Regarding "Ringo il cavaliere solitario"; the film actually re-uses several tracks from De Masi's "15 forche per un assassino" aka 15 scaffolds for a murderer, which was released just a couple of months prior to "Ringo....".
Thanks for the info. De Masi is credited as the conductor in that film (English/US titles: "15 Scaffolds for a Murderer" or "The Dirty Fifteen". The soundtrack was released on CD in 1995 by Beat Records (CDCR 28) coupled with "Gli specialisti" by A. F. Lavagnino. Maybe De Masi didn't compose all that much original music for "Ringo il cavaliere scolitario"?
No, I don't think he composed much more original music for that movie than what's on the CD.
Regarding "Ringo il cavaliere solitario"; the film actually re-uses several tracks from De Masi's "15 forche per un assassino" aka 15 scaffolds for a murderer, which was released just a couple of months prior to "Ringo....".
In Roberto Liso´s book about Franco Ferrara - "Genio, dolore, ricerca" - which was published in 2014 there is the info that Ferrara supplied a few tracks for RINGO, IL CAVALIERE SOLITARIO - he did that as a gift to his former pupil, but he didn´t conduct the score itself. Even more interesting is what happened one year earlier in 1967 for De Masi´s SETTE WINCHESTER PER UN MASSACRO. In the book there is a nice anecdote which De Masi himself had told the author: De Masi had so little time - just a few days - to compose the music for this Spaghetti western that he couldn´t do all of it himself. It was just an impossible task. Therefore Ferrara, who at that time in 1967 had already more or less retired from the film business, helped him with this score and wrote large parts of it (of course without taking any credit for this). This was therefore another gift to his former pupil and friend De Masi. Then when it came to the recording sessions in Naples, Ferrara was deeply humiliated as the production company had such a small budget for the recording of the music that they had assembled only a very poor orchestra with unexperienced and listless players. Ferrara almost went crazy when he started conducting this amateurish orchestra as the players made so many mistakes and he couldn´t do much about it - in the end he even got insulted by a few of them which was unbelievable. It was such a fatiguing Sisyphean job for him that he had to give up very soon. Therefore all the remaining music for this score was then conducted by De Masi himself.
Regarding "Ringo il cavaliere solitario"; the film actually re-uses several tracks from De Masi's "15 forche per un assassino" aka 15 scaffolds for a murderer, which was released just a couple of months prior to "Ringo....".
In Roberto Liso´s book about Franco Ferrara - "Genio, dolore, ricerca" - which was published in 2014 there is the info that Ferrara supplied a few tracks for RINGO, IL CAVALIERE SOLITARIO - he did that as a gift to his former pupil, but he didn´t conduct the score itself. Even more interesting is what happened one year earlier in 1967 for De Masi´s SETTE WINCHESTER PER UN MASSACRO. In the book there is a nice anecdote which De Masi himself had told the author: De Masi had so little time - just a few days - to compose the music for this Spaghetti western that he couldn´t do all of it himself. It was just an impossible task. Therefore Ferrara, who at that time in 1967 had already more or less retired from the film business, helped him with this score and wrote large parts of it (of course without taking any credit for this). This was therefore another gift to his former pupil and friend De Masi. Then when it came to the recording sessions in Naples, Ferrara was deeply humiliated as the production company had such a small budget for the recording of the music that they had assembled only a very poor orchestra with unexperienced and listless players. Ferrara almost went crazy when he started conducting this amateurish orchestra as the players made so many mistakes and he couldn´t do much about it - in the end he even got insulted by a few of them which was unbelievable. It was such a fatiguing Sisyphean job for him that he had to give up very soon. Therefore all the remaining music for this score was then conducted by De Masi himself.
Poor, Francesco! He must have had become accustomed to bad orchestras by the time he conducted Basil Poledouris' score "Making The Grade". The anecdote goes, that he said to Basil, he would eat glass to make the orchestra play better.
