scut, Bronson’s character takes a bullet at thebeginning of the movie by one of the threecharacters just before the latter dies. Theshort scene where Harmonica recovers andgets up was not present in the originalEuropean cut: it was added to the Americanone and more recently to all editions thatclaim to be complete. Later in the movie,when Frank asks him who he is, Harmonicakeeps answering with names of dead people.Symbolically again, Leone might havemeant that Harmonica was Frank’snemesis: not a real character, just ametaphor for the fact that a character likeFrank cannot survive the paradigm shift thatis taking place.48

We must also mention the omnipresence ofthe water element49, not noticeable by theordinary viewer, yet obvious if you payattention to it. Water is the very reason whyMcBain wants to build a town at that place,which he would call Sweetwater, naturally,so Leone and its screenwriters haveextrapolated around the topic in all its

49 As noted by Dr. Sheldon Hall in the audiocommentary of the same DVD.


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forms: Jill’s baths, Cheyenne’s coffees, thewash house where Harmonica torturesWobbles, the drops falling on WoodyStrode’s hat – which he eventually drinks –,the painting in Morton’s train and his will togo from one ocean to the other, Cheyenne’stoilet flushing when going in and out of thetrain via the water-closet, Morton’s deathwith his head in a puddle, the well fromwhich McBain’s witnesses his daughter’sdeath and from which Jill pulls water forHarmonica, the water she brings to theworkers at the end, and so many moreexamples. It cannot simply be a coincidence.Unconsciously, this creates a sense offluidity, a sense of transparency, whichimpacts the perception of the movie by theviewers. This kind of details proves howhigh the maturity of the screenplay is. Themovie is not a classic by chance.

Dawn of the West

It was said that the box-office failure in theUS was due to the fact that Henry Fondawas cast as a villain, an inconceivable factfor the American movie-goers. But whywould that be conceivable at all for theEuropeans or the Japanese, who made thesame movie an instant success? They arealso movie fans who were used to see Fondaplay the law-abiding good guy. That failurewas more likely due to cultural reasons: theAmericans did not have their SamPeckinpah yet, author of the first Americancrepuscular westerns, soon followed bythose of Clint Eastwood himself. Both werefollowing the footsteps of the Italian master,but were able to make it in a way that wasacceptable for their fellow country-(wo)men. In 1968, America was stillconsidering the movies as pureentertainment or at best as an opportunity toaddress social concerns, and was waitingfor Martin Scorsese, Arthur Penn or FrancisFord Coppola to shake this all up. Europe inthe second half of the 20th century, incontrast, was already the cradle of a numberof revolutionary movements in the cinema,such as neo-realism in Italy, or the NouvelleVague in France.

A Character-Themed Score

There are not enough superlatives to qualifyEnnio Morricone’s score to Once Upon aTime in the West. It is considered the bestmovie soundtrack ever by many, and thatincludes myself of course. This is the scorein which Morricone’s character-themeapproach culminated, each of the five maincharacters receiving a distinctive theme.

Just like in The Mission where the choiceof the main instrument (the oboe) wasdictated by the screenplay, the harmonicaplays here a major diegetic and non-diegeticrole, associated to Charles Bronson’scharacter. Normally a popular instrumentgenerally used as a light counterpoint, itreceives here the singular stature of a carrierof death. Bronson’s theme is a simple three-note motive usually played by the characteron screen, which then develops into acomplex cue intertwined with Frank’stheme to form the Man with the Harmonicapiece. Frank’s melody is more pastoral,often played by the English horn or by brassinstruments. But inside the Harmonicapiece, it is ascribed to an extremelyamplified electric guitar. No-one else thanMorricone dared to exaggerate an effect thismuch, to a point that it becomes the moststriking element of the movie when it burstsinto the loudspeakers. And no-one else thanLeone allowed his composer to go this farand steal the scene.

It was a very clever move to mergeHarmonica’s and Frank’s themes, accen-tuating the strong connection between thetwo men. In the second part of the piece, anew theme develops played by strings andfull chorus. Glorious, captivating andfabulous, it reaches the highest degree ofmagnificence. The mix of Franck’s andHarmonica’s themes first appears at the endof the massacre of the McBain family, when


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Frank and his men emerge from the bushes.The presence of the harmonica in this sceneis questionable however, becauseBronson’s character is not around. And itseems indeed that the original intention wasnot to use the harmonica there: the piececalled Il grande massacro on the expandedCD is a version of the theme deprived ofthat instrument. It is very likely that Leonewas unsatisfied with that initial version andfound that the full version had a muchstronger impact. Therefore the film versionis a collage of the timpani roll followed bya fragment from L’uomo dell’armonica,seguing into the finale from Il grandemassacro. He was right: it made the scene aclassic moment of cinema, and the awkwardpresence of the harmonica has neverannoyed anyone.

Both Jill and Cheyenne also famouslyreceived their own respective themes: awonderful vocal by Edda Dell’Orsoembodies both the femininity and thelarger-than-life epic which ClaudiaCardinale’s character is going through, anda laid-back folk tune follows the deeds ofJason Robards’ tramp-like personification.A fifth theme has been conceived forMorton, capturing both the ambitions andthe fragility of the businessman.

It looks simple at first sight: five characters,five themes. But if you look at it a bit closer,you’ll realize that the architecture of thescore is much more complex than it appears.Frank’s theme, for example, can emergewhen Frank is not around. But is it whenHarmonica is around, confirming the linkbetween the two characters? Well, not even:it is heard once when Jill is alone. Is this adeparture from the perfectionism of theLeone-Morricone pair, or should we find ajustification elsewhere? My feeling is thatnot only the characters are allegoric: themusic also is. Frank’s theme not onlycharacterizes the man, it portrays a feelingof melancholy: things could be great in thisnew world, but there are killers and therewill be blood. So you will never be able tofully and carelessly embrace your new life.When played in a suspense mode (cf.

L’uomo), it’s telling you that the danger inquestion is imminent. And when played bythe distorted guitar, it is an explosion ofviolence and sadism, the allegory of a worldwhere a whole family, including youngchildren, can be assassinated, where killinga man can become a sadistic game that willmark the survivors ever after.

Harmonica’s simple motive is an allegoryof the agony: on the first degree it amplifiesthe breathing of a boy whose brother isabout to die, and later of his dying killer; ona more general level it represents the agonyof the Old West, and also the agony of theAmerican western – a theme which Leonewill exploit further in Il mio nome èNessuno five years later, again with Fondaand with an additional layer as Leone willhumbly portray the agony of his ownwestern-style, making room for parodies.

Jill’s theme is the allegory of love, of theplace of the woman in this new world, awoman who is fed up of only being a wifeor a whore and now wants a place of choice.Morricone saw it as the embodiment of thewhole film as he gave it the C’era una voltail West title. Morton’s theme is a metaphorof the dream and of the fact that the endjustifies the means. Finally, Cheyenne’stheme symbolizes the man on the street, thenormal person, and in the end: us, theaudience.

We see that the music is not only anillustration of the director’s intent, it is aprolongation of it, it adds concepts whichare not portrayed explicitly by the images.

Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone were 40.They were at the peak of their respectivecareers. They had been to school togetherand now they were changing the face ofcinema and music for ever.


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Track by Track Analysis

Legend: (*) Unreleased (**) Unreleased in that format

Armonica (*)

After the long credits sequence with nomusic, showing three men waiting for atrain that appears to not bring what they hadexpected, a moaning harmonica reveals thatthe men’s wait has not been in vain:somebody did step out of the train and isnow insidiously calling them to face him.

L’uomoHarmonica kills them all and is injured. Themusic heard is L’uomo, a slow butdisquieting prefiguration of the L’uomodell’armonica theme, with a first apparitionof Frank’s theme played by the banjo.

Il grande massacro / L’uomo dell’armonica(**)

All the members of the McBain family,except the young boy, have been shot byunseen killers. They now emerge from thewilderness to face the kid. This impressivemusical moment will mark film musichistory for ever.

Interestingly, the second episode of theUltimo TV-series (La sfida) kicks off witha comparable scene where killers face a boyand decide to kill him in the same way andfor the same reason (the boy has heard thekiller’s name)50. If the wink to West is more

50

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rnv5TIN7QfY

than obvious, Morricone however decidedto not play the game of self-reference andsimply illustrated the scene with a suspensecue (a variation of Quattro suoni).

L’orchestracciaJill arrives to Flagstone, where diegeticsaloon music is being played. A soft piececalled L’arrivo alla stazione is present onthe expanded CD, probably conceived forthis scene but unused.

C’era una volta il WestJill’s theme premieres majestically as sherealizes there is no-one to pick her up andmoves her way through town to find a lift toget to Sweetwater. It is actually a shortenedversion of the piece C’era una volta il West,where the final part is absent. This is theversion that appeared in 1974 on the LP“Soundtracks” (RCA TBD1-1068), lasting2:37.

L’America di JillA short intro illustrates Jill’s doubts abouther husband’s sincerity, then a nice bridgeon a melody not heard elsewhere makesroom to a new rendition of Jill’s theme asthe carriage, driven by Paolo Stoppa (whoin spite of his short role did have his nameon the poster, because he was a knownfigure in Italy at the time) crossesMonument Valley.


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La posada/Cheyenne (*)

They stop at an inn (“posada” in Spanish),where Cheyenne makes his first appearanceon an unreleased version of his theme.

Armonica

The man with the harmonica is also at theinn, and the two men will check each otherout a bit like Eastwood and Van Cleef hadbeen doing outdoors in a town in Perqualche dollaro in più. A version ofL’uomo dell’armonica is used, but due tothe more confined space in which the scenetakes place, Morricone had to hold back hishorses, making it a half-baked rendition.This long scene adopts theatre-like mannerswith overdone short dialogues and cornerlooks by the two men who don’t know yeton which side the other is, not willing tolose their face especially in the presence ofa woman. This scene is far from perfect inmy humble opinion – then again, not everyscene had to be iconic, right?

Armonica (*) - 2 versions

Harmonica can play, but Cheyenne stillwonders if he can also shoot.

La posada n1

This version of La posada makes use ofCheyenne’s theme as he challenges a man,still inside the inn.

Armonica (*)

Cheyenne advises Harmonica to watch forthe false notes.

C’era una volta il West (*)Jill finally arrives at Sweetwater, only todiscover that her new family has beenmassacred. An unreleased version of hertheme plays as she looks at the bodies oneby one, very similar to the published version,but shorter and with the bridge played softlyby an English horn.

C’era una volta il West (*)Very short version of the theme as Jilldecides to stay in Sweetwater.

Un letto troppo grande

Short and soft version of Jill’s theme. A shotof Cardinale lying on a bed is strangelyreminiscent of the final scene from OnceUpon a Time in America, where De Niroenigmatically smiles at the camera.

Jill

Another short version of Jill’s theme as sheis searching the house, with a longer andvery different intro on soft strings seguinginto the theme delicately played by a celesta.

Armonica (*)

She hears a menacing harmonica playedoutside.

Frank

The morning after, Jill is alone in her newhome. Frank’s theme is played on Englishhorn, probably to bring some variety afterso many variations of Jill’s theme.

La posada n1 (*)

The term “posada” will be used for twoother suspense cues even though the


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corresponding scenes do not take place in aninn at all. This one is heard when Jill opensthe door only to face Cheyenne and his menwho have silently arrived at her house. Thisis another theatrical effect of Leone: it wasquite impossible that all those men andhorses could approach the house unnoticed.

Cheyenne (*)

Short version of Cheyenne after he wasimpressed by Jill’s harsh speech about notbeing afraid of getting raped.

C’era una volta il West (*)Different version of Jill’s theme as she talks,now friendly, to Cheyenne.

Armonica / L’uomo (*)Inside the barn, Jill now has to faceHarmonica. He approaches her, first givingthe impression that he intends to ill-treat her,but he only means to scare her and to showhis superiority.

Suspense (*)

Jill gets water from the wellfor Harmonica, as killers arewaiting for the right momentto attack. Harmonica will killthem both.

Cheyenne (*)

Cheyenne has witnessed the scene and nowknows that Harmonica can also shoot.

Armonica (*)

Harmonica is facing Frank for the first timeand memories from the past come to hismind, with a flashback of an unidentifiablesilhouette in the wilderness.

La posada n3

Frank made Harmonicaa prisoner and killsWobbles because he hadbeen followed.

Epilogo

Frank asks questions toHarmonica to try tounderstand who hereally is. There wasreally no reason to callthis version “Epilogue”on the expanded CD.

Sul tetto del treno (*)

After Frank left, Cheyenne manages to setHarmonica free.


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A Station (*)

Jill understands that McBain actuallyintended to build a station. The music,unreleased and not making use of a specifictheme, segues into a suspense cue untilFrank appears inside Jill’s house.

Morton

In a strange twist of the screenplay, Frank isnow back with his men and has harsh wordstowards Morton, whose theme appears forthe first time as he falls on the ground. Onthe CD, the piece is a collage of the severalshort cues that will be heard throughout themovie. It is quite amazing that such abrilliant piece of music had never beenreleased until 1999.

In una stanza con poca luce (*)

Frank is abusing an ambiguously semi-consenting Jill on a suspended bed, in anundetermined place (not her house asCheyenne and Harmonica are waiting forher there). He reveals he killed her husbandand convinces her to sell her property. Thiswas the first scene shot by Leone, andCardinale often recalls that Fonda’s wifewas attending the shooting, making her veryuncomfortable.

Morton (*)

Morton dreams of the Pacific ocean. He willthen convince Frank’s men to go and killtheir own boss.

Cheyenne (*) - 2 versions

At the auction for McBain’s house,conducted by Keenan Wynn and with anuncredited Fabio Testi in one of his veryfirst roles, Harmonica makes the final bid inthe form of the reward for the prisoner hedelivers: Cheyenne, whose theme is shortlyheard.

Yet another unreleased version of it is heardas Cheyenne is being escorted to jail.

L’uomo (*)Frank and Harmonica face each other in thedeserted saloon.

Armonica (*)

Second short flashback.

L’attentato (**)

Frank has been ambushed by his own menbut Harmonica helps him get out uninjured.The minimalistic suspense music forpercussions, piano and organ is actually


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made up of a set of short cues, some ofwhich are unreleased.

Ritorno al treno

Frank goes back to the train on thisappropriately named version of Frank’stheme on French horn.

Morton

Morton is the only survivor of an unseenconfrontation between his men andCheyenne’s (I must admit that the bodycount doesn’t always make sense to me).We will soon understand that Cheyennehimself could escape but was mortallyinjured during this fight. Morton soonmiserably dies as well in a puddle of water.

Cheyenne (*)

As the railway construction nears McBain’sproperty, and as Harmonica seems to bewaiting for someone, Cheyenne arrives andasks Jill to make coffee.

Come una sentenza – film version (*)

Frank arrives to face Harmonica. Thetrumpet kicks off later than on the albumversion, leaving room for a majestic andunreleased introduction on strings.

Cheyenne (*)

Cheyenne tells Jill to bring water to theworkers.

51 You might want to go back to Patrick Ehresmann’s

Prima del duello (*)

The scene of the duel has remainedanchored in everyone’s memory. Amasterpiece of directing and of musicalunderscoring. This unreleased version isextended in order to give enough time toFrank to find the right position in front ofHarmonica, who then moves closer to him.

Duello finale (**)

As they stand immobile, Harmonica has alonger flashback and the whole scene is nowrevealed: the indistinct silhouette was theone of a younger Frank, bringing tocompletion his ruthless plan in the mostfamous and original torture scene of cinemahistory. Harmonica breathes music as he invain tries to prolong as much as possible thelife of his brother (played by producerClaudio Mancini), the latter having his neckinside a rope and his feet on youngHarmonica’s shoulders. The version heardis very close to the one released as Duellofinale, still with some differences though.51

article in MSV 103 about the release of the expanded


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This is the climax of the movie, justifyingthe long wait and actually magnified by it.

L’ultimo rantolo

Harmonica now kills Frank, revealing at thevery last moment who he is and hismotivation for revenge. The gasps in theharmonica are now Frank’s.

C’era una volta il West (**)Abridged version of Jill’s theme as she isrelieved to see who survived theconfrontation.

Addio a Cheyenne

Cheyenne and Harmonica both leave, and itappears that Cheyenne had been injured

during the fight at Morton’s train. As theman sits on the ground and dies, we finallyget to hear the full version of Cheyenne’stheme, even longer than on the album (withno new music though, just a couple of linesthat are repeated). This is actually themoment where Alessandroni’s whistle firstappears in the movie, as a late reminiscenceof the Dollars trilogy.

Finale

As the first train arrives to Sweetwater, Jillgoes out to bring water to the workers, andLeone puts an end to his epic movie on agrandiose version of Jill’s theme.

Addio a Cheyenne

As the end credits roll and we see Harmo-nica on horseback taking Cheyenne’s bodyaway, the album version of Cheyenne’stheme is heard.

** *

We see that many tracks heard in the moviesare still unpublished. This is partiallycompensated by the fact that manypublished tracks are not heard in the movie,namely: Come una sentenza, Il grandemassacro, L’arrivo alla stazione, Duellofinale and Nascità di una città. Not countingof course the many songs which Morriconederived later from Jill’s theme, for MireilleMathieu, Katia Ricciarelli, Dulce Pontesand Hayley Westenra, plus revisions forEdda Dell’Orso, Yo Yo Ma and for liveconcerts.

version of the soundtrack, where a detailed description of such differences is provided.


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—————INTERVIEW—————

L’isola re-recordedInterview with Didier Thunus

by Laurent Perret

The announcement of a double CD set of L'isola virtually came out of the blue somewhereduring October of 2018, with the release following soon after. Well, being a re-recording of arather recent TV score, this item has not been frankly welcome by everyone interested inMorricone's music, essentially because no one can pretend to be as consistent and convincingas the Maestro himself when it comes to performing his music. Many people have even decidedto purely and simply ignore it. Still, having undeniably requested a tough and time-consumingwork, it now exists and deserves to be discussed. Didier Thunus first asked me to write a reviewof this double CD but I soon suggested that we should rather make an interview together inorder to clear up a few things about the way the Solisti & Orchestre del Cinema Italiano use towork. I'm glad that he accepted to answer my questions in a very honest manner. So, whetheryou have mixed feelings about this product or not, this interview might be enlightening for youin case you want to know how the music has been reconstructed and recorded, who's behind thepseudonym EverKent and even more. Enjoy!

First off, since this 2 CD set was born outof a frustration of yours, i.e. the absenceof an official release, did you find fromscratch that there was something specialabout this score?Yes, I think this score is wonderful. It is rich,varied, masterful and genuine Morricone.

We cannot just do as if it didn’t exist, it is asignificant one. It is the longest score everwritten by the Maestro, ex-aequo withMarco Polo. Nobody outside of Italy hasheard it; it deserves more exposure.

Regarding the complete re-recording ofsuch a recent score, consisting of a


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staggering total of ca 30 themesaccording to your liner notes, there werevery few precedents. Examples like HugoMontenegro's 2 subsequent LP's of TheMan from U.N.C.L.E in the mid 60's orBladerunner's version by the NewAmerican Orchestra spring to mind butthey were essentially made up of re-arranged highlights. Would youtherefore agree that this 2 CD set appearsas a kind of UFO on the soundtrackmarket?It is indeed quite unique. This is because theproject was born in a quite unusual manner.As I had started creating music myself, Ihappened to become familiar with the manyaudio creation tools that exist today. In oneof the libraries I had purchased, I found aperfectly sounding duduk, and it promptedme to try to reproduce the ethnic theme fromL’isola. Yes this very insignificant eventwas the trigger for this big project. I wasquite satisfied with the result, so I thought,why not try doing what the Solisti weredoing? They had stopped their production afew years ago for some reason, and therewas a gap to fill. So it was not like I decidedto learn the tools in order to do that: I hadlearned them for other reasons, and thiswas just a side effect. I decided to do acouple more pieces and sent them to theSolisti’s producer, with whom I had workedas sleeve notes writer and adviser in thepast. He was not impressed at first, for goodreasons – I was just a beginner.Nevertheless I had bitten in it and couldn’tlet go anymore. I decided I would try to doit all, knowing that it would probably end upjust being a personal project. I was crazyenough to take that step and spend monthsdoing nothing else but that. And, of course,practice helps perfecting the craft, so Iended up with a result that I dared to sendagain to the producer. And this time he gaveit a second thought and decided to pass it tohis team, to see what they could come upwith. So indeed this CD is a UFO, becauseI don’t think any other album was born thatway.

