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Posted: |
Feb 2, 2011 - 10:52 AM
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By: |
Morricone
(Member)
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'TIS A PITY SHE'S A WHORE
Addio, fratello crudele
Elizabethan Morricone
#27
This series is inspired by a controversy thread where someone posited the idea that besides THE MISSION and some Sergio Leone westerns Ennio Morricone hasn't written anything great. Rather than making my usual comment that most of Morricone's great scores are from Italy and trying to get Americans to listen to them is like getting them to see movies with subtitles, I decided to take another tact. Since I am at an age where I will only be able to make my case a finite number of times I decided to turn this into a series presenting each great score one at a time, sort of like recordman.
This time Morricone ventures into Delerue territory with elegant results. He joins with distiguished Italian playwright, screenwriter and newly a director Giuseppe Patroni Griffi for the second time. Morricone would write a third score and arrange songs written by Casare Bixio for Griffi's THE DIVINE NYMPH. And for good measure Ennio wrote the score to FOR LOVE ONE DIES based on a Griffi play.I have no doubt Griffi chose to do this piece by Elizabethan playwright John Ford because his fellow countryman Franco Zeffirelli had such success a couple years back with ROMEO AND JULIET. This gave Morricone the opportunity to write as memorable a melody as any could imagine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYQiNbPLYEM
Morricone writes Elizabethan folk tunes, idyllic pastorals, religious pieces but most of all romantic interludes. And when the plot turns murderous towards the end we get Elizabethan dissonance. You get a sense if this film had been even half as successful as ROMEO AND JULIET this music would have been famous.
My first encounter with this score was in 1979 when CAM the Italian soundtrack label decided to do limited editions on LP of unreleased scores. It was a great idea that flopped because the two releases they did were double LPs (no discount) that had one unreleased score (IL BIDONE, ADDIO FRATEELLO CRUDELE) plus a re-release that was kinda readily available (JULIET OF THE SPIRITS, INCONTRO). Sound familiar?
The Digitmovies release is chockful of delights, all conducted by Bruno Nicolai with choral work by I Cantori Moderni di Alessandroni.
I would like to also dedicate this series to Mr. Marshal whose comment on the Barry obituary thread warmed the cockles of my heart:
like Morricone's work on westerns JB was a genius in a specific genre.
Of course they both did some very fine work in other areas, but there greatness resides in these unique areas
hey, who cares aboout Wagner's music outside of his opera's?
bruce
#1 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=74811&forumID=1&archive=0
#2 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=74838&forumID=1&archive=0
#3 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=74871&forumID=1&archive=0
#4 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=74899&forumID=1&archive=0
#5 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=74951&forumID=1&archive=0
#6 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=74968&forumID=1&archive=0
#7 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=75041&forumID=1&archive=0
#8 http://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=75065&forumID=1&archive=0
#9 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=75088&forumID=1&archive=0
#10 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=75103&forumID=1&archive=0
#11 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=75147&forumID=1&archive=0
#12 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=75194&forumID=1&archive=0
#13 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=75252&forumID=1&archive=0
#14 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=75297&forumID=1&archive=0
#15 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=75307&forumID=1&archive=0
#16 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=75364&forumID=1&archive=0
#17 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=75414&forumID=1&archive=0
#18 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=75471&forumID=1&archive=0
#19 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=75532&forumID=1&archive=0
#20 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=75566&forumID=1&archive=0
#21 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=75610&forumID=1&archive=0
#22 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=75677&forumID=1&archive=0
#23 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=75731&forumID=1&archive=0
#24 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=75763&forumID=1&archive=0
#25 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=75850&forumID=1&archive=0
#26 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=75921&forumID=1&archive=0
#27 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=75927&forumID=1&archive=0
#28 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=76000&forumID=1&archive=0
#29 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=76022&forumID=1&archive=0
#30 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=76084&forumID=1&archive=0
#31 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=76117&forumID=1&archive=0
#32 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=76211&forumID=1&archive=0
#33 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=76288&forumID=1&archive=0
#34 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=76422&forumID=1&archive=0
#35 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=76481&forumID=1&archive=0
#36 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=76545&forumID=1&archive=0
#37 http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=76624&forumID=1&archive=0
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Delicious. Gorgeous. Sold. Gonna git it. Thank you. 
