In the meantime I have discovered that the three tracks "Canto d´Igor" (A6), "Pathos Crescendo" (B1) and "Sacrificio" (B2) on the Hard LP - which seem to be even in stereo - do not at all come from the SACCO DI ROMA score as has long been assumed, but they are three parts of a concert piece by Ferrara, a tone poem with the title "Fantasia tragica" which was composed probably around 1962 and was an homage to Shostakovich and his 11th symphony from 1957. So these three tracks come either from a former concert or radio performance - I suppose from the 60s. Naxos made a new recording of this complete tone poem in 2011 - along with two other Ferrara concert works - which you can listen to here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PhWq5kf4JM
The sequencing of the three tracks on the LP is therefore wrong and should be in this way: "Canto d´Igor" - "Sacrificio" - "Pathos Crescendo".
In the Naxos booklet the hypothesis is formulated that maybe Ferrara had originally composed this tone poem for Vittorio De Sica´s 1962 movie I SEQUESTRATI DI ALTONA in which the third movement of Shostakovich´s 11th symphony had been used - and of course conducted by Ferrara! It could be that at first De Sica had wanted Shostakovich as composer for the film, but in the end just used that part of his 11th symphony. It could also be that as an alternative Ferrara had been asked to write something quite similar to this movement which was then not used at all in the film and finally ended up as a concert work. Or that he was simply inspired by this symphony when he conducted it. Just read it for yourself: https://www.chandos.net/chanimages/Booklets/NX2410.pdf
So this leaves us only 5 tracks on side A of the Hard LP which do probably come directly from the original 1953 soundtrack of IL SACCO DI ROMA: "Epos", "Nel mito", "Andante eroico", "Largo sinfonico" and "Mysterium" - moreover, all of these have a different, poorer sound than the three from "Fantasia tragica" and are in mono. I suppose that all of these titles are fictitious. The complete SACCO DI ROMA film is nowhere to be found, but the US trailer is on Youtube and you can hear now and then at least a few excerpts from the "Andante eroico" track (for example just at the beginning of this trailer): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzMEPgf-Xsw
I agree with the basic assumption that Ferrara's "Fantasia Tragica" must be closely related to de Sica's film "I sequestrati di Altona". The international film title is "The Condemned of Altona". With Sophia Loren, Frederic March, Maximilian Schell and Robert Wagner in the leading roles.
Shostakovich composed his 11th Symphony in G minor op. 103 in 1957. The third movement, "Eternal Memory" (Adagio), was finally chosen and adapted for the film. Allegedly, Nino Rota was also involved somehow. But he is not mentioned anywhere in the film credits. His role is unclear. Perhaps he adapted the movement so it better fit the scenes, or, he was merely available in an advisory capacity?
In any case, the fact remains that Franco Ferrara conducted Shostakovich's music for the film score. He is credited in the main titles.
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11 in G Minor, Op. 103 "The Year 1905" - III. Eternal Memory (Adagio)
Let's just add Ferrara's own version or adaptation of Shostakovich's third movement here.
Canto d'Igor
What might the Igor reference mean? Stravinsky?
Pathos crescendo
Note the brief and repeated quotes of "Deutschland über alles" starting the first time at 2:27.
I actually prefer Ferrara's forceful performance over the newer recording by Francesco La Vecchia.
For me it is plausible that this recording might have been considered for use during the main title sequence. But in the film, you just hear that bombastic passage without any references to "Deutschland über alles". It's an annoying stereotype anyway used in context with Nazism.
"Crescendo ansioso" (A8) almost sounds like an alternate version of "Pathos crescendo" - it is quite similar to that track and is in fact the Finale of the TV episode.
"Crescendo ansioso" (A8) almost sounds like an alternate version of "Pathos crescendo" - it is quite similar to that track and is in fact the Finale of the TV episode.
Excellent news, Stefan. I'm glad this score has been preserved on record. What do you think, might the original tapes still exist?
What do you think, might the original tapes still exist?