Which audience is this product aimed atand how would you rate the potential ofsuch albums?I think there are three types of audience.First we have the film music enthusiasts,who will be interested by the release of sucha major score. I know that only a part ofthem will be enthusiastic, because manywill not stand the fact that it is not theoriginal score. I can’t blame them, I am thefirst one to regret the absence of such anofficial release. Many however will behappy with this version, basically those whohave appreciated the previous releases ofthe Solisti. The second type is made up ofthe people who have enjoyed the musicwhile watching the series. The broadcastwas a big success in Italy, and the music hasdefinitely reached the heart of many viewers,even those who don’t normally care for filmmusic. Finally, it is also addressed to filmmusic scholars, who can now finally listento this score in its entirety and comment onit. It occupies a bigger place in film musichistory. If we take the example of Giovannied Elviruccia, nobody was able to sayanything about it until the Solisti releasedtheir version of it. Now I have seen itmentioned in Jean-Blaise Collombin’s bookon Morricone. People can now include linksto Youtube or to Spotify, instead of trying toexplain verbally what the music sounds like.They can name cues precisely, there is areference now, which can be quoted,discussed, argued about, lauded, thrashed...Music belongs with the people, not withshelves where it takes the dust. Morricone’soeuvre is a continuum which should beinterrupted at no point, the gaps must befilled. It’s not the original score alright, butat least “something” is available now.How many copies have been pressed sofar and are you satisfied with the sales?I heard it was going to be 1000, but thismight have changed in the meantime. Idon’t know. I’m not asking questions. I havelearned to be deferential and I am not


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curious. I just take what is given to me.About the sales, I know that the firstnumbers were satisfactory.

To the potential buyers who are attachedto Morricone's original sound and magicand who would be reluctant to get thisitem, what would you say to encouragethem to get it?For me, it’s a bit like a precious Egyptiansculpture that was only visible by expertarchaeologists, and now a copy of it isexposed in museums: people might still befrustrated to not be able to admire the realone, but they would still go see the copy,because that’s all there is. You may rate it 3out of 10, and I know some will, but it isalready better than zero – and zero is whatwe had until now. I know also that some willrate it much higher. Personally I am nolonger able to judge how good it is: I haveheard it so many times, turned it in so manydifferent positions that in the end I cannottake the necessary distance anymore. WhatI can say is that everything has been doneto make this product as perfect as possiblewith the means that were available. I knowthere have been strong criticisms on the net,including by renowned CD producers ofMorricone original scores. Those guys whohave brought so many CDs on the marketare my heroes and have my eternalgratitude. People should listen to them, aslong as they also make up their ownpersonal opinion. But the Solisti are alsoheroes for me, when they reproduceunreleased music. There is a place for themtoo, and they are not greedy. Anyone whoknows something about the music industryknows that such a project is not going tomake big money. It’s just a labour of love.You have been very instrumental inmaking this project come true. Since theSolisti e Orchestre del Cinema Italianohave so far specialized in oldersoundtracks from the 60's and 70's, wasit difficult to convince them to embarkinto this adventure?The Solisti have done many recent pieces aswell (La piovra 10, Padre Pio, Lolita, Karol,Ancora qui…), only not full scores. Yesthey’ve mostly done 60s/70s scores,

because that’s what the people want to hear.For me it would have been difficult to do anearlier score because it’s hard to find onewhere the voices don’t play a major role,and I am not equipped to reproduce voices.

Who was in charge of reconstructing thescore straight from the TV series?I had already assembled the base score in2013 after the series was broadcast, inorder to prepare the 3 weekly specials Iuploaded on chimai.com. So the full scorewas already there, ripped from TV andedited into a complete and coherent form,which I partially published on my site. I hadnot imagined back then that it would lead tothe treatment it has now undergone, but itwas clearly an invaluable asset that led tochoosing that one compared to any other. Istarted the reconstruction in November2016 on my computer, note by note, for allparts, using virtual instruments. I finishedin June 2017. I had to take a breaksomewhere in April because it was drivingme crazy.

What was the most demanding aspect inthis painstaking work?Several pieces were very complicated, suchas Azione prima versione 1 or Indagineversione 2: many different instrumentsplayed with specific articulation or unusualsound. I’m also very proud of the pieceAmore terzo versione 1, a very delicate andemotional piece, whose soul was hard tocapture but I think I made it. It is actuallymuch more difficult to reproduce existingpieces than to create new ones. When youcreate music, you will often find sounds justby trying several things or by pureserendipity. When you have to be close to anexisting one, you have to keep searchingand searching until it is the right one. Thereis no fantasy or inventiveness here, onlyhard work. Some pieces would take me onlya day or two, others would hassle me for 3-4 weeks, sometimes I was leaving themaside out of despair, to only come back tothem later with a renewed motivation.


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Like in the previous recordings of theSolisti, the booklet doesn't feature anynames nor how many persons have beeninvolved in the recording. To a personcalled Kalman who asked for details onyour site, you answered this: "It's theusual setup of the Solisti e Orchestre: thebasis is synthesized (mostly done byEverKent in this case), but virtualinstruments are replaced by real oneswhenever possible/applicable. Everythingis done to sound as much as possible as theoriginal one." But can you be morespecific about who they are, how they areworking together? Are they made of anucleus of regular musicians to whomother people are joining depending on therequirements of the music?Like I said, I’m not asking questions. I amonly in contact with the producer, whom Ihave met once personally and with whom Ienjoy a very fruitful association. I know thatthe rest of the band is made up ofprofessional musicians/engineers who arebusy with different projects. But I don’tknow how they work. I have not worked withthem directly.

EverKent being a newcomer in theprocess, can you tell us more about hisbackground and about the tasks heexactly took on?EverKent is basically me and my computer.I use a nickname for whatever concerns theperformance because I personally cannotplay an instrument, so I would find itabusive to use my real name there. Also I

leave the door open to my music beingplayed by others, but for the moment, it’sjust EverKent. In the context of this project,the role of EverKent was the one I explainedabove, for whatever I said I did myself.

Which software did you use in order totranscribe accurately all the differentlayers of Morricone’s rich orchestration?And did you end up with written scoresfor each cue?The most important tools were my ears andmy patience. In terms of software, what youneed most for such work is a DAW (DigitalAudio Workstation). I’ve used two for thisproject: MuLab and StudioOne. I have alsoused note recognition software such asMelodyne and UJAM Studio. And my mainvirtual instruments library wasComposerCloud from EastWest, but I alsoused some of the instruments providednatively by the two DAWs. The result canindeed be converted into written scores(some more manipulation would berequired though), but it was not necessaryhere: what I provided to the Solisti wasWAV files and MIDI files, for eachindividual instrument of each piece, readyto be enhanced or replaced.

Besides the sampling of orchestralsounds, can you tell us how many realinstruments have been used? Is forinstance the Armenian duduk also doneelectronically?It’s good that you ask, it shows that thedifference is not always obvious [laughs].The duduk is the one I had found in mylibraries, it has not been re-played, and Ithink it is beautiful. Basically the pianosand the guitars have been performed by realmusicians, and some of the sound effectshave been redone. If they have changedother things, I have not noticed. So the restis the music I produced, which was thenmixed and mastered by the Solisti to bringit to professional standards.

How about the very symphonic cue Senzaritorno from Negrin's previous TV movie


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Missus reused in L'isola as the main titleof a few episodes? Since the originalrecording is available, was it a dilemmato include the Solisti's version or not,knowing that it obviously can't stand thecomparison with Morricone's ownrendition?Senza ritorno had to be there, I knew it fromthe beginning. It is so prominent in the film– it is really the theme from L’isola, andpeople who have seen the series would nothave understood if it was not included.Besides it is a fantastic piece and it is goodto give it some new exposure. I’m sure manypeople didn’t even know it pre-existed theseries, and very few people actually have iton CD at all. It is true however that I havedone that piece as last, only after theSolisti’s producer told me he was goingahead. If it had remained a personal project,I wouldn’t have needed that piece, I wouldsimply have used the available one. But aspart of the Solisti’s project, it had to be re-done.

The booklet features the indication"Original Sound Recording C / P 2018".Oddly enough, there is no mentionwhatsoever of RaiTrade/Palomar, theoriginal publisher of this soundtrack.Which authorizations or licenses havebeen required and was it difficult to getthem?I’m not taking care of that part, I wouldn’tknow how to. That’s why I team up with

professionals, who have been doing that foryears. There are so many steps to be takento get a CD on the market, and I’m just aprick in an attic.

No pictures of the TV series have beenreproduced? Is it for economicalreasons?I suppose it is.

Did you inform Morricone and Negrinabout the existence of this project?I didn’t and I don’t know if this is part of theprocess. I know Morricone would hate theCD. It’s only normal. I hope he can alsounderstand that such a CD can only existout of immeasurable love for his work.

In the related lemmas of your sitewww.chimai.com, the tracks belonging toseveral recordings of the Solisti arestrangely enough not featured in thecover version section to which theyclearly belong. Take for instance L'orcaassassina from Orca listed alongsideMorricone's own version. How come?I have explained this in my article onDanger: Diabolik in Maestro #5. For methey are not mere cover versions, I call themreproductions.

