Actually, it was only the Avanz discs that were about 10 bucks. Paid about $23 each for the Verita Note releases...
"Scusi, lei è favorevole o contrario?" I have made an edit of this one that I enjoy
22. Re recorded main title 2. Party music 7. Zigeuner - Gipsy music 9. Night club combo 11. Funny version 18. Party music 5 1. Main titles
I'll give this a try - thanks!
La Volpe Dalla Coda Di Velluto Give it a bit more time early days yet
Listened again tonight and some parts of it blew me away! I'd been listening to it a lot on my iPod while out running this week, but played it at home earlier and it came to life. I'm no audiophile, but have a reasonable set up, and the music really revealed itself with the volume pumped up!
Thanks for those other OOP titles, ToneRow. Always useful to have on the list because you never know when you might stumble upon them (I do quite a bit of searching in used shops and often get lucky - well, I have with jazz, soul and rock...).
God, it warms my heart to see such an outpouring of appreciation - here at the FSM board - for the film work Piero Piccioni. I had been led to believe that beyond Morricone most American collectors fostered little interest in Italian composers. Glad to learn I was wrong! As suggestions you guys have dropped an abundant and mixed bag of this great artist's work, and because I love Piero so much I can't stop myself from adding my list of favorites to the big pile: CAMILLE 2000 (a masterpiece in every way and still awaiting a truly complete edition), LE STREGHE (stuffed with wonderful compositions including what may be Piero's most enchanting love theme, a piece originally composed for I TRE VOLTE (LP only) but the ultimate version of this gorgeous melody can be found on the recent CD release of IO E CATERINA - track 4 "I've Seen Love Face to Face"), COLPO ROVENTE (Piero using jazz to cut like a knife and to explode like a bomb), BELLO ONESTO EMIGRATO AUSTRALIA, MORE THAN A MIRACLE (a masterwork), BORA BORA (ironically Les Baxter's replacement score for the American print is also one of his best soundtracks), TI HO SPOSATO PER ALLEGRIA (has one of Piero's most delightful, life-affirming compositions - Party Version 8 aka Happy Shake), UN TENTATIVO SENTIMENTALE (another absolute masterwork and the 11 cuts - each one a stand alone gem - expressively coalesce into a glorious orchestral jazz tapestry of supremely sophisticated mood and texture), LE DECIMA VITTIMA aka THE TENTH VICTIM (Piero exercising his ability to envision and deliver the "shock of the new" - his utterly bizarre score gives the film it's surreal, alternate universe like quality), UN ITALIANO IN AMERICA, FUMO DI LONDRA (featuring Piero's magnificent ballad You Never Told Me, and look for the bounteous 1997 2-CD release of the score from Avanz), SCACCO ALLA REGINA (some Piccioni fans hold this to be his finest work and they may be right), APPASSIONATA, and last but not least the 2000 Screen Trax three score release of LA VOLPE DALLA CODA DI VELLUTO, DOPO DI CHE UCCIDE IL MASCHIO E LO DIVORA (another stunning ballad - Right or Wrong) and DUE MASCHI PER ALEXA. Someone listed PUPPET ON A CHAIN as their favorite and that's cool, but you must not miss out on Piero's no-holds barred live performance of the PUPPET main theme. This incredible live recording is one of the peaks of Piccioni's career and even a high point of Silver Age scoring! It can be found on a 2001 themes compilation from Black Cat Records called Maestro Series Vol.1: PIERO PICCIONI, and the cue is called Harvest Moon Dance. It will blow you away like nothing you've ever heard before! Every time I play it I feel like electricity is running through my veins. Piccioni LIVES!
Great list JB I was late to discover Maestro Series Vol.1 somehow I had managed to overlook it for a long time never knew that it contained many rare gems not found anywhere else. Somehow I get the feeling that the Maestro himself choose the selections for this compilation who else would have known of all these tracks, would loved to have seen more volumes in the series.
Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1987). That was also a revelation for me I had not looked into the maestro's eighties output to closely can't think of any other score by any other composer that can convey such an emotional weight bearing down on you almost crushing you with an emotional burden.
Dear Way, thank you mucho grande for posting those flaming hot Piccioni YouTubes. I should have thought of that. Wouldn't matter if I had. Someone once tried to explain to me how to post jpgs on this board and I had to report them to the Spanish Inquisition for practicing sorcery. Anyhow, I want to mention that it excites me that other collectors such as yourself are gravitating to Piccioni's darker and more sublimated compositions, such as CHRONICLE OF A DEATH FORETOLD and THE STRANGER. It is my shortcoming that, even after so many years, I am still too enamored of his vibrant, swinging and jazz/rock tinged work to have yet properly delved into this other area - which is just as worthy of attention! But you guys sharing your love of some of these scores is compelling me to explore them. For that I am grateful.
