 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Is there something holding up this release? It's a bit past "Mid-April".
No hold up at all as the CD has long been released here in Germany. It just takes some time till packages arrive at SAE from Germany. I know that yesterday SAE has at least received one of two large packages from Alhambra which have been sent in Germany at the same time more than two weeks ago.
Therefore SAE has now started shipping their GOLIATH CD orders. Don't worry.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Got this Lavagnino Maciste in my most recent CD order days ago. Listened to it 3 times already. The "Main Title" theme was instantly familiar to me even though I never saw this picture.
Where have I heard this theme before? My brain racked for a while, but no too long.
I recognized this as a Lavagnino composition - but on which soundtrack have I been hearing this before 2016?
Then I realized that Lavagnino, about a half dozen years after this 1961 opus, had recycled this main theme for the sci-fi flick La morte viene dal pianeta Aytin (AKA "Snow Devils" or "Space Devils") and had updated its arrangement into a 'mod' shake number. This incarnation appeared on cue #s 27 & 29 on the 1997 RCA CD "Science-Fiction: 4 Italian B-movies of the Sixties", which is how I first encountered it years ago.
Curious no other FSM member has commented on this prior to me.
This Alhambra soundtrack on Maciste contro il Vampiro is very good, but thus far during my gestation of its contents it is neither a personal favorite nor typical peplum.
The overall character of the music sounds grief-stricken. The music takes its time to unfold and seems to lack much of the melodramatic punctuation and musical stings which I love in early '60s cinema & soundtracks.
Lavagnino's score possesses fine qualities: ancient times as well as mysticism are evoked successfully by his music, which also espouses Arabic colorization.
Overall, I rank this album with 3.5 stars rating because it needs an extra 'oomph' in order to be a masterpiece.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Then I realized that Lavagnino, about a half dozen years after this 1961 opus, had recycled this main theme for the sci-fi flick La morte viene dal pianeta Aytin (AKA "Snow Devils" or "Space Devils") and had updated its arrangement into a 'mod' shake number. This incarnation appeared on cue #s 27 & 29 on the 1997 RCA CD "Science-Fiction: 4 Italian B-movies of the Sixties", which is how I first encountered it years ago.
This was cetainly also the reason why Lavagnino in 1966 needed only half an hour during a pause of the recording sessions to compose and arrange the theme for SNOW DEVILS. Here his statement about SNOW DEVILS from the 1984 interview which appeared in the CinemaScore magazine:
"I did not work so much to write the theme – in half an hour I arranged it in the studio during a break! It came out that way but it could be better. The other music in the film was only functional."
|
|
|
|
|
|
The overall character of the music sounds grief-stricken. The music takes its time to unfold and seems to lack much of the melodramatic punctuation and musical stings which I love in early '60s cinema & soundtracks.
You also have to bear in mind that about 15 minutes of music in the MACISTE film itself - for all the action/battle scenes - have been taken from IL COLOSSO DI RODI which had been composed one year before. But all these typical peplum tracks of course were not on the tapes we had at our disposal and so they are therefore missing. As I have written it in the liner notes, probably time or budget reasons were responsible for filling up these scenes with the COLOSSO music (for example one dramatic action piece from COLOSSO is used at least three times in the MACISTE film).
|
|
|
|
|
|
Yes, I read your liner notes, Stefan, regarding the tracked music.
The CD notes also raise some questions about the production process; I'll ask them here if I may.
The album thanks Alessandro Panuccio for the tape transfers. I recall Stefan mentioning that the tapes from Maciste contro il Vampiro were already transferred and/or preponed prior to Alhambra inquiring about them for CD release. If so, What does Alhambra's Markus Mahlke do?
Does Mr. Mahlke receive the music digitized and sort all the cues in chronological order according to their placement within the movie?
I am assuming, then, that Alhambra's album master was completed by Mahlke even though the sound restoration may have been done by Panuccio.
Lastly, since each of the tracks on this album have individual descriptions (instead of simply repeating the film's title with a sequence #), I take it that CD album production in Germany is exempt from whatever regulations govern Italian albums with respect to cue titles being treated as property of an 'author'.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
No, the production process is a bit different. 
It is also not true that the MACISTE tapes had already been transferred before we asked for them.
Normally, it goes this way:
Alessandro Panuccio receives the 1/4" open reel tapes from the Lavagnino family in Rome and then transfers all the (in most cases completely unchronological) material on these tapes into WAV files on his PC. This is his job, but not the sound restoration and mastering which is done later on here in Germany by Markus Mahlke.
The sorting out of all the cues in chronological order according to their placement within the movie is done by me because I am the first one who receives those WAV files from Alessandro.
And yes, we are not bound at all by for example Sugar's demands to repeat the film title for each track on the back cover's track listing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thanks for describing the procedure, Stefan.
However, if Alhambra hadn't expressed interest in releasing on disc the music from Maciste contro il Vampiro, would not the Lavagnino daughters have sent the tapes to Panuccio anyway for the sake of archival presentation onto digital media?
Is the implication that a record producer needs to inquire first about the existence of tapes prior to the Lavagnino estate preserving the sound elements into computer files?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Exactly. There are still a lot of open reel tapes in the Lavagnino estate which have not been digitized at all and which are just laying there. And of course only the tapes for those scores are sent to Panuccio by the Lavagnino family which we can indeed produce on an Alhambra CD - not the other ones.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Makes one wonder what else is languishing with the Lavagnino family.
What other titles are in the works? I'm always up for more peplum scores, and buy every one I know about.
Great work here, sir. For me, who saw most of these films when they were first released, it's a major achievement just to finally hear the music isolated. Thanks so much.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thank you, John!
There are still three peplum scores in the CAM/Sugar catalogue which could maybe be done by Digitmovies in the future: ULISSE CONTRO ERCOLE, I BACCANALI DI TIBERIO and URSUS E LA RAGAZZA TARTARA.
In the Lavagnino estate the two peplum scores ERCOLE SFIDA SANSONE (HERCULES, SAMSON & ULYSSES) and DAMON AND PYTHIAS are still available which - if all goes well - could probably be done by us here in Germany next year.
At the moment we have three Lavagnino scores from 1961 in the pipeline. The first one of these (the CD is now in the pressing plant) will be announced by me very soon during the next few days here and it will be the lovely music from a period movie, but of course not from a peplum.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
SAFFO VENERE DI LESBO (a.k.a. THE WARRIOR EMPRESS) was released some years ago, in a reportedly limited pressing of 500. Good score. It was available on SAE for some time, but no longer. You may be able to find it elsewhere, though probably more expensive.
BTW: Since my interest has primarily been peplum scores, I realize Lavagnino wrote a lot more scores than just for that "arena," as t'were. Can anyone here recommend other Lavagnino scores for other films?
Thanks.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