Are you considering other projects ofthat kind with the Solisti?Not really. I don’t think I will ever find thecourage to go through that process again. Iwant to focus on other EverKent projects(there will still be some surprises forMorricone fans though). As for the Solisti,I’m not aware of their upcoming projectsbut there is nothing I am involved in at themoment.


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—————SCORE REVIEW—————

Le stregheby Steven Dixon

It will now be a widely known fact that Piero Piccioni's soundtrack for the anthology film Lestreghe ("The Witches", 1966) is back on CD along with a rather nice trimmed down vinyldisc produced by Digitmovies (LPDM015). For these Piccioni tracks it's second time aroundon CD. In 2009 Digitmovies dispensed 32 pieces of music from two of the Piccioni filmepisodes as a limited 500 edition.

Again, no sign of a complete CD of Ennio Morricone's works. His fine musical contribution toPier Paolo Pasolini's La Terra vista dalla luna was last heard on the2004 digipack CD “Cinema di Pier Paolo Pasolini” (GDM 2046) andran 8:51 minutes. Many will feel short changed that this importantMorricone composition, with over 22 minutes of delightful poeticmusic has not received the same glorious attention as Piccioni's. Let'snot grumble too much as Piccioni's Le streghe LP also releasedearlier this year and edited to just 11 tracks is an interesting curio forlovers of the vinyl, but in all honesty Piccioni's score is not in the

same league as Morricone’s.

Some of the tracks by Piccioni and Morricone have reached the vinyl stagebefore now. We have that lovely single containing Morricone'sMandolinate (3:41) which I guess is classed as the foremost theme from thePasolini segment. That was in 1967 (United Artists UA 3113). The single'simage was lifted from a rather fine Italian film poster as imagined by EnzoNistri, an artist who has created many Italian western poster designs usinghis trademark cardinal red backdrop. A second Italian poster was crafted byEnrico De Seta, this time adding a series of cartoon superheroes. De Setawas in fact a former cartoonist. Note, this exciting image was used on therecent LP and is a real delight to have in your collection. For Piccioni lovers,


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1981 was the year the Japanese conjured up muchunheard material, a 10:04 suite from the LucianoVisconti episode La strega bruciata viva. You'll findit on the 10LP boxed set “Visconti e la musica” (CBSSony - OOAP2301-10).

Morricone's vinyl credits made a rather surprisingentry in 1978 when a very scarce track found its wayonto the bootleg album “Great Fantasy Film Themes”(POO LP 106). It has been written many times that thePOO LPs disguised themselves as Japanese albums,but were actually produced in a small factory in theUSA. “Great Fantasy Film Music” was number 6 inthe POO record series. One of Morricone's entries wassimply titled The Witches (1:49) but surprisingly wasnot the principal theme from the original UA single,only containing minor excerpts from it. Whoevercompiled the POO LP had lifted this delightful littlepiece, which incidentally comes in three variations,from the 26-track studio tapes. About those tapes, theywere floating about in the mid-1970s. We do knowfrom these tapes emerged a compilation bootlegacetate which was produced in the USA later that decade. Other rare Morriconethemes were also lifted from tape and placed onto that acetate, including somesmashing ones from the 1968 period - H2S, Fraulein Doktor, Roma Come Chicago.From this brilliant acetate almost the entire B-side of the 1978 POO 005 record“Hornets' Nest and Other Themes” was born.

Only the one short theme from Le streghe was used on the “Great Fantasy Film Music”LP, a compilation which also includes a theme from Holocaust 2000 (1978). Theacetate curio did actually survive, it was not destroyed by the FBI. It's actuallycurrently in someone's collection. It was last on sale in a British soundtrack cataloguein 1996, price tag £1,000 or nearest offer. Whether it reached this sum is unknown. Iremember seeing it in a listing and thought to myself ''no way am I paying that kindof money!''

Into the decade 1980s and Morricone fans were truly overjoyed when a Pasolinicompilation LP came onto the market. “La musica nel cinema di Pasolini” (GM73001) was on sale as a standard LP in 1983 and as a boxed set in 1984. I guess theproduct gives a very good representation of the music found in the film – comic maintitle, dry humor, some pleasantly poetic passages, harmony, sadness, but still lackedtrue completion. For reasons unknown, the normal sleeve edition was withdrawn.Many months later a special edition boxed set came out with stills from the movies.

This too was withdrawn. Many thought this was because of the content of the photos. The realreason though, was the distributing company General Music had made the price too low, lessthan half the price it should have been.

I believe Le streghe is a hugely important part of Morricone's sixties filmography and makesPasolini's segment warm and watchable. The film begins with red headed Cianciato (Toto)mourning the death of his wife after an accidental case of mushroom poisoning. Alongside hisequally flame-haired son Baciu Miao (Ninetto Davoli), they go in search of someone to lovethem both. Their journey takes them on many short adventures, mistaking a mannequin dummyfor a possible wife and even a lady of the night until they finally meet a beautiful deaf woman


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Assurdina, played by Silvana Mangano, anactress who appears in all of the film's episodes.They quickly marry. Unable to give the beautifulAssurdina the good life she deserves Cianciatoconvinces Assurdina to simulate a suicideattempt by jumping from the Colosseum in orderto gain sympathy and donations from the largecrowd below. But the plan goes wrong when acouple of tourists (as played by Laura Betti andLuigi Leoni, oddly dressed in Safari suits) drop abanana skin and Assurdina plunges to her death.Later, she does return as a ghost and all livehappily as a loving family.

With the exception of the Pasolini episode, Lestreghe is a really awful film. Dino de Laurentiissimply putting the film together as a sort of vanityprogramme for his wife Silvana Mangano. ANight Like Any Other is one of the five short

stories even has Clint Eastwood, fresh from his Dollar westerns as a dowdy dull husband in afantasy episode which ends where Clint appears in a black cowboy outfit shooting at his wife'sadmirers. The film Le streghe did not damage Clint's popularity mainly because of its limiteddistribution at that time. Most of the film posters give a rather false representation as theydeliberately show Clint donned in the kind of western attire he was later to wear in Ted Post'sHang 'Em High (1968). That Eastwood episode does not partake in any western convention,apart from a silly dream sequence. The picture was eventually released in Italy, but only brieflyin Europe. United Artists later picked it up playing at a small festival in 1971 in L.A. whenClint was at his Box Office Dirty Harry best.

British TV showed a rare heavily trimmed down version in the mid-1970s, although the UKspeaking print omits many scenes, with particularly heavy cuts in the Pasolini episode. Goneare all references to the tourists who drop the banana skin plus most of the scenes with SilvanaMangano as a ghost. Because of this much of the Morricone soundtrack was absent.

The studio tapes contain exactly 26 tracks. Some attentive versions of Mandolinate are includedin both fast and slow variations. Many themesthough are incredibly short, like the ten second cuewith Franco De Gemini's solo harmonica blendinginto cue Mandolinate. This harmonica segment isclearly part of a much longer theme. Morriconeadds good humor throughout. The many Franco DeGemini solo harmonica passages which have neverbeen released before are incredibly interesting.Alessandro Alessandroni's solo guitar andwhistling themes are also established throughoutthe film, virtually without any other musicaladdition. Also reflected in the score many mournfultracks. Rich, full-bodied and sentimental. I do hopethe rest of the Morricone score might one dayeventually end up on CD, or record.


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—————ARRANGEMENTS—————

San Remo 1960A Special Edition

by Patrick Bouster and Richard Bechet

Tony Dallara Wilma De Angelis and Joe Sentieri

In Maestro #14, we evoked the song Le mille bolle blu sung by Mina at the Sanremo festival1961, arranged by Morricone, although the orchestra was conducted by Bruno Canfora. Wehave now discovered much more, especially as far as the 1960 edition is concerned.

Two conductors shared the 20 pairs of songs in competition: the veteran Cinico Angelini, whooften conducted at San Remo during the previous decade52 and a young and more dynamicconductor/arranger Marcello De Martino. And conducting in those years, save some fewexceptions, meant arranging as well the songs. Website bubinoblog53 comments the successiveSan Remo editions from the one of 1951 (which was the first one) onwards and reveals somebackground information and anecdotes. One of them greatly raised our interest: “Thearrangements performed by the orchestra conducted by Cinico Angelini actually are works byEnnio Morricone, except the track Libero, which is work by Maestro Luis Bacalov, directlypaid by Modugno”. It is not so surprising because in those early years, the young Morriconeworked a lot in arranging pieces for numerous conductors and composers, as he declared in thebook “Inseguendo quel suono”, page 21: Angelini is cited among them for the Fifties.

Morricone isn't cited for the previous editions of the San Remo festival. The blog even lists thesongs by conductor, which was of great help to go further. Another website, italiacanora,provides some information as well54.

52 Cinico Angelini (real name Angelo Cinico, 1901-1983) was present as conductor at the editions of 1951 to 1954,1956 and 1957, sharing the songs with another conductor.53 http://bubinoblog.altervista.org/la-storia-del-festival-sanremo-1960-10-edizione-gli-urlatori-mina-la-scenografia-la-accusa-plagio-cura-sante-longo/54 http://www.italiacanora.net//t1127-festival-di-sanremo-1960-i-cantanti-le-canzoni-i-testi#


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The 10th edition, from 28th to 30th of January 1960, still taking place atthe town communal casino (on the sea side, in the Liguria region, in theNorth West, not far from Nice and Cannes in France) was specialenough to give birth to a film, Sanremo, La grande sfidà (1960), byPiero Vivarelli. Although a DVD couldn’t be located, some excerpts areavailable on the net: it mixes the stage performances and somebackstage sequences with Toto`, president of the Selection Commission,many singers playing again their own roles for a fictional part, and theaudience sometimes played by actors. This festival is said to have triedto be more modern, to renew the performers, and at the same timekeeping some older aspects. Veterans or experimented singers such asAchille Togliani, Sergio Bruni, Nilla Pizzi, Gino Latilla share the stagewith young artists emerging for the first or second time at San Remo:Fausto Cigliano, Miranda Martino, Mina (who was only 19).

The songs competed during three evenings: the first two were made of two pairs of 20 songsand 10 of them were elected for the Final evening. The selected 10 pairs were ranked. So eachof the two conductors conducted and arranged a series of 20 songs, each of them performedtwice with the same lyrics but not the same singer and arrangement.

The main difficulty for us was to identify the right song conducted by Angelini whereas not allthe videos exist on the net. Watching De Martino conducting was often the right way to confirmthe right singer for the other conductor when the Angelini version is not available. And therecords weren’t a solid basis because they often feature another conductor/arranger. Even if theconductor is the original one, some differences can exist. This was made even more complicatedwhen the disc clearly mentioned “Sanremo 1960” but contained “cover versions” by otherconductors with often the original singers or other Sanremo singers, or Angelini’s versions withother singers!

The event was of course a pretext for the labels to produce many records (45RPMs and EPs),very often cover versions. So for the investigation, all the resources available has been used:video on the net and on official DVDs, disc versions spread on the net, CDR and DVDR fromsellers55, some files from fans, etc.

Romantica sung by Tony Dallara and Renato Rascel won the first place. It is reported thatModugno was pretty sure to win with Libero after his victory in the previous edition. Butfunnily enough, he missed the Final performance because he had taken sleeping pills… He wonhowever the second place. Quando vien la sera, by Wilma de Angelis and Joe Sentieri, reachedthe third one.

In the following description by songs, we are dealing indeed with dated stuff for a major part,but fortunately some exceptions emerge. No less than 19 songs are commented here, (mainly)arranged by Morricone, just before signing with his name many song arrangements and scorecompositions. For some of us who are familiar with early songs and arrangements, some namesare already known.

Different categories are distinguished according the cases and the available sources.

1) Video and disc versions with identical or similar singer and arrangementOnly the 9th place song is the first one found in this case: Splende il sole. The video (from theDVD “Sanremo story”) shows Fausto Cigliano singing an average jazzy song running 2:55, notexactly reprised as such on record. This one, conducted by Angelini, has a new intro but the

55 eurovision-dvd.com/sanremo.html

Mina


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other parts are very similar (3:03). Not an unforgettable song. Onthe same Cigliano EP record, another piece credited to Morriconeis present: Rose, a song with strings orchestra from 1959.

2) No video available but a record version with the originalsinger, conducted by Angelini

Cetra published all the Angelini record versions from this 1960edition. Since many of these discs respect the festival version, weassume, in spite of the absence of the live versions, that thepublished ones are identical or close to them.

The conductor recorded Colpevole with Tonina Torrielli,included on many 45 RPMs and EPs by Cetra or Fonit (3:06).Colpevole has a soft jazz flavor, but not impressive enough to bereally noticed.

Only a 45 RPM by Fonit attests of Amore abisso dolce, old-fashioned as expected with singer Achille Togliani (3:10). Thesong doesn’t have an interesting arrangement and the whole makes for a rather flat result.

Invoco te is a sentimental and conventional song, listenable but not great, published by Cetraagain (2:29). The strings section are interesting though, but Gino Latilla, like the previous singercited, is too dated for the new decade.

The experienced singer Tonina Torrielli uses in Perderti her powerful voice, suiting to this song.Not selected for the Final, it however deserves our attention: the background made of anostinato, with repetitions and insistences as the lyrics do, coupled with the voice, makes thewhole impressive, and Morricone’s hand recognizable. One of the good surprises of the series(several discs Cetra, 3:02).

Fonit published Perdoniamoci on a 45 RPM (2:32), a poor song not qualified for the Final, likethe others by Achille Togliani. Again a dated one, sung like in the past.

Vento, pioggia… scarpe rotte puts an end to this category, with again an old fashion songperformed by Gino Latilla, published by Cetra on a EP (2’54) about which it is difficult to sayanything interesting.

3) Video and disc versions featuring different singers but the latter is conducted byAngelini

It is noticeable enough that the winning song Romantica didn’t receive a publication with itsoriginal singer, Tony Dallara. A poignant and tight strings intro, a good tempo with ruptures,some brass moments, nice counterpoints on strings, a rolling piano, there are a lot of elementsfinally making a well-built song, of course vintage. A disc exists but conducted/arranged byEzio Leoni. However, Angelini recorded plenty of Sanremo 1960 songs with other singers…Here, the original version, comparing to the video (3:03), is by Gino Latilla on a Cetra EP. Therecord version appears to be softer, more “romantic”, and maybe with some differencescompared to the original one, but we are dealing with a respectful version.

For Quando vien la sera, the DVD “Sanremo story” features the original song with Wilma deAngelis, rather enjoyable but with poor sound which doesn’t allow us to perceive the quality(2:48). We located two versions, different from the festival version. The first one is conductedby Piero Soffici, and the second one was made for a Christmas broadcast, both totally different.But Angelini had Carla Boni sing it, closely to the genuine one, in spite of its shortness (2:08)

Il mare sung by Sergio Bruni, a soft and slow song, of good quality is however too long (3:56).In addition, the bad video doesn’t allow to hear well the background arrangement. What isperceived is a dreamy, discreet atmosphere, rare in those events. The disc version is conductedby Angelo Giacomezzi, so in a different arrangement. Tonina Torrielli sang it for Angelini,published in some Cetra records, but the music hasn’t been located on the net. But please note


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that Morricone later made his own version with Bruni, published in the LP “Omaggio a Vian”(La voce del padrone, 1967). A very nice rendition in which the sea waves (“Il mare” means“the sea”) come and go, and the subtlety is present like in the original but with more strength,more personality.

Noi by Tony Dallara is again an archetype of an old-fashioned piece, without clearly nicepeculiarity. The video runs only 2:37, so it might be a little cut. Ezio Leoni recorded the discversion, and Angelini did the same, very probably as the original version, but with Gino Latillafor Cetra (not located again).

Mina reached the 8th place with E vero, even though it is a somewhat withdrawn and slow song.After a soft and dreamy first half, it changes into an ostinato and more up-tempo mood. Thevideo features an exceptionally short time (2:04), maybe cut at the beginning. That is probablywhy we don’t find this rendition on discs. Mina recorded another version with Giulio Libano,much stronger. Carla Boni recorded with Angelini a piece close to the original, longer with anew bridge and an added reprise, surely in order to suit the disc format.

Johnny Dorelli, who performed Notte mia at the festival, recorded however a version of it withGianni Ferrio. A version by Angelini was found, this time with Gino Latilla, nighty, with a jazzambiance, of average level quality (2:53). It is reported that the whistling was performed byNini Rosso at Sanremo, and this part appears in different moments according to the records:strongly at the intro for Ferrio and softly at the end for Angelini.

About Amore senza sole by Johnny Dorelli, without a video source, we can only guess thatAngelini recorded the genuine song with another singer, Achille Togliani (2:49). A nice melody,the trombone accompanied by strings, a vintage way of singing make the whole dated butlistenable. Again Gianni Ferrio conducted the song with the original singer for the disc.

No video again for Gridare di gioia and Germana Caroli sung another version with conductorFenati, and afterwards a longer one. Once more we turn towards Carla Boni with the sameAngelini, trying to find the original, on the same EP cited before with Boni. An alert and joyoustempo sustains a pretty melody, beautifully orchestrated in a sort of light jazz, balancing wellthe brass and strings sections (2:59). So it is disappointing that it wasn't present in the Final,because it deserves more attention than a lot of other ones.

A doubt exists on Non sei felice, the second one sung by Mina, because we have the videoversion (2:58), but no certainty on a disc version running around the same time. The publishedone by Festival is probably not the original one, having the same program than the Ital disc oneand not credited to a conductor, shorter (2:30). The song begins slowly and softly, and stays ina light jazzy/bluesy mood. A good song, although not selected by the jury for the Finale. It hasbeen record by Carla Boni with Angelini in a valuable rendition, similar to the festival one.

Wilma de Angelis recorded Splende l’arcobaleno in a new version conducted/arranged bySoffici. No video found, but Angelini recorded the song with Tonina Torrielli, likely theoriginal one or close, but not found on the net.

Some songs couldn’t be located on video nor on records with Angelini: E mezzanotte by SergioBruni, who recorded it with Giacomezzi, and A come amore, sung by Flo Sandon’s andconducted by Jack Lorenzi.

Seen from here, what can be listened to with some pleasure is limited (from 0 to 4-5 songs), butmore importantly, 19 pieces involving our composer have been dug out. The Morricone styleis not often recognized, due to the early period and some elements probably brought by Angelini,mainly on disc (it would have been logical though that he called his festival arranger for therecord versions as well). In the strings parts it is more flagrant.

His style will be more affirmed and his role more official in the following Sanremo editions.After investigations, we will develop them in the next issue.


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Recap San Remo 1960Song Original singer Video (direct broadcast) and if none,

video of the disc versionRecord (original or similar arrangement) conducted by Angelini

1. Romantica Tony Dallara https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjYwf7wiWzADVD Sanremo story

(By G. Latilla: Festival de Sanremo 1960 vol 1 EP Cetra FP 45-050(Ur, 1960), Romantica 45 Cetra SP 738 (It, 1960) )

(2. Libero) Domenico Modugno Conducted by Angelini, but arranged byBacalov.