JB Here is one for you really hope we see the release of this amazing score from the maestro soon check out the rhythm of the main title swaying in and out of the darkness like a pendulum.
Dear Way, THE DEMON is incredible! Not only am I now infected with a burning desire for the score on CD but also a subtitled DVD of the film! As with THE TENTH VICTIM Piccioni doesn't just deliver strange music for a strange film but rather he goes one step further and delivers a score that is also unexpected - because of the idiom that he chooses. If you'll notice portions of his work for THE DEMON bear striking similarities to Italian score for both the science fiction and peplum genre, and I firmly believe that this is no coincidence! This was one of his trademarks and indication of inventive genius - he had no qualms as regards "shuffling the deck" in terms of genre application to assignments. I found the score for this film to be extremely effective but also surprising and shocking, I suppose because what I expected was something abstract and cold. Piccioni's score is off-kilter and amorphous but it is also visceral and organic, it has both heat and muscle (force, drive). This is very unique. Most composers would react with a "Freudian psychological" pastiche that would involve an atonal, mathematical approach - i.e. the frozen and inaccessible terrain of madness. Piccioni pushes our face into insanity by representing it with music that has blood and bone and the frictions of conflict. Wow.
My two cents: IL MEDICO DELLA MUTUA and IL PROF. DOTT. GUIDO TERSILLI PRIMARIO DELLA CLINICA VILLA CELESTE CONVENZIONATA CON LE MUTUE (too short title, I know) with the famous Marcia di Esculapio, a hymn to actor Alberto Sordi.
That radio show has a female host and female intro ... with no male voice! Does Italy have a lot of female film score lovers, or are these women employees of the station just working on assignment?
Interestingly, LE MANI SULLA CITTA' was played about 20 minutes into the program.
Does LE MANI SULLA CITTA' have a great reputation in Italy? That's one of my "top 10" Piccioni scores, and it apparently is symbolic of Piccioni's contributions to cinema.
I don't speak or read Italian, but I heard the lady's voice mention Alex North (whose music I've sometimes referred to when describing early Piccioni). She also spoke of Monica Vitti - my kind of woman!
That radio show has a female host and female intro ... with no male voice!
you see, we're politically correct!
Does Italy have a lot of female film score lovers, or are these women employees of the station just working on assignment?
My impression, but I may be wrong, is that there are more female film score lovers than we can imagine. They just don't show up (like writing on the board) as often as male collectors. The lady hosting the radio show, Renata Scognamiglio, is quite clever and I remember her hosting another show about musical theatre last year. The responsible (or curator) of the show is also another woman Annarita Caroli. On the other hand, the ontological approach of the show is that of a male, Sergio Miceli (a professor of musical aesthetics and author, together with Ennio Morricone of the volume essay "Comporre per il cinema. Teoria e prassi della musica nel film" ), an approach that often I don't share.
Does LE MANI SULLA CITTA' have a great reputation in Italy?
yes, it's considered a masterpiece.
If you desire, I can post many other links to other radio shows (concerning Lavagnino, Fusco, Nascimbene, Rustichelli, obviously Morricone, etc. etc.).
Good to know that Italian radio is politically correct; Italian TV, if one considers YouTube as representative, has women stripping off their clothes!
If you desire, I can post many other links to other radio shows (concerning Lavagnino, Fusco, Nascimbene, Rustichelli, obviously Morricone, etc. etc.).
Yes, that would be very nice to hear more programs on Fusco, Lavagnino, Nascimene, etc. Perhaps not here on Piccioni's thread, but within other appropriate spots. Was there (or will there be) any radio shows on Roberto Nicolosi, or Gino Marrinuzi, Jr. or Egisto Macchi?
The lady hosting the radio show, Renata Scognamiglio, is quite clever
Let's see how clever Renata S. can be if she will host programs on Dallapiccola, Nono, Maderna, Berio, etc.
If you're there at least three days, you might be lucky and find ONE western on!!
For me - Loren or another Italian may say differently - but Italian media and Italian people still take their westerns and their own cinema history for granted and seem to obsess about Hollywood stuff. If you go in the shops, you cant move for American superhero stuff and horror dvds, Twilight, vampire diaries etc. If you find a DVD starring Terence Hill and Bud Spencer you have done very well!
Two other Piccioni soundtracks I'm hoping will be released very soon are Cristo Si E' Fermato A Eboli & Tre Fratelli, from the films of Francesco Rosi. Similar to Chronicle of a Death Foretold, another Rosi film, these are extremely melancholic scores, very subdued & sophisticated, & part of Piccioni's later period. In particular, the main theme to Cristo Si E' Fermato A Eboli is sublime, & is right up there with the best of his scores.
I think the only reason they are not more well known is because apart from some very low-key dvd releases of those films & a vinyl compilation released decades ago, there is no other way to listen to any of the music from these soundtracks.
The title track to Cristo was available through amazon as part of an mp3 compilation of italian music, 'Pinocchio E I Grandi Libri Al Cinema,' unfortunately it's listed as 'no longer available', not even for listening;
I would highly recommend searching for any samples of these soundtracks, though they are difficult to find. They are deserving of an official release & ripe for rediscovery. I'm hoping one of the italian soundtrack labels, Beat Records, Digitmovies, GDM, Quartet Records, Saimel, etc will eventually do them justice.
I'm continually surprised with Piccioni; as more & more of his soundtracks are discovered & released, I'm stunned as to why he wasn't more highly revered in his time.
Cristo si è fermato a Eboli is a beautiful score bewlay I too would love to see the release of that one the full film is also on YouTube
The first time I heard anything from that was the excellent radio interview with Piccioni's son which is still up at the Maestro's web site: http://www.pieropiccioni.com/eng/news/index.asp
Tre Fratelli I'm not familar with that one will have to look for some samples.
JB The dvd of the Demon does not have English subtitles Piccioni seemed to be at a sort of peak of creativity around 63
Un Tentativo Sentimentale Il Disprezzo Le Mani Sulla Città Il Terrorista
Before he started doing his more groovy stuff which many of us got hooked on first a few years later. Sometimes I wish that his early 60's stuff had continued for another couple of decades before he even got to his grooviest peak around 69
Two other Piccioni soundtracks I'm hoping will be released very soon are Cristo Si E' Fermato A Eboli & Tre Fratelli, from the films of Francesco Rosi. Similar to Chronicle of a Death Foretold, another Rosi film, these are extremely melancholic scores, very subdued & sophisticated, & part of Piccioni's later period. I think the only reason they are not more well known is because apart from some very low-key dvd releases of those films & a vinyl compilation released decades ago, there is no other way to listen to any of the music from these soundtracks. I'm hoping one of the italian soundtrack labels, Beat Records, Digitmovies, GDM, Quartet Records, Saimel, etc will eventually do them justice.
I fully share your opinion about CRISTO SI E' FERMATO A EBOLI and TRE FRATELLI which are also among my favorites. Piccioni has composed some of his most beautiful, inspired and heart-rending music ever for these two Francesco Rosi movies. Both deeply impressive and tragic main themes in my opinion belong to the best ones ever written for Italian cinema. As far as I remember, CRISTO SI E' FERMATO A EBOLI was one of the first films which made me discover Piccioni when I saw it in a German cinema in 1979. I could also not get the music from TRE FRATELLI out of my head when I saw it in the cinema in 1982. TRE FRATELLI for me is one of the most interesting and remarkable Italian movies of the 80s anyway. The sequence with the young girl in the hay barn for example is wonderfully supported by Piccioni's yearning and melancholic music, mainly written for strings and woodwind soli. By the way, Piccioni did write a lot more music for CRISTO SI E' FERMATO A EBOLI than was used in the film itself. Rosi fell so much in love with the main theme that he did not use anything else for the cinema version, but more music could be heard in the longer 4-hour TV version which was made and broadcast separately at that time. There are even passages in Piccioni's unused music which are really precursors of what can be heard about 9 years later in CHRONICLE OF A DEATH FORETOLD. All of this would make a wonderful CD - a coupling of both scores would even be better - and I also hope that one of the Italian lablels will do these two scores justice in the near future. CRISTO is owned by Sugar/CAM and should therefore be done by Digitmovies. However, TRE FRATELLI is owned by Revelation Music even if on the back cover of the old Rosi/Piccioni double LP CAM was mentioned as music publisher. But no, they don't have it in their archives.
The two films are very well-known among European cinéastes interested in ambitious, high-brow Italian movies and in famous Italian directors. Of course both films are also available on Italian DVDs. And a lot of books about Rosi and praising reviews/articles about these two films have been written during the last three decades. So of course these two films have made Italian film history and have their firm place within it. So that's certainly not the reason why these scores are not that well-known. I would say - and I had written that already in a Kritzerland thread a few months ago - that for many soundtrack collectors of Italian film music other criteria are valid: They are most often more interested in certain genres and therefore certain styles of music which belong to those genres, but these two symphonic scores do not really belong to such a group and therefore don't get the attention they deserve which is a great pity.
