Great selections so far Camille 2000 is one of my all time favourites.
Senilità - Piero Piccioni (1961)
You really need to hear the whole score it is exceptional when listened to in one sitting.
Wow, this is amazing! Just listened to this clip, the look on my face is identical to the face of the liittle girl in James Cameron's Titanic who is marvelling at the awesome and magical flare she sees bursting overhead.
I know zero about Italian film music. Aside from anything by Italian composers that has filtered in mainstream into the states, I've basically never heard it before in my life, and this Senilità clip is the first I've ever heard. What an introduction!!! I thought, what the hell, I'll see what everyone's talking about...and simply selected a completely random clip within the thread. I'm excited to sample all of the others now.
I am going to seek this out in its entirety and take wayoutwest's recommendation. Thank you a million for it!
Also thank you to WA for this thread, which I arbitrarily stumbled into. I have a feeling I may have discovered something(s) wonderful. I am abuzz with nervous anticipation that I may be buried under an avalanche of new music that I simply have to explore and absorb in large quantities, personal hygiene and life obligations be damned.
The best thing about it is I paused my listening of Charlie Clouser's recent Jigsaw score to sample this Senilità clip and went from loving one very distinctive and particular kind of film score to its polar opposite. I'm fascinated by that occurence, how enjoyment of music is so ethereal and fluid and malleable. Some might find it jarring to ricochet between those two scores and styles, but I love that I have the gift of being able to do just that.
Here's to expanding one's horizons and the wonderful people who facilitate such endeavors!
Also thank you to WA for this thread, which I arbitrarily stumbled into. I have a feeling I may have discovered something(s) wonderful. I am abuzz with nervous anticipation that I may be buried under an avalanche of new music that I simply have to explore and absorb in large quantities, personal hygiene and life obligations be damned.
That's awfully nice of you!
I was happily surprised to see myself mentioned in the thread header, and Piccioni in particular has captured my musical soul. This is gold waiting to be mined by me, thanks to all!
Recently I found a title by Carlo Rustichelli that I'd been trying to find for years for a decent price. Bubu (1971) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oViyYsTfV4U It is superb
I hadn't even started to scroll down on the first post before what popped into my head was, "if you want a Rozsa sound, you should check out L'IRA DI ACHILLE by Carlo Savina...that really sounds like Rozsa". And then I scrolled....
I have most of the peplum releases from DigitMovies and they are all great fun. There are a couple with a "comedy" sound (ARRIVANO DI TITANI comes to mind) and a couple with electronics, but most have a traditional epic sound very much in keeping with Rozsa. Although often less sophisticated. I can recommend LA LEGGENDA DI ENEA and LA GUERRA DI TROIA by Giovanni Fusco. And Lavagnino's NEL SEGNO DI ROMA is a particular fave.
Recently I found a title by Carlo Rustichelli that I'd been trying to find for years for a decent price. Bubu (1971) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oViyYsTfV4U It is superb
Congratulations on getting this beautfiful score. On CD it is only available as a Japanese pressing from 1993 which is very hard to get nowadays. A top rare item. I myself have the old Carosello LP from 1971 and love that score. The main theme "Tema di Berta" has long been one of my all-time Rustichelli favourites. LA LUNGA NOTTE DEL ´43 is a particularly engaging score and a good choice to start with for someone not at all familiar with Rustichelli´s output. Lets see if WagnerAlmighty will enjoy it. If yes, there are a lot of Rustichelli peplum/historical scores which I would recommend. For example ANNIBALE which has a lot of Rózsa-like marches, I GIGANTI DELLA TESSAGLIA, ANTINEA or I PROMESSI SPOSI. There are just so many great titles to choose from. Here for example a powerful and dramatic tour de force piece for orchestra and choir from Rustichelli´s I GIGANTI DELLA TESSAGLIA which I think is very impressive:
For me, GIGANTI DELLA TESSAGLIA is one the best Italian pepölum scores ever composed.
As to Piccioni, I had given some reommendations to another collector a few years ago on this board. Here my comments again which perhaps will be a bit helpful:
"Piccioni has also done a lot of very good symphonic scores. I would recommend you very much these ones which are all available on CD:
- LA TEMPESTA from 1958 (available on the Legend CD label) is probaly the best Piccioni score from the 50s. It has a wonderful ear-catching love theme, is dramatically intense, epic and you may hear here ín the score also some melodic/harmonic influences from Rózsa's LUST FOR LIFE which was composed just two years before LA TEMPESTA. I always wonder that nobody on this board seems to have been talking about this excellent score since it has appeared on CD end of last year. It seems to be totally unknown nowadays even though this adaptatation of one of Pushkin's 19th century novels has some famous actors in it like Van Heflin, Silvana Mangano and Viveca Lindfors. Sound quality unfortunately is not the best one, but as original tapes are long lost in the Laurentiis archives the ones Piccioni himself had preserved had to be used for the CD. As the Main Title and Finale was not on his private tape, they had to be taken directly from the movie itself. Anyway, the music itself is just gorgeous.
- LA DONNA CHE VENNE DAL MARE (Saimel) and IL BELL'ANTONIO (Dagored) are two wonderful lyrical and exquisite romantic scores from 1957 and 1960. You may hear some shades of David Raksin (for example THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL) in the first score and some of Alex North in the second one
- SENILITA (CAM) from 1962 is a simply superb and beautiful melancholy score with impressionistic colourings and great themes. In my opinion one of Piccioni's finest.
- LE MONACHE DI SANT'ARCANGELO (Digitmovies) from 1972: Highly melodic and deeply moving music, also with some religious choirs. For me one of the best Italian scores of the 70s. You will also find some tracks from STORIA DI UNA MONACA DI CLAUSURA (the sequel) on this CD, but personally I prefer the absolutely enchanting LE MONACHE to STORIA.
- CRONACA DI UNA MORTE ANNUNCIATA (Saimel) from 1987: Another intense symphonic highlight of Piccioni's careeer with subtle orchestrations and beautiful elegiac themes. Highly recommended!
There are also some other Piccioni scores which I think could be quite interesting to you. UOMINI CONTRO for example is a very harsh and dissonant score with some calming melodic parts in between, but I doubt that the old Point Records CD from the mid-90s is available anymore. NATA DI MARZO and GUENDALINA (on the Legend label since Spring 2011) are also two quite good early symphonic scores from the 50s, again with those Raksin influences as in LA DONNA CHE VENNE DAL MARE, but only parts from both have survived in the Laurentiis archives (from each score about 15-20 minutes) which is a bit of a pity. LA CITTA PRIGIONIERA (CAM), ANNA KARENINA (Verita Note), IL MOMENTO DELLA VERITÀ (CAM) and the really delightful, baroque-styled score for IL MALATO IMMAGINARIO (Saimel) would probably also be of great interest to you. I have certainly forgotten some Piccioni scores, but if you like LIGHT AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD, I am sure that the titles above should be the right ones for you."
One day years ago, I had this gorgeous Morricone track stuck in my head, but I couldn't find it. I frantically went through all my Morricone LPs and CDs searching for it, but to no avail. I called my brother-in-law, who shares my love for Italian soundtracks and exploitation cinema, and sang it to him over the phone. He reminded me that it is Gianni Ferrio's theme to the giallo "Death Walks at Midnight."
I tend to have issues with the reverb and instrumentation of many Italian soundtracks. They often sound low budget and add in synths to fill out the music.
But one composer you should absolutely check out Wagner, is the amazing Luis Bacalov. Especially, his delightful score to Coup de Foudre. You can find many recommendations of his scores in the thread about his recent passing.