3. Quando vien la sera Wilma de Angelis DVD Sanremo story (By C. Boni: Sanremo 1960 Carla Boni EP Cetra EPE 3109, vol 1 EPCetra FP 45-050, CB con Angelini y su orquestra EP Cetra CP 1039(Sp, 1960), Noi-Quando vien la sera 45 Cetra SP 735 (It, 1960) )

4. Colpevole Tonina Torrielli -Disc:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p1NMzikYgM

45 Cetra SP 731, San Remo 1960 EP Cetra EPE 3108 (It, 1960), CetraSP 8002 (Arg, 1960), Festival de Sanremo 1960 Vol 4 EP Cetra FP 45-053 (Ur, 1960)

5. E mezzanotte Sergio Bruni - -

6. Il mare Sergio Bruni https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um0We0vSx-w

(By T Torrielli: Sanremo 1960 EP Cetra EPE 3108, Perderti 45 CetraSP 733 45 Cetra SP 733 (It, 1960), Festival de Sanremo vol 1 EP CetraFP 45-050) ? )

7. Noi Tony Dallara https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsOv_umR0EM

(By G. Latilla : Noi-Quando vien la sera 45 Cetra SP 735 (It, 1960),Festival de Sanremo 1960 vol 3 EP Cetra FP 45-052 (Ur, 1960) ?)

8. E vero Mina https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xyubf2

(Similar by C Boni : Sanremo 1960 Carla Boni EP Cetra EPE 3109,Festival de Sanremo 1960 vol 3 EP Cetra FP 45-052)

9. Splende il sole Fausto Cigliano https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm113rfN2rs

With few differences : 45 Cetra SP 732, EP Cetra EPE 3113 (It, 1960),Festival de Sanremo 1960 vol 3 EP Cetra FP 45-052

10. Notte mia Johnny Dorelli - (By G Latilla : Festival de Sanremo 1960 Vol 4 EP Cetra FP 45-053(Ur, 1960), 45 Cetra SP 737) ?

A come amore Flo Sandon's - -

Amore abisso dolce Achille Togliani -Disc :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRVf1_xRqdg

45 Fonit SP 30751 (It, 1960)

Amore senza sole Johnny Dorelli - (By G Latilla : Romantica 45 Cetra SP 738)

Gridare di gioia Germana Caroli - (By C Boni : Sanremo 1960 Carla Boni EP Cetra EPE 3109, 45 CetraCP-1039 (Sp, 1960), Festival de San Remo 1960 vol 3 EP Cetra FP45-052)

Invoco te Gino Latilla - 45 Cetra SP 730, 734 (It, 1960), 45 Antar S 016 (Ur, 1960)

Non sei felice Mina https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V1LQ21oEjI

(Similar by C Boni: Sanremo 1960 Carla Boni EP Cetra EPE 3109,Festival de Sanremo 1960 vol 4 EP Cetra FP 45-053, 45 Cetra SP 737)

Perderti Tonina Torrielli -Disc :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDfNo2rJ6mQ

45 Cetra SP 731, 733, Cetra SP 8002 (Arg, 1960), Sanremo 1960 EPCetra EPE 3108 , Festival de Sanremo 1960 vol 1 EP Cetra FP 45-050

Perdoniamoci Achille Togliani -Disc :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ein6UyHg2O0

45 Fonit SP 30751

Splende l'arcobaleno Wilma de Angelis - (By T Torrielli: Sanremo 1960 EP Cetra EPE 3108 ?)

Vento, pioggia... scarperotte

Gino Latilla -Disc :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzLveXncnLw

45 Cetra SP 730, 45 Cetra SP 739 (It, 1960), Festival De Sanremo1960 Vol 4 EP Cetra FP 45-053


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—————CONCERT REVIEW—————

The Very First Concert of Ennio Morricone 56

by Jean-Michel Coignardtranslated from French by D.T.

Original text in French: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13Wf6V5qrzXMtlDrQh1NQ8Xt5v7K7ro9C/view?usp=sharing

Having now reached the Maestro's final tour,let’s look back at his very first concert, 34years ago. It was held in Paris, Salle Pleyel,on September 20, 1984, with the Orchestredes Pays de Loire. Since the beginning ofhis career, the Maestro had never foundtime to give concerts of his works for thecinema, his production of the time requiringa lot of work of writing, orchestration andrecording. This says enough about howimpatient we, the passionate fans, were forthis concert to happen!

Small disappointment, but short-lived:Ennio was not the only guest of the concertas he shared the programme with twoFrench monuments of film music: GeorgesDelerue and Michel Legrand. Hard to bechoosy in front of such a programme,particularly because the coming of theItalian master was in itself a true event.

56 conducted by himself.

Two concerts were scheduled on the sameday, at 18:30 and at 21:15, in a 1913-seattheatre. So this was actually the first twoconcerts of Ennio Morricone!

To define the sequence of appearance ofeach of the composers, the alphabeticalorder was retained; Georges Delerueopened the concert. He was 60 years oldthen, and unfortunately was to pass away 8years later. On the programme: I love you,je t’aime (A Little Romance, 1979), a suiteof François Truffaut's films, SomethingWicked this Way Comes (1983)[unpublished composition because themusic was rejected and replaced by that ofJames Horner], The Black StallionReturns (1983), then La nuit américaine(1973).

Then, Michel Legrand (52 years old at thetime) performed Summer of ‘42 (1971), a


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suite from Les parapluies de Cherbourg(1963) and The Thomas Crown Affair(1968).

Finally the long awaited moment for the"Morriconians" arrived, with theappearance of the Maestro, a few weeksaway from his 56th birthday. If the twoprevious composers had chosen playful,dynamic or even epic songs, Morricone'schoice was quite different, at least for thebeginning of his session.

He began his programme with Croced'amore from Metti, una sera a cena(1969), a fairly contemporary piece; thenAutunno 1922 from Novecento (1976), adark piece, whereas one could have hopedfor the main theme of this film. Next track:the suite from Il deserto dei Tartari (1976).Then came the "piece de resistance",awaited by all the audience: the suite fromthe westerns of Sergio Leone, also presentin the room by the way, for the secondconcert. The programme was the one wehave heard so much since then during theconcerts. The Maestro chose Englishsoprano Dorothy Dorow (1930-2017) forthe vocal part, performed by Edda dell'Orsoin the studio version. This was the only timethis soprano accompanied the Maestro,since at the next concert in Corbeil-Essonnes, on June 6, 1987, she was replacedby Alide Maria Salvetta (1941-1991). Thissuite was warmly welcomed by theaudience, even if it was the less flamboyantversion without choirs. But it is true that atthe time, we were not able to compare as itwas the first time we heard this suite! Asfinal piece, the choice fell on Deborah'sTheme from Once upon a Time inAmerica (1984), which was released thatsame year.

It is interesting to note in any case that thesepieces have often or regularly been on theprogramme of the more than 300 concertsthat followed.

Just after Ennio Morricone’s session, thethree composers joined force on stage toperform Michel Legrand’s music for themovie The Go-between (1971). Delerueand Legrand were at the piano, while theMaestro conducted the orchestra. During

Michel Legrand’s characteristic "pianistic"variations, the Maestro was waitingpatiently, arms crossed, to be able to takeagain the direction of orchestra.

But the concert was not quite finished. Inorder to close the evening in style, theorganizers had the idea to ask the threecomposers to put in music a short filmentitled Réveil à Paris. This film was firstscreened in a mute version, then, in turn, thecomposers presented their vision of themusic that seemed to them to best match theimages. The Maestro had the idea ofcomposing a piece of orchestra tuning (it'sdawn, the moment of the day when anythingcan happen), before giving all its power inorder to symbolize the day that begins. Themusic continued after the film was aired,while the lights came back in the room, as ifto instill the idea that the music never stopsand that it can brave the passing of time. Wecan find this piece, among others, on thelive CD of the Antwerp concert (Antwerpen,October 15, 1987) under the titleAccordatura d'orchestra, in a shorterversion of 2 minutes.

The evening ended with a standing ovationof a crowd conquered by the three artistsand demanding an encore, whichunfortunately did not come because it wasnot planned.

If the second concert of the evening wassold out, the audience for the first one on theother hand was scanter. This "first night offilm music" was unfortunately neverfollowed by any other, as the producer, LucHéripret, encountered difficulties of allkinds during the organization of thisevening: a botched job of the press officer,sponsors who withdrew a few weeks beforethe concert, money problems for the financeof a valuable publicity campaign... Despiteeverything, this concert could take placeand delighted the spectators who made thetrip.

And for fans of Ennio Morricone, to see himin concert for the very first time will remainan unequalled memory. An unforgettableevening allowing to say, 34 years later: "Iwas there".


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—————DOSSIER—————

TitoliUnreleased opening and closing titles in Morricone-scored movies

Part 1 of 2

by Patrick BousterLuckily more music

Watching and recording more and more DVDs and video cassettes from films and TV seriesMorricone used to illustrate, it appears that a good number didn't get an official publication.The disc being a selection only, often supervised by the author, it can give a “second chance”to pieces not used, and leave out the ones heard because they chiefly possess a functionality ora lower musical value according to him, but sometimes without any apparent motive. It is a pity,but a CD cannot contain all the tracks, even the nicest ones.

By saying title music, we mean here the beginning and end tracks which accompany the mainand end credits. But in order to not miss some nice tracks, the list is extended to the tracks notdisturbed by noises (or nearly!) standing immediately before or after. We have to speciallycongratulate and thank the labels, publishers, managers and the composer himself to not haveincluded these titles to their programs. Indeed, since the total duration is limited, their presencecould have meant the absence of other valuable tracks. In fact this phenomenon allows us to getmore music, clearly listenable and often interesting. For half of these pieces, the musical qualityor novelty is truly present, and for the other half we are dealing with little variants, lesselaborated or close to the original piece (we understand better why it is absent on the CD). Thecommon point is to be a variant of a published main theme. The variant could be very different,and thanks to his talent for orchestration, we can be sure to hear some very beautiful music. Thetopic reveals some instructive points about the editing process and the work for final filmfeaturing: collage, slightly different version not detectable for the general audience, instrumentreplacement, surprising choices.

The scores discussed are, by definition, those having a proper release on record: a whole or halfof a disc, because a comparison about inedited title music doesn’t make sense if no record exists(like several still unreleased entire scores such as Arabella, Giochi particolari or Giovannied Elviruccia). Or if there exists only some tracks that were disseminated into compilationsand 45 RPM (like the Morandi vehicles, Dicciotenni al sole, …). Of course the materialpresents a huge mass, too much for a single article. So the topic is divided into 2 parts; here isthe first one from the beginning till 1985 (circa 25 years). A lot of films could be located, onDVD or internet, but definitely not all them, so some items could be missing.