I have read on the Siusa website that since 2010 the complete Ferrara estate with all his manuscripts, tapes, recordings etc. has been archived at the Accademia Santa Cecilia in Roma. Unfortunately, the Siusa website is not accessible at the moment - otherwise I would have inserted the link here. So the tapes Ferrara himself had of his scores have certainly been preserved.
Gerard Schurmann (1924-1920) studied conducting under Franco Ferrara.
Les Baxter (1920-1996) scored a now quite obscure film, La sfinge d'oro (The Glass Sphinx), directed by Luigi Scattini, and with Robert Taylor in the leading role.
Baxter's score was only used for the international market. Roberto Pregadio (1928-2010) scored the Italian version, which was, by the way also dubbed in English. I have never heard Baxter's version.
The story goes that Baxter came to Italy and recorded his score in Rome. But he wasn't allowed to conduct the orchestra himself. And indeed, Franco Ferrara was asked to do it instead of him.
Les Baxter briefly mentions this in an interview without naming the conductor's name:
Quote:
Q: Do you prefer to conduct your scores? It’s noticeable that Al Simms was credited as “musical supervisor” or “musical co-ordinator” – whatever that means – on all your 57 scores for AIP.
A: I’m trained to conduct, I studied it for many years, and I think I’m best qualified to conduct my own work. In Hollywood I conducted all my scores. Al Simms sat in the booth and did his musical supervising from there. Meanwhile, outside, I conducted… quickly. The only places I wasn’t allowed to conduct were England and Italy. I did THE GLASS SPHINX in Rome, for example, but they made me sit in the booth while an Italian conductor (Franco Ferrara) conducted the music."
And now, here is an interesting bit I've come across just recently while searching through the Soundtrack! magazine archive.
As you all know, Angelo Francesco Lavagnino scored Orson Welles' Othello which was released in 1951 after a three-year production period.
Alberto Barberis is credited as co-composer for contractual reasons, but, in fact, did not write a single note. Willy Ferrero is credited as conductor in the film.
According to a 1980 interview with A. F. Lavagnino, Franco Ferrara was initially set to conduct the score but left the assignment after ongoing difficulties and chaotic circumstances in the recording studio. He told Lavagnino to conduct the music himself. It's unclear if any of the music Ferrara conducted ended up in the finished film.
"Film music comes (literally) from behind the screen and should appear to emanate from the visuals. Know what I mean? The audience will still get the message without the violins playing. Actually, I remember when I did OTHELLO for Orson Welles, I wrote the music and then he said, “Oh no I want an orchestra of 150 musicians and a chorus of 90.” I said, “All right, if you want. You’re paying.” Goodness gracious, he then leased the biggest studio in town at that time – this was 1949 – the same studio where they did the big action scenes. Franco Ferrara was called in to conduct this enormous orchestra and at the beginning I think we had ten on double-bass, ten trumpets, probably ninety violins and violas – a real dream orchestra. And I’ll always remember before he stepped on the podium for the first piece, he came and patted me in front of the orchestra, saying, “Not even Debussy had all this!” However, during the actual scoring, Welles said, “Surely, maestro, this is not right. The mood of your music is wrong. It’s more like a poor man’s Tchaikovsky, a Tchaikovsky pastiche. Ibert did the same thing on KING LEAR using sub-Ravel type music, and that was wrong too. Your music is fine in itself, but the mood is melodramatic whilst the visuals are not melodramatic: We ought to think again.” After a pause, he went on, “Look, I have an Idea. I want to try using separate microphones for piano and harpsichord.” Well, we could only find one harpsichord in Rome at that time, a very old one owned by a musician who didn’t really want to bring it to the Scalera studio. But after a week we had it all set up: three microphones, one on the piano, one under the keys of the harpsichord and one over the orchestra. However, things still weren’t quite right. Then we took off the first 20 strings (who were wanted in Cannes anyway) and in the end our enormous orchestra had dwindled to just 16 musicians and twenty choristers. When Ferrara struck up the music you could hear the brass blaring “tro tro tro”, but the harpsichord was giving only “pin pin pin du du du”. Ferrara said, “I’m sorry but I don’t get this at all. I can’t hear anything. We seem to be flogging a dead horse.” He tried again, but said, “Look, you conduct this yourself. It’s beyond me altogether.” So by now the situation had become completely chaotic. This was Orson Welles and that was his OTHELLO."