In Roberto Liso´s book about Franco Ferrara - "Genio, dolore, ricerca" - which was published in 2014 there is the info that Ferrara supplied a few tracks for RINGO, IL CAVALIERE SOLITARIO - he did that as a gift to his former pupil, but he didn´t conduct the score itself. Even more interesting is what happened one year earlier in 1967 for De Masi´s SETTE WINCHESTER PER UN MASSACRO. In the book there is a nice anecdote which De Masi himself had told the author: De Masi had so little time - just a few days - to compose the music for this Spaghetti western that he couldn´t do all of it himself. It was just an impossible task. Therefore Ferrara, who at that time in 1967 had already more or less retired from the film business, helped him with this score and wrote large parts of it (of course without taking any credit for this). This was therefore another gift to his former pupil and friend De Masi. Then when it came to the recording sessions in Naples, Ferrara was deeply humiliated as the production company had such a small budget for the recording of the music that they had assembled only a very poor orchestra with unexperienced and listless players. Ferrara almost went crazy when he started conducting this amateurish orchestra as the players made so many mistakes and he couldn´t do much about it - in the end he even got insulted by a few of them which was unbelievable. It was such a fatiguing Sisyphean job for him that he had to give up very soon. Therefore all the remaining music for this score was then conducted by De Masi himself.
Hi Stefan, I contacted Filippo De Masi yesterday and asked him whether this information is true or not. He immediately sent me a reply and gave me permission to post his answer here.
This is what he had to say about it:
" Dear Mikael, the news you read is mostly fake news. Franco Ferrara, who was my godfather, was a great friend of my father. After his serious illness that prevented him from directing, he found himself in great difficulty and dad helped him by having him direct soundtracks. Dad used to conduct his own work himself but he couldn't leave what had been his master of orchestral conducting. Ferrara for us was more than a friend, he was almost a family member. However Ferrara has never written a single note of my father's works!. Had he not been afflicted by the terrible disease that prevented him from conducting, he would have become the greatest conductor in the world, more than Toscanini and Furtwangler. But unfortunately he could not follow up on his boundless talent. In the photo you see taken at my baptism, you can see him with Riccardo Muti who was another pupil of his. Ferrara composed some classical works for violin and piano, simphonies and many others orchestral compositions. Probably in ‘50 and ‘60 wrote three or four soundtracks but he didn’t like this kinds of work. Remember that in this period who works for Cinema, wasn’t considerate a good musician. Also for Morricone this was a great problem. Like I wrote, when Ferrara must live the carrer of orchestra direction, he need to work for economical reasons, like you can immage. All his friends try to help him and this was the only reason he composed a feaw soundtracks that he hated. Everyway, Ferrara didn’t work at the composition of my father ost."
Thanks, Mikael , for that interesting input by Filippo De Masi. Keep in mind that the "fake news" is not by me, but I have only quoted from the book by Roberto Liso and you can find all those infos on page 260 of that book. Just read it for yourself there. Liso states that the source of the information was De Masi himself with whom he had conducted a few personal interviews when the composer had still been alive. You have to consider that Liso had been a pupil of Ferrara in Siena and he was the one who inherited and managed his entire estate when Ferrara passed away in 1985. Therefore he has had access to all the many documents - of which you find a lot in the book - which are available in the Ferrara estate. According to Liso (also on page 260 of the book) in the Ferrara estate there exists even a manuscript for the tracks which Ferrara had written for SETTE WINCHESTER PER UN MASSACRO in 1967. The manuscript is titled: "Musiche per un film di De Masi". You can also tell this to Filippo De Masi and he should contact Liso about this. So whom should we believe now? Is all of this "fake news" what Liso writes here? And does Filippo De Masi know everything about his father´s works and even something which may have happened within a short time span of maybe just 3-4 days in 1967 and which nobody else knew about? For me it is difficult to say. And there is even another document as a proof that Ferrara actually did something for that score: Also in the Ferrara estate there apparently exists a lacquer disc with the title "Ferrara-De Masi" with tracks from SETTE WINCHESTER played on the piano by Ferrara himself. This disc - with the label "Dirmaphon" on it - is from 1967 and of course the tracks belong to SETTE WINCHESTER (see page 463 of the Ferrara book). So this is a really curious case!
By the way, Ferrara didn´t write any large-scale symphonies as Filippo De Masi has stated above, only a few smaller symphonic pieces like a "Scherzo", "Fantasia" or "Burlesque" as his main job had always been conducting and teaching. For De Masi he didn´t conduct that much as his conducting activities for film scores had been mainly during the 50s (when De Masi was not yet active at all) and the early 60s. There were quite a few composers like Rota, Nascimbene or Rustichelli for whom Ferrara had conducted much more scores than for De Masi.
Could these co credits with Ferrara be a kind of 'courtesy' credit. Like where Alessandroni is co credited with the song on Arizona Colt. What I mean is he is a guitarist and the guitar is fairly important here. So he would have a hand I'm arranging it. If you see what I mean.