A special chapter at the end speaks about the title music too short to be really noticed, andfinally those close to the originals, revealing something with regards to the film or albumprocess.

Some video links allow to watch the film or to listen to the music discussed. And a special linkto a dossier allows to access music files here:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iWt-cNB9dj9_kJiOAbLm3qQwGRDhntCc?usp=sharing


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Title music very different from thepublished versions

La trapolla scatta a Beirut

Before the main titles, the prologue sceneby the pool features a light, lounge music,frequent in these spy movies, partly maskedby noises (1:40). Although four loungetracks exist on the GDM CD, nicely made,and especially one called In piscina, nonereprised the arrangement, containing stringscontrary to these 4 tracks. Maybe notselected because it was weaker than thosefour ones, and a choice had to be made forthe CD.

Link to the film video on the net:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68Jzz94TnEg

Le clan des Siciliens

Although it has some little noise and shortdialogs, let us enjoy this more minimal track(2'54), less punctuated than the onesrecorded for the LP only, but truly great.Some elements have been changed(Alessandroni's whistling beginning thepiece, different intervention of the guitar).The absence of an expanded CD is a bigregret to numerous film music lovers, forthis track and for the 5 other ones. Link tothe video of the main titles and itsoutstanding shooting and editing:https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6doas

Imputazione di omicidio per un studente

Although short, the CGD initial LP,reissued on CD but never expanded,appears to be finally well representative ofthe music heard in the film, except the maincredits. So let us enjoy this version, clearlydifferent from the instrumentals of maintheme Un po' per giorno. More nervous,dazzling, in the rock spirit of these years1972, it symbolizes well the young manfacing his father, a judge who embodiesconservatism despite himself.

Orca

Accompanied by the orca shouts, theorchestration is more menacing and a littlefaster than the published version. Eddadell'Orso's voice and the dreamy musicillustrate the pictures of a water ballet in thesundown (2:58). This track would havebeen welcome in the disc, because thesinger is present in one single publishedpiece, and for several little other cues.

Link to the video of the main titles:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWDx-miK8sk

Short cues used as credit music

Of course minor tracks, they wereobviously not included on records, even onthe expanded ones. They are listed only forthe completion and… some fun, with acriteria of less than one minute long.

Gli intoccabili

Let us begin with a partially unreleased cue,very short, because it was glued in themovie with an always published track Gliintoccabili, since the old LP. Harsh,impressive, the main titles begins, faded inafter gunshots effects (0:08), neverintegrated into the records, maybe topreserve the initial featuring of the track.

Partner

Very sparse in this Nouvelle vague film byBernardo Bertolucci, the music has thesame appearance in the credits too. Stringsand bow strikes for the beginning wereadded on the GDM CD (coupled with LaCina è vicina) from 2012 in Roma sospesa.So remain very short interventions of jaw-harp for the end, making more punctuationsthan the real credits music (0:13).

Quando l'amore è sensualità

Very few unpublished music is heard in themovie, and among this, a short passage inthe opening titles (0:20). The driver turnshis radio on, broadcasting a rock,overexcited music, in the vein of de In unbar (Revolver) or Svolta definitiva (Cittàviolenta), but without organ. Being anexcerpt, it could have been borrowed fromanother film like a giallo, but it remains yetunidentified.


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Allonsanfan

The very complete GDM CD didn't includethis tiny excerpt, scansions at cello orcontrabass heard very low just before theend credits on Rabbia e tarantella (0:11).Suspense: will it be the shortest inedit trackdiscovered?

Un genio, due compare, un pollo

Very close to the end credits, anotherversion of Pepper Chewing-gum is used,too tiny to be part of the original LP 0:28.No improvement is to be expected becausethe master couldn’t be located.Il prefetto di ferro

Among the good number of unreleasedtracks deserving an expansion, the end titlesuse the theme from Tema dei ricordi (0:30).But this time it is performed on guitar,instrument not present in the record exceptfor the 3 songs. Let us bet that the piece islonger, like a proper alternate version fromthe main theme. Just like the main creditsopened, it illustrates again a train scene,closing a parenthesis.

Dove vai in vacanza? (Saro tutta per te)

The episode Saro tutto per te by Bologninifeatures a good number of unpublishedtracks, according to Steven Dixon (in MSV#108). Among them, the final musicpresents no less than 8 seconds of electricguitar, synth and flute. Congratulations toSteven for having located the shortest ineditever! (0:08) A proper release of the entiremusic is still awaited, all composersinvolved (Piccioni, Bixio-Frizzi-Temperafor the other episodes).

The Island

On the LP/CD Varèse, the track Main Titlesisn't actually the film opening music,featured in two short cues (0:48 and 0:41).More as a prologue, with long suspendedintros on percussions and strings and then

wind instruments as in End Titles but muchlonger. Nothing really important butdifferent, and faded out proving that thetracks were surely recorded in a longer,complete duration.

Film versions very close to the recordones

The least interesting category offers mainlyfilm versions, eliminated from the records.We are often dealing with shorter runningtimes, and rougher, more spontaneoustracks, giving pleasure to the listener.

Some similar variants: film versus albumLet’s first isolate the simple basic versions,on the same theme and same orchestrationthan on the record, save some effects andminor differences: opening credits fromL’avventuriero (The Rover, 2:08), TheGood, the Bad and the Ugly (2:44), Il mionome è Nessuno (prologue in 3 cues: 1:36,2:09, 1:52 on the Uno strano barbieretheme), Autostop rosso sangue (2:13), Lavera storia della signora dalle camelie(theme from Un fiore rosso or Amanti cut at1:57), end credits from The Heretic (2:30),… not commented here because they addvery little and don’t present anythingspecial. Some following titles from thatgroup although offer some oddities moreinteresting to notice.

Agent 505 - Todesfall Beirut (La trapollascatta a Beirut)

The track Titoli on the nice and valuable CDGDM isn’t the actual main credits music. Alittle shorter (1:30), the published onehowever has a much longer intro on a windinstrument (ocarina, bass flute?). On thecontrary, the unreleased one, with a similarbut shorter intro, runs 1:48 in the samevariation of course develops more the rapid,joyful and up tempo jazz main theme butdoesn't add anything really noticeable.Because this jazzy theme is frequentlypresent on the CD, it is not a big loss, andGDM did right to put this alternate trackwith the long intro never reprised elsewhere.


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Giù la testa

Noticeable enough that no music supportingthe 2 flashbacks was never published, evenon the nice double CD Cinevox, morerecently expanded with 1 track. At the end,for the last flashback, the two revolutionaryfriends and the young woman, we hear thetrack commented. But only a part becausestrangely after the 45 first seconds, themusic has been published (Giù la testa #5with another introduction). The orchestraplays very sweetly and the calls “Sean, Sean,Sean” begin the theme of the memory.

San babila ore 20: un delitto inutile

Again a less-known film, worth to watch,both for the purpose and the music. Moresurprising comparing to main titles musicnearly identical to the odd motive from thesuite Ore 22 (second theme, with policewhistle, bassoon and mandolin), the endcredits feature the jazzy Messaggiominaccioso (2:38) for once longer than onthe CD. But it changes only slightly. So it is

very likely that a second recording tookplace then, for a LP project at the time.

René la canne

It is a curious case of music editing. Thevery long end titles music of near 6 minutesbegins in the last scene with the car drivingto the border, but it is too long for the knowntrack, Passeport pour le Plaisir. So a firstpart is taken by a similar version, whoseactual end isn’t easy to detect (at 1:35:07or :13 in the movie French DVD). So theinedited music seems to run circa 3:35,making this track’s first part longer, withmore and more similar music while itreaches its end. But the story isn’t finishedyet! After this step, without noticeable cut,roughly at its middle (at 2:08 or :15) thepublished track seems to be used, whichcorresponds to the reprise of the theme withthe choir. This second part, from 2:12 to3:52 on the record, should run circa 1:40,whereas this second part in the film runs2:00. Checking it out carefully, it isn'tsimply due to extended material at the end,but before, proving it was another recording.

To recapitulate, the inedited version isfaded out at 5:42 and might be longer,anyway too long for the album, so anotherversion as Passeport… was recorded lasting3:52 (at least faded out at this time, somaybe actually longer). Let us affirm thatthe music fits very well the absurd, deliriousambiance, with car doors strikes, disguisesand few dialogs.

The Island

A little oddity is present in the end creditsmusic: not exactly the track of same nameon the LP/CD, a little shorter (3:30 insteadof 3:40), it differs in its second half. At the


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reprise of the theme (at 2:04 on the record),the impression is slightly different withoutthe piano and a more desolated aspect. Sohere it is an alternate track, and for the discthe more complete and achieved piece waspicked up.

Once upon a time in America

The opium sequence going towards the lastframe begins with a short version of Poverty.Follows another version from the themeOnce upon a time in America, very differentfrom the original, more in the very soft styleof Poverty heard just before: slowness,sweetness, nostalgia, ... (3'20). Note that itis the Edda's unique featuring on this theme,the main bonus. After that, the Deborah'stheme first version closes the whole for theend credits and completes the “Leonian”theme of the melancholic memory, the redline of the saga.

Link to the video of the final scene:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oczk6wf02qM

Change of soloistSardegna

A curious case: the background music isidentical but the performers differ. All theversions from the main theme Sardegnahave a first part lasting 1:50. The musicused in end titles respects this time. But asopposed to the CD (versione 3, CD Cometatrack 6) another female singer, more bass(Gianna Spagnulo?) performs the theme,with more wildness, in the film Edda sings,without flute (1’48). Even more anecdotic,the opening credits present a very closeversion of the same theme (versione 5, CDtrack 10) with the same other singer, cut atthe beginning and really ending at 1:04, notfaded out. But it doesn’t explain why onlyEdda is credited both in the film and on theCD. Link to the film video on the net:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzN-VJ9pOS8

Forza Italia!