The interview was conducted by Ezio Reali, originally published in Soundtrack Magazine, No.21 /1980
There's more to it as Stefan just recently pointed out to me.
The first Italian print premiered at the Barberini cinema in Rome on November 29, 1951 apparently has Franco Ferrara credited as conductor.
I quote from Alberto Anile's book "Orson Welles in Italy" (2013):
"The following data was taken from the copy of the film held by the Cineteca Nazionale (National Film Library), checked against and augmented by data from accounting documents, press articles, and eyewitness accounts.
The only uncertainty concerns the orchestra conductor, shown in this copy as Franco Ferrara, whereas the so-called original and the American version cite Willy Ferrero. A misprint? Ferrara worked with Lavagnino on the music for Mambo (1953); Willy Ferrero worked on Ladri di biciclette and La terra trema, in addition to working at La Scala in Milan (at the time Welles was finishing the film, Ferrero was tipped to direct an opera there).
This appendix also includes a translation of the original press release for the film.
[...]"
Source: - Anile, Alberto; Orson Welles in Italy. Indiana University Press, Bloomington IN, 2013, p. 311.
Originally published in Italian: - Anile, Alberto; Orson Welles in Italia. Il Castoro, Milano 2006.
Continuing the Franco Ferrara journey, here is the rare short documentary "Nasce la strada del sole" (English translation: The Sun Road is born) which features a score composed by Ferrara.
The Ennio Morricone & Franco Ferrara collaboration was unfortunately not as extensive as the one Ferrara shared with Nino Rota or Mario Nascimbene. That's because Ferrara retired just in the time period when Ennio Morricone's star as a major film composer was rising and rising and rising... ...and there was Bruno Nicolai, of course.
Anyway, it's our loss. Imagine Franco Ferrara conducting "Days of Heaven", "Burn!" or "C'era una volta il West".
At least, we have three scores and one score fragment by Morricone which were conducted by Ferrara:
- Prima della rivoluzione (1964), the music was co-composed by Gino Paoli - the short soundtrack has been released on CD (GDM – GDM 4333)
Paoli, by the way, who was born in 1934 is the sole survining composer today who had his film music conducted by Franco Ferrara. All the other composers have died. Morricone's death in 2020 left Paoli as the last man standing.
- El Greco (1966) - the music has been released in expanded format on CD (GDM – CD CLUB 7046)
- The Bible: In the Beginning… (1966) - that's Ennio's ill fated score for the John Huston film (Toshirô Mayuzumi composed the replacement score which was also conducted by Ferrara)
Luckily, Morricone's original music from "The Bible" resurfaced in the TV miniseries "Il segreto del Sahara" in 1988. Those tracks are also on the soundtrack album (GDM – GDM 4107-2).
Finally, there is a really rare score by Ennio, conducted by Ferrara, that has never been officially released as far as I know:
- Centrale elettronucleare del Garigliano. Una nuova fonte di energia (1964) - however, a synth based rerecording of one track has been produced a couple of years ago. But in my view it's no good.
Here is the film in its original version (narration in Italian, of course). The stylish main title sequence is just one of the highlights of this well produced documentary.
- Prima della rivoluzione (1964), the music was co-composed by Gino Paoli - the short soundtrack has been released on CD (GDM – GDM 4333)
Paoli, by the way, who was born in 1934 is the sole survining composer today who had his film music conducted by Franco Ferrara. All the other composers have died. Morricone's death in 2020 left Paoli as the last man standing.
You are a bit wrong about this: 1) The instrumental score for PRIMA DELLA RIVOUZIONE was not co-composed by Paoli and Morricone, but it was only written by Morricone. Therefore you will find on the RCA and later GDM CD with the score only Morricone´s instrumental tracks, but not the two songs which had been written by Paoli
Before it appeared on Secret of the Sahara, the bible music ( the creation piece) was used in the 1965-ish western The Return of Ringo.