Could these co credits with Ferrara be a kind of 'courtesy' credit. Like where Alessandroni is co credited with the song on Arizona Colt. What I mean is he is a guitarist and the guitar is fairly important here. So he would have a hand I'm arranging it. If you see what I mean.
Na, I don't think so. If you carefully read what Stefan just has explained citing from Liso's Ferrara book this can't be the case here. There are manuscripts of Ferrara's contribution to the score in the Ferrara papers. How would one want to dispute that?
Regarding fake news: You have to put in question almost everything that's been published somewhere. You have to check it for yourself if ever possible.
I'm working on Ferrara's filmography for a month now. All I can say with certainty is this: You can find mistakes everywhere, or, gabs of information, be it on IMDb, Wikipedia, in articles, books, and, certainly in liner notes of CD booklets.
For instance, Giuseppe Rossi's article about Franco Ferrara, published in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, a respected source you might think, Rossi says that Ferrara was involved in conducting about 70 film scores. This number is rediculous. Even IMDb lists about 150 titles. But in fact, there are about 210-220 film scores conducted by Ferrara in one way or another. As you know, I'm not quite through with my research on that matter which also relies strongly on the wide knowledge of Stefan.
As has been said already, Francesco De Masi only had a very small number of scores conducted by Ferrara. The former was just really staring when Ferrara decided to stop his own film music activities. At that time, Filippo was very, very young. I really doubt he had that much of first hand knowledge at this young age. And remember, Francesco himself gave the info about Ferrara to Roberto Liso. So, what's to be disputed here now?
It took me a while to figure it out, Bob. We're not talking about the same film actually. With those interchangeable titles it's getting difficult.
I'm talking of "7 pistole per un massacro" (Adiós Hombre), released in 1967, directed by Mario Caiano, music by Francesco De Masi.
"7 winchester per un massacro" (Payment in Blood, aka The Final Defeat, or, Seven Winchesters for a Massacre) was conveniently released in Italy in 1967 (US-release in 1968), directed by Enzo G. Castellari, music by De Masi again.
After I've listened to those tracks, I thought to myself, they're not that bad in their playing.
Is Liso really referring to "7 pistole..." or is he referring to "7 Winchester..."? That's the question. As far as I know, Ferrara had nothing to do with "7 Winchester...", or did he?
Is Liso really referring to "7 pistole..." or is he referring to "7 Winchester..."? That's the question. As far as I know, Ferrara had nothing to do with "7 Winchester...", or did he?
Liso is referring to 7 WINCHESTER PER UN MASSACRO. In addition he mentions the director (Enzo Castellari = Enzo Girolami), the production company (Circus Film - Fono Roma) and the actors. So it is clear that he is not talking about 7 PISTOLE PER UN MASSACRO which doesn´t even crop up in his filmography. It was quite simply a favor that Ferrara did and for which he didn´t want to take any official credit. De Masi was probably busy at the same time with one or two other scores so he couldn´t finish 7 WINCHESTER in time.
Thanks, Mikael , for that interesting input by Filippo De Masi. Keep in mind that the "fake news" is not by me, but I have only quoted from the book by Roberto Liso and you can find all those infos on page 260 of that book. Just read it for yourself there. Liso states that the source of the information was De Masi himself with whom he had conducted a few personal interviews when the composer had still been alive. You have to consider that Liso had been a pupil of Ferrara in Siena and he was the one who inherited and managed his entire estate when Ferrara passed away in 1985. Therefore he has had access to all the many documents - of which you find a lot in the book - which are available in the Ferrara estate. According to Liso (also on page 260 of the book) in the Ferrara estate there exists even a manuscript for the tracks which Ferrara had written for SETTE WINCHESTER PER UN MASSACRO in 1967. The manuscript is titled: "Musiche per un film di De Masi". You can also tell this to Filippo De Masi and he should contact Liso about this. So whom should we believe now? Is all of this "fake news" what Liso writes here? And does Filippo De Masi know everything about his father´s works and even something which may have happened within a short time span of maybe just 3-4 days in 1967 and which nobody else knew about? For me it is difficult to say. And there is even another document as a proof that Ferrara actually did something for that score: Also in the Ferrara estate there apparently exists a lacquer disc with the title "Ferrara-De Masi" with tracks from SETTE WINCHESTER played on the piano by Ferrara himself. This disc - with the label "Dirmaphon" on it - is from 1967 and of course the tracks belong to SETTE WINCHESTER (see page 463 of the Ferrara book). So this is a really curious case!
By the way, Ferrara didn´t write any large-scale symphonies as Filippo De Masi has stated above, only a few smaller symphonic pieces like a "Scherzo", "Fantasia" or "Burlesque" as his main job had always been conducting and teaching. For De Masi he didn´t conduct that much as his conducting activities for film scores had been mainly during the 50s (when De Masi was not yet active at all) and the early 60s. There were quite a few composers like Rota, Nascimbene or Rustichelli for whom Ferrara had conducted much more scores than for De Masi.
Interesting, now I really don't know what to believe. However, it could be that Francesco didn't tell his son the full story behind this soundtrack or he simply forgot about it as the years went by, and besides, it happened such a long time ago, even before Filippo was born. And why would author Roberto Liso lie about all this, it just doesn't make sense. Anyways, I'm currently listening to the score and to my ears it has that typical De Masi sound all over it and I don't hear any bad performance from the orchestra in any of the tracks on the CD. Furthermore, it sounds like all of the tracks were recorded by the same orchestra. Maybe the CD doesn't contain any of the additional cues composed by Ferrara? I recently watched the film and as far as I can tell there isn't much music that didn't make it onto the soundtrack album (the 26 tracks Verita note CD).
Btw, I just noticed that Ferrara is credited with conducting De Masi's western "Sette pistole per un massacro" (also 1967). A very nice score , especially the lovely opening song:
I believe the female singer is Giulia De Mutiis/Alessandroni using the pseudonym July Ray.
Interesting, now I really don't know what to believe. However, it could be that Francesco didn't tell his son the full story behind this soundtrack or he simply forgot about it as the years went by, and besides, it happened such a long time ago, even before Filippo was born. And why would author Roberto Liso lie about all this, it just doesn't make sense. Anyways, I'm currently listening to the score and to my ears it has that typical De Masi sound all over it and I don't hear any bad performance from the orchestra in any of the tracks on the CD. Furthermore, it sounds like all of the tracks were recorded by the same orchestra. Maybe the CD doesn't contain any of the additional cues composed by Ferrara?
I am quite sure that Liso didn´t mention this anecdote to damage De Masi in any way, but only to show how the film business in Italy worked at that time at the end of the 60s when there was just not sufficient time for the composer and he had to struggle with such a hectic schedule. He quotes De Masi several times on other occasions in the book and he always has complimentary words for him. Certainly the main themes for 7 WINCHESTER are all by De Masi and the point was more to use variants of these themes in other tracks or to compose some additional suspense passages. So I think that if Ferrara therefore wrote some pieces, he then certainly did that in the way De Masi had already composed the other music for this film so that nobody should notice it that it was actually written by two composers. They both probably coordinated this with each other. Of course the orchestra was not changed when Ferrara gave up and De Masi took over the conducting. So it is the same orchestra throughout. Ferrara was probably accustomed to much higher standards when conducting in Rome whereas this score was recorded in Naples with an orchestra with which he simply couldn´t work.
Interesting, now I really don't know what to believe. However, it could be that Francesco didn't tell his son the full story behind this soundtrack or he simply forgot about it as the years went by, and besides, it happened such a long time ago, even before Filippo was born. And why would author Roberto Liso lie about all this, it just doesn't make sense. Anyways, I'm currently listening to the score and to my ears it has that typical De Masi sound all over it and I don't hear any bad performance from the orchestra in any of the tracks on the CD. Furthermore, it sounds like all of the tracks were recorded by the same orchestra. Maybe the CD doesn't contain any of the additional cues composed by Ferrara? I recently watched the film and as far as I can tell there isn't much music that didn't make it onto the soundtrack album (the 26 tracks Verita note CD).
Btw, I just noticed that Ferrara is credited with conducting De Masi's western "Sette pistole per un massacro" (also 1967). A very nice score , especially the lovely opening song:
I believe the female singer is Giulia De Mutiis/Alessandroni using the pseudonym July Ray.
So Filippo wasn't even born when these films were made? How could he vouch for his father's work, which was done before he could bear witness to it himself? I respect the great love and admiration one feels for one's own father, his work and his legacy. But I still expect a certain objectivity.
The "7 pistole per un massacro" is, I think, the only Spaghetti Western where Ferrara receives on screen credit.
I am quite sure that Liso didn´t mention this anecdote to damage De Masi in any way, but only to show how the film business in Italy worked at that time at the end of the 60s when there was just not sufficient time for the composer and he had to struggle with such a hectic schedule. He quotes De Masi several times on other occasions in the book and he always has complimentary words for him. Certainly the main themes for 7 WINCHESTER are all by De Masi and the point was more to use variants of these themes in other tracks or to compose some additional suspense passages. So I think that if Ferrara therefore wrote some pieces, he then certainly did that in the way De Masi had already composed the other music for this film so that nobody should notice it that it was actually written by two composers. They both probably coordinated this with each other. Of course the orchestra was not changed when Ferrara gave up and De Masi took over the conducting. So it is the same orchestra throughout. Ferrara was probably accustomed to much higher standards when conducting in Rome whereas this score was recorded in Naples with an orchestra with which he simply couldn´t work.
I'd say this particular score as co-composed by Ferrara for "7 Winchester per un massacro" was truly a classic ghost writer's job with the composer's own voice hidden as much as possible.
I am quite sure that Liso didn´t mention this anecdote to damage De Masi in any way, but only to show how the film business in Italy worked at that time at the end of the 60s when there was just not sufficient time for the composer and he had to struggle with such a hectic schedule. He quotes De Masi several times on other occasions in the book and he always has complimentary words for him. Certainly the main themes for 7 WINCHESTER are all by De Masi and the point was more to use variants of these themes in other tracks or to compose some additional suspense passages. So I think that if Ferrara therefore wrote some pieces, he then certainly did that in the way De Masi had already composed the other music for this film so that nobody should notice it that it was actually written by two composers. They both probably coordinated this with each other. Of course the orchestra was not changed when Ferrara gave up and De Masi took over the conducting. So it is the same orchestra throughout. Ferrara was probably accustomed to much higher standards when conducting in Rome whereas this score was recorded in Naples with an orchestra with which he simply couldn´t work.
Hard to believe that De Masi would agree to record the music with an inferior orchestra when he usually recorded his scores in Rome with the best musicians of the time. I checked the main titles of this film and it says "Music composed and conducted by Francesco De Masi - General music, Fono Roma", suggesting the score was recorded in Rome at Fono Roma studios, where afaik he usually recorded his scores before Ortophonic studios was established in early 1970.
Anyways, some of the suspense music might very well have been recorded by Ferrara.
This made me also wonder that according to the Ferrara book the music had apparently been recorded in Naples. But why when one of the production companies was Fono Roma and probably also the recording studio if the Main Title credits are correct? One would have to ask Roberto Liso whether he has an answer about this. But as far as I understand it, he indeed claims that it was Naples where the music was recorded: "A Napoli, nel 1966 (quando il Maestro aveva già divisato di ritirarsi dall´ambiente cinematografica, perché si dedicava ormai pienamente alla docenza per la direzione d´orchestra) Ferrara si presto generosamente ed in via eccezionale a registrare la colonna sonora d´un film italiano, composta dall´amico (allora suo allievo) Francesco De Masi e musicalmente pregevole."
Could these co credits with Ferrara be a kind of 'courtesy' credit. Like where Alessandroni is co credited with the song on Arizona Colt. What I mean is he is a guitarist and the guitar is fairly important here. So he would have a hand I'm arranging it. If you see what I mean.
Indeed, Alessandroni is co-credited with the song on Arizona Colt. However, Sandro told me back in 2011 that the theme was his! I still have the email where he states that. I'm sure De Masi is responsible for the arrangement though.
This made me also wonder that according to the Ferrara book the music had apparently been recorded in Naples. But why when one of the production companies was Fono Roma and probably also the recording studio if the Main Title credits are correct? One would have to ask Roberto Liso whether he has an answer about this. But as far as I understand it, he indeed claims that it was Naples where the music was recorded: "A Napoli, nel 1966 (quando il Maestro aveva già divisato di ritirarsi dall´ambiente cinematografica, perché si dedicava ormai pienamente alla docenza per la direzione d´orchestra) Ferrara si presto generosamente ed in via eccezionale a registrare la colonna sonora d´un film italiano, composta dall´amico (allora suo allievo) Francesco De Masi e musicalmente pregevole."
Stefan, If I'm not mistaken Filippo has the score sheets, so maybe it says somehere where the music was recorded. I'll have to ask him about it.