The reissue of the score in 2010, still underthe title “Come un girotondo”, againincomplete, doesn't contain the openingmusic and some short cues. Taking thePavana 2 pattern, it varies only by theinstrument change (trombone?).

Shorter, summarized versionsInto the very similar tracks, anothersubcategory gets close to the album inanother way: a shorter, abridged,summarized version, suitable to the filmrunning time requirement. In that cases, thealbum one is only a blue-print, longer todisplay a “better” appearance: for instancethe opening credits from Sepolta viva(2:05), Peur sur la ville (2:40 of goose-skin), Il gatto (1:48), Un sacco bello (1:38),end credits from Il grande silenzio (1:10,before Dopo il martirio), ...

Queimada!

The great CD GDM (2001, expanded in2012 with the fanfare) eliminated very fewmusic from this masterpiece: anecdoticalbongos, ethnic dances (which we aren’t surethat they are by EM) and the opening credits.Upon listening it is clearly anotherrecording, shorter of Aboliçao. Thecomposer reveals in the book “Cinema eoltre”: “I linked the slaves revolt to themassive use of percussion. (…) Pontecorvoleft me free for the music. In the main titles,I added gunshots to bring a powerful senseof energy and express emergency.” Hemade it very emblematic to the whole plot,and such an involvement into the mixing,adding other noises, is exceptional.

Link to the video of the main titles:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHW4Wm8eR78

Peur sur la ville

Link to the video of the main titles:https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x68ro8

Il gatto

Link to the film video on the net:https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3qabbh

Blood Link (Extrasensorial, The Link)

The film opening with the window view andthe VIP party is sustained by a summarized


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rendition from Adagio to Kill first part, withexactly the same orchestration, condensedin 1:57. On the net, this film has severalformats, and the audience has to be carefulin order to locate the right speed and lengthto avoid transformation in the music. 97minutes is its actual length, so the onerunning only 92 minutes (the complete filmbut in a higher speed) shouldn’t be chosen.This remark could be useful for other filmstoo. Link to the film video on the net:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELA89TaTdic

Marco Polo (TV)

After the long double RAI Trade CDwithout restoration, numerous tracksremain still unreleased, among them maintitles for some episodes. They are shortbecause action soon begins again after thesummaries and the (partial) titles (0:43 +1:06 + 0:51). Here the main theme MarcoPolo is of course reprised, among verynumerous variants, without knowing if thetracks were really made for or cut out, witha preference for the second assumption,though, because the composer often makecomplete tracks, able to be cut out, and heresimply because they are faded out.

The minimalist versions: anecdoticendingsThe good, the bad and the ugly

Before the end credits, Tuco, maintained bythe rope, complains and shouts duringnearly one minute over scansions: “Blondie,you are the ... A a a a aaah ...!!”, openedand closed by the well-known gimmicks(1:05). Here we understand why it wasn’tpublished: the scansions are too

monotonous and the track anecdotic. Ofcourse, it is a small part of numerousinedited treasures of this movie deserving avolume 2.

Il mercenario

On the last panel and the titles closingabruptly the movie, a brief cue (1’10)reprises the whistling motive coupled witha simple version of Bamba vivace,summarizing the whole. We know that themaster couldn’t be found, and this trackfeatures some shouts by Franco Nero,which prevents a simple use like that. A pityfor about ten missing tracks, often short, butbringing variety, for instance the circus“source” cues.Le casse

The latest CD proposed alas only thepublished material. Simply reprising themain theme, the end credits is howeverdynamic, punctuated, but doesn’t makes amusical revolution (1:24). But morecuriously, some European version adds justafter this track a short bonus, inedit too,even more simple (0:38). With the othertracks, it would of course be welcome in afuture expanded edition, but if it hasn’t beenmade yet, it is certainly because the musicis lost…Ci risiamo, vero Provvidenza?

Around ten tracks were wasted out for theCD from 2010 which is the mock-up albumnever released at the time. In the closingtitles, one of them was found, for 0:59,summarizing the theme.

The rather modest proportion of filmscontaining inedited titles would besurprising comparing to the number of filmsof the period inside the criteria (38 on 211).And it has to be noticed that the first half ofthe career has the highest number of recordsreleased, often expanded, and a goodnumber of totally inedited scores orcompletely published at once which don’tenter this topic. But although theseexpansions, circa 20 % are reached. Thesituation is different in the second half,which contains, despite numerous CDs,more inedited stuff and more surprises andoddities. To be continued.


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—————TRIBUTE—————

Ricordo di Sergio Miceliby Randolph Carter

translated from Italian by D.T.original Italian text available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WjCXWwJBRnvPgkC9mFaRgklsJCuzoY_0/view?usp=sharing

photos by Grassi, Borracino, and Lensini taken from Sergio Miceli’s archive, Florence http://mediamusic-journal.com/news/Miceli.html

With the death of Sergio Miceli, at the age of seventy-two, we lose a personality of music,screen and sound amongst the most erudite and atypical. Thanks to him (and to ErmannoComuzio, pioneer who must be remembered, 1923-2012) many preconceptions on music forfilms have been, if not completely removed, at least questioned and strongly adjusted. Hisstudies and numerous interventions on the occasion of exhibitions, conferences etc. havegrabbed by the horns this uncomfortable topic placing it inside a historical perspective andgiving it the dignity of a discipline worthy of study, taught by himself at the DAMS of Florenceand the National Film School of Rome (not to mention the co-teaching with Ennio Morriconeof the specialization course in Music for Film at the Accademia Chigiana of Siena in the years1991-96, and with Franco Piersanti in different venues since 1997). His vast culture (he hadstudied painting with R. Grazzini, history of art with R. Federici, cello with F. Rossi, as well asmusicology with M. Fabbri) allowed him to adopt a transversal and multidisciplinary approachnecessary in such a "contaminated" field like that of applied music and, more specifically, musicfor film. Referring to the latter, he loved to repeat that in the future it will no longer be possibleto disregard it as a specific expression of the twentieth century. Of his more than one hundredand fifty publications, we must remember at least “La musica nel film - Arte e artigianato”(Discanto Edizioni, Fiesole 1982), precise analysis of the relationship between music and


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cinema from the origins to present day, from the title of which emerges the coexistence (notalways equal, we must add) of essential technical expertise and creativity in composing for thescreen. This first attempt of synthesis will be followed in 2009 by the weighty “Musica per film– Storia, estetica, analisi, tipologie” (Ricordi / LIM): over a thousand pages of historical-criticalreconstruction, an indispensable tool for study and analysis, the only one currently available inItalian language. No less important was “Musica e cinema nella cultura del Novecento”(Bulzoni, Rome 2000), a survey attentive to the links between "cultured" music and musicwritten for the cinema. We also owe to him the enunciation of the "theory of levels" (internal,external, medium), essential to understand the functions and use of music "inside" the film.Miceli was also the first one to take care about the work of Ennio Morricone in 1994 bydedicating a monographic study to him (“Morricone, la musica, il cinema”, Ricordi-Mucchi),an inescapable starting point for anyone wishing to deal with – for research or simple personalinterest – the work of the Roman musician.

His writing was perfect: a critical language that was precise and authoritative, technical and atthe same time sophisticated and elegant – perhaps not for everyone –, rendered through accurateexpressions not devalued by use and abuse; pages of essay, a rare feat nowadays,indistinguishable from high literature. His prose was also pervaded by a non-genericallyiconoclastic vis polemica, but instead aimed at specific targets: distortions of taste,disinformation, inculcation promoted with full hands by senseless and dishonest mediastrategies (his piques against the "misinformed mass media consensus" are unforgettable, oragainst the "mewing" artists celebrated during the evening newscasts). Misaligned intellectual,sometimes polemical towards certain choices of the same Morricone, linked to him byfriendship and esteem but to whom he did not forgive compromises and failures – read thejudgments on Requiem per un destino, on Il sorriso del grande tentatore, or on the practiceof "mixed concerts". Whether shared or not, these reluctances were however always stimulatingand very useful rectifications for those he defines as "easily mystified fans".

Returning to the Morricone monograph, it is a pity that the professor has not continued his studyover time. Morricone went on composing for the cinema and other, obtained two Oscars,


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increased his concert activity to unimaginable levels, acquired global renown. Given that theinterpretative scheme offered so far is fully confirmed since the Roman Maestro has carried onin the direction of "stylistic synthesis", we feel the need for an additional chapter that updatesthe profile of the composer and analyses the developments, the continuity and discontinuity ifany, the new achievements; as well as Morricone's point of view on himself, his work, his ownpath of art and life. In truth, in “Musica per film” we find a segment updated in 2009 (pp, 360-368) and a more recent intervention (dated June 15, 2014) in the book-interview “Inseguendoquel suono”57. Miceli notes the tendency of reducing the presence of music in contemporarycinema – in the United States as in Europe – since the seventies (“Musica per films”, pp. 368and 695), also in Italy with directors such as Amelio and Moretti (with whom, by the way,Morricone has never worked): in this way the music would lose its "salvific" interpretative roleas intended by the composer, who in this context appears to be a little cut off, even if its prestigeremains unchanged for the most conservative Italian and foreign directors. Moreover,Morricone would have "stopped experimenting as he used to". Such is, as a synthesis of thesynthesis, the most recent thought of Miceli. This is not the place to discuss it. The critic leavesus his perspective: not a point of arrival, a legacy rather of doubt and reflection, an invitationto dig, to distinguish: that has always been the task of criticism, a parallel and "second" workthat stands side by side, a mirror that is true as well as ambiguous, with the texts – literary,musical – the object of his investigation.

Torino, November 2017

57 E. Morricone, "Inseguendo quel suono. La mia musica, la mia vita. Conversazioni con Alessandro De Rosa",Milano, Mondadori, 2016, p. 389-402

l’ r s r issue #16 december 2018

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