But only as a short version with the title "L´incontro con la figlia" with a duration of 2:52 minutes instead of about 10 minutes as in SECRET OF THE SAHARA. Also the track "The Golden Door" - originally composed for THE BIBLE - had first appeared as "Torre di Babele" in Morricone´s IL GIARDINO DELLE DELIZIE in 1967.
Before it appeared on Secret of the Sahara, the bible music ( the creation piece) was used in the 1965-ish western The Return of Ringo.
But only as a short version with the title "L´incontro con la figlia" with a duration of 2:52 minutes instead of about 10 minutes as in SECRET OF THE SAHARA. )
- Prima della rivoluzione (1964), the music was co-composed by Gino Paoli - the short soundtrack has been released on CD (GDM – GDM 4333)
Paoli, by the way, who was born in 1934 is the sole survining composer today who had his film music conducted by Franco Ferrara. All the other composers have died. Morricone's death in 2020 left Paoli as the last man standing.
You are a bit wrong about this: 1) The instrumental score for PRIMA DELLA RIVOUZIONE was not co-composed by Paoli and Morricone, but it was only written by Morricone. Therefore you will find on the RCA and later GDM CD with the score only Morricone´s instrumental tracks, but not the two songs which had been written by Paoli
But this one was really a co-compositorial effort at least according to SIAE which credits both, Morricone and Paoli, as composers of the entire score "Prima della rivoluzione". Do I miss something here?
The two Paoli songs on the other hand are solely credited to Paoli according to SIAE. I've just checked that, too.
I haven't yet heard the music myself. Could it be Ennio integrated the two Paoli songs into the fabric of his own instrumental score which justifies this double authorship?
Before it appeared on Secret of the Sahara, the bible music ( the creation piece) was used in the 1965-ish western The Return of Ringo.
But only as a short version with the title "L´incontro con la figlia" with a duration of 2:52 minutes instead of about 10 minutes as in SECRET OF THE SAHARA. Also the track "The Golden Door" - originally composed for THE BIBLE - had first appeared as "Torre di Babele" in Morricone´s IL GIARDINO DELLE DELIZIE in 1967.
I didn't know that Morricone's music for the Bible was recorded in 1964. Were those Ferrara recordings reused in the Ringo Western as well as in all those other films like in "The Secret Of The Sahara"? Or did Morricone record them anew just for the occasion?
When you start digging into Ennio's territory you open up a new universe of questions.
[But this one was really a co-compositorial effort at least according to SIAE which credits both, Morricone and Paoli, as composers of the entire score "Prima della rivoluzione". Do I miss something here?
The two Paoli songs on the other hand are solely credited to Paoli according to SIAE. I've just checked that, too.
I haven't yet heard the music myself. Could it be Ennio integrated the two Paoli songs into the fabric of his own instrumental score which justifies this double authorship?
Yes, the matter is indeed a bit confusing due to those strange credits in the film and on the CD. However, Morricone didn´t integrate the two Paoli songs in his underscore in the film at all and the instrumental tracks are therefore pure Morricone. The score partly foreshadows EL GRECO and also the theme from the song "Un fiore é nato" which appeared one year later in MENAGE ALL´ITALIANA can already be heard a few times here. We talked about the score in this thread and it may be as board member "Morricone" has suggested that in 1964 Paoli was much more famous than Morricone himself so that he therefore received a co-composer credit just for contractual reasons: https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=141091&forumID=1&archive=0
I didn't know that Morricone's music for the Bible was recorded in 1964. Were those Ferrara recordings reused in the Ringo Western as well as in all those other films like in "The Secret Of The Sahara"? Or did Morricone record them anew just for the occasion?
No, they weren´t newly recorded. The original versions with Ferrara as conductor were used for SECRET OF THE SAHARA and also for the short version "L´incontro con la figlia" in RITORNO DEL RINGO - therefore this track doesn´t appear anymore on the newer CD editions of RITORNO DEL RINGO, only on the much older ones. As I have already written: For the "Le voci" track which appeared in IL GIARDINO DELLE DELIZIE the original version conducted by Ferrara was used and then overdubbed with Edda´s voice. You can listen to this track if you use the mp3 link at the bottom of this website: https://chimai.miraheze.org/wiki/Track_Le_voci_(id10567)