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It is gorgeous, but you may have missed your window for the time being, David. It's one of the harder to aquire Digitmovies releases.
But yes. Somber and beautiful.
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Morricone would write one more score and conduct another for his friend, composer Cesare A. Bixio for Griffi's THE DIVINE NYMPH. Because his friend was ill there is a small bit of this that Morricone wrote himself.
Sorry, Morricone, but I don't know where you got this very strange info from. Cesare Andrea Bixio, born in 1896, was one of the most famous Italian songwriters active during the 20s, 30s and 40s. He was the founder of the Bixio music publishing group during the 20s and later on also founded the well-known Cinevox Records company in 1960. But he was no longer active as a musician at all during the 60s and even less the 70s.
All those Bixio songs which were only arranged by Morricone as instrumental versions for DIVINA CREATURA in 1975 had already been composed by Bixio decades ago during the 20s and 30s and were incredibly popular in pre-World War II times in Italy. So what Morricone did was he just took these very old songs belonging to that period of the 20s/30s and made new arrangements of them for this film score. I don't think that Bixio himself had anything to do with this. And I also doubt if songwriter Bixio was such a dear friend of Morricone himself.
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Just my opinion, but I find the film quite powerful -- and one of the most beautifully photographed of all time. The cinematography is simply breathtaking -- using only natural light -- utterly ravishing. I also don't mind the melodramatic and confounding finale -- after all it is based on a blood and guts Jacobean tragedy, not a genre known for restraint and common sense. I love the overall design of the film with wooden interiors that are almost futuristic, but still totally natural.
The cast is quite good -- and also quite beautiful. The score, well what can I say -- it is one of my all time favorites. Thank you for your attention to this, Morricone!
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"...a controversy thread where someone posited the idea that besides THE MISSION and some Sergio Leone westerns Ennio Morricone hasn't written anything great" - That is not a controversy, it is a popped balloon lying in the gutter - who should stoop to paying such a thing any regard?
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Posted: |
Feb 4, 2011 - 9:50 AM
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By: |
Morricone
(Member)
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Morricone would write one more score and conduct another for his friend, composer Cesare A. Bixio for Griffi's THE DIVINE NYMPH. Because his friend was ill there is a small bit of this that Morricone wrote himself.
Sorry, Morricone, but I don't know where you got this very strange info from. Cesare Andrea Bixio, born in 1896, was one of the most famous Italian songwriters active during the 20s, 30s and 40s. He was the founder of the Bixio music publishing group during the 20s and later on also founded the well-known Cinevox Records company in 1960. But he was no longer active as a musician at all during the 60s and even less the 70s.
All those Bixio songs which were only arranged by Morricone as instrumental versions for DIVINA CREATURA in 1975 had already been composed by Bixio decades ago during the 20s and 30s and were incredibly popular in pre-World War II times in Italy. So what Morricone did was he just took these very old songs belonging to that period of the 20s/30s and made new arrangements of them for this film score. I don't think that Bixio himself had anything to do with this. And I also doubt if songwriter Bixio was such a dear friend of Morricone himself.
Thanks, Stefan. I have misquoted Morricone on Petri, got Oscar info wrong and now you got me on out and out gaffe. You also provided an answer to someone who asked why I didn't write a book about Morricone. If I did this for a living I would be sued by now. Looking into what was going on in my brain (not much) I did find an old letter in MSV the Morricone newsletter, but not about Bixio, but Mario. Except Mario Nascimbene was not just Morricone's friend, Ennio worked for him. And how I transcribed that to Bixio and THE DIVINE NYMPH a film made 15 years later than the one discussed UN MORTE DI AMICO I'll never know.
Best thing that happened I learned more about Bixio than I ever knew and have corrected the post so no one else gets mis-informed.
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Not familiar with this one but wonderful stuff. Must pick it up.
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