ENNIO MORRICONE CRIME AND DISSONANCE (IPECAC) More Morricone · PDF fileEnnio Morricone in...
4
34 CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 16, 2005 | SECTION ONE Music By Peter Margasak E nnio Morricone turned 77 last month, but age appar- ently hasn’t slowed him down much: according to the Internet Movie Database he’s written scores for two feature- length films and five TV pro- grams that came out this year, and four more movies he’s worked on are slated for release in 2006. I’ve yet to encounter a complete list, but he’s quite likely the most prolific film composer in history, scoring somewhere between 450 and 500 movies since 1961. More important, he’s one of the few film composers worth lis- tening to outside the context of a movie: when’s the last time you yearned to hear a sound track CD by John Williams or Danny Elfman? The vast majority of films have a score or incidental music of some kind, but only a handful of visionaries like Bernard Herrmann and Nino Rota have achieved legendary status by reinforcing and enhancing the vision of a film- maker while also creating music that works without the visuals. Even if you don’t know his name, you know Morricone’s music—his work for spaghetti westerns directed by Sergio Leone and others is now so familiar it’s become the stuff of parody. The twangy electric gui- tar and spooky whistling (both performed by longtime Morricone sidekick Alessandro Alessandroni), the lonesome har- monica stabs associated with Charles Bronson’s character in Once Upon a Time in the West, the fake ay-ye-ay-ye-ay coyote cry—all have become signifiers for hard-boiled characters from the old west. But that’s only a tiny proportion of his vast reper- toire. He’s written more conven- tionally orchestral scores for Days of Heaven, The Mission, The Untouchables, and Bugsy— all of which earned Oscar nomi- nations. And perhaps unsurpris- ingly given the sheer size of his output, he’s created music for loads of sleepers, clunkers, and cult items in a variety of forms: documentaries, spy flicks, horror movies, and giallo films—a genre of stylized Italian thrillers. The movies themselves might be sub- par, but Morricone’s done excel- lent, highly distinctive work on them, creating music rife with daring experiments in melody, structure, and instrumentation. For years reissues of Morricone’s sound tracks to these lesser-known films has been limited to imports where no effort was made to separate his most original pieces from more functional themes. Crime and Dissonance (Ipecac), a two-CD set compiled by Alan Bishop of the Sun City Girls, changes all that. The carefully assembled compilation focuses on the dark- est, most experimental moments from the sound tracks to Italian films made between 1968 and ’74 (and one from ’81). The music’s had a clear influence