In this article I will examine the changes in the compositional tendencies of the new generation of Italian musicians for film. The composers of the latest generation have exploited the resources of electronic music by using the possibilities of today's technology in a creative and often anti-academic way. In doing so they followed the path of Luciano Berio, who had perfectly understood how electro-acoustic music could be adapted to the creation of soundtracks for television and film scripts, and had asked composers to take on cinema, adopting a language which was deliberately intended to accompany moving images. The article will then outline the moments that led to the abandonment of the traditional characteristics of film music in the first decades after World War II by adopting the cinematographic post-production techniques of editing and mixing. In the first decades after the Second World War, Italian film music varied between symphonic grandeur, operatic heritage, traditional sketches and fashionable songs, sometimes laced with cautious signs of renewal, principally emanating from Nino Rota and Ennio Morricone, together with Giovanni Fusco, Vittorio Gelmetti, Piero Umiliani, among others. In particular, those moments that led up to overcoming the theoretical foundations of Italian avant-garde music will be highlighted. The article will focus on the stylistic constants of the new generation of Italian musicians and on the analysis of particular moments in their filmography. Rather than a historical overview, I will refer to a small selection of emblematic films that are representative of the entire period (the last ten years) studied in this article. The film are: Il mestiere delle armi (2000); La stanza del figlio (2001); L’ora di religione (2002); Caos calmo (2007); Il divo (2007); Vincere (2009) and Il gioiellino (2010). Proceeding from the analysis of some key sequences of each film, the emerging stylistic traits of every single composer will be brought into the foreground. The composers taken into consideration are: Nicola Piovani, born 1946; Franco Piersanti, 1950; Paolo Buonvino, 1968; Riccardo Giagni, 1956; Fabio Vacchi, 1949; Carlo Crivelli, 1953; Teho Teardo, 1966. These authors have been chosen because they seem to have accepted the invitation of the leading exponents of Italian film music who, in the first decades after World War II, created a new universe in soundscape. On the one side, Fabio Vacchi has distanced himself from the avant-garde by exploring an eclecticism which allows his music to interact with the images of Olmi's film work, while Riccardo Giagni and Carlo Crivelli, on the other side, have looked to the East, and in particular to the music of composers like Giya Kancheli and his “dynamic stasis”, in which they have found the key to follow the distinctive narrative paths of Marco Bellocchio's cinema. Others, such as Paolo Buonvino, as well as Nicola Piovani and Franco Piersanti, have knowingly picked up the stylistic patterns of popular music as the life blood of a new melodism, far from the worn-out stereotypes that had characterised Italian film music for a number of decades. However, what is most surprising in this scenario is the appearance of new compositional tendencies born from the union of electronic instruments and elements of film production itself, such as mixing and editing, which some composers have adopted in a very empirical way, far from the models presented by the historical avant-garde. This kind of knowledge can be said to be laboratory-tested, passed on by word of mouth, and is feeding a very interesting phenomenon that is especially effective in film making. The experience of Teho Teardo, a musician who is particularly linked to Paolo Sorrentino's film work, is emblematic both of the total independence of film music from fawning references to so-called cultured music, and of the search for a sound specifically conceived for cinema.

Music for film in the Italian cinema world. Compositional trends and attitudes over the last decade

CALABRETTO, Roberto
2016-01-01

Abstract

In this article I will examine the changes in the compositional tendencies of the new generation of Italian musicians for film. The composers of the latest generation have exploited the resources of electronic music by using the possibilities of today's technology in a creative and often anti-academic way. In doing so they followed the path of Luciano Berio, who had perfectly understood how electro-acoustic music could be adapted to the creation of soundtracks for television and film scripts, and had asked composers to take on cinema, adopting a language which was deliberately intended to accompany moving images. The article will then outline the moments that led to the abandonment of the traditional characteristics of film music in the first decades after World War II by adopting the cinematographic post-production techniques of editing and mixing. In the first decades after the Second World War, Italian film music varied between symphonic grandeur, operatic heritage, traditional sketches and fashionable songs, sometimes laced with cautious signs of renewal, principally emanating from Nino Rota and Ennio Morricone, together with Giovanni Fusco, Vittorio Gelmetti, Piero Umiliani, among others. In particular, those moments that led up to overcoming the theoretical foundations of Italian avant-garde music will be highlighted. The article will focus on the stylistic constants of the new generation of Italian musicians and on the analysis of particular moments in their filmography. Rather than a historical overview, I will refer to a small selection of emblematic films that are representative of the entire period (the last ten years) studied in this article. The film are: Il mestiere delle armi (2000); La stanza del figlio (2001); L’ora di religione (2002); Caos calmo (2007); Il divo (2007); Vincere (2009) and Il gioiellino (2010). Proceeding from the analysis of some key sequences of each film, the emerging stylistic traits of every single composer will be brought into the foreground. The composers taken into consideration are: Nicola Piovani, born 1946; Franco Piersanti, 1950; Paolo Buonvino, 1968; Riccardo Giagni, 1956; Fabio Vacchi, 1949; Carlo Crivelli, 1953; Teho Teardo, 1966. These authors have been chosen because they seem to have accepted the invitation of the leading exponents of Italian film music who, in the first decades after World War II, created a new universe in soundscape. On the one side, Fabio Vacchi has distanced himself from the avant-garde by exploring an eclecticism which allows his music to interact with the images of Olmi's film work, while Riccardo Giagni and Carlo Crivelli, on the other side, have looked to the East, and in particular to the music of composers like Giya Kancheli and his “dynamic stasis”, in which they have found the key to follow the distinctive narrative paths of Marco Bellocchio's cinema. Others, such as Paolo Buonvino, as well as Nicola Piovani and Franco Piersanti, have knowingly picked up the stylistic patterns of popular music as the life blood of a new melodism, far from the worn-out stereotypes that had characterised Italian film music for a number of decades. However, what is most surprising in this scenario is the appearance of new compositional tendencies born from the union of electronic instruments and elements of film production itself, such as mixing and editing, which some composers have adopted in a very empirical way, far from the models presented by the historical avant-garde. This kind of knowledge can be said to be laboratory-tested, passed on by word of mouth, and is feeding a very interesting phenomenon that is especially effective in film making. The experience of Teho Teardo, a musician who is particularly linked to Paolo Sorrentino's film work, is emblematic both of the total independence of film music from fawning references to so-called cultured music, and of the search for a sound specifically conceived for cinema.
2016
9788870968859
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11390/1107317
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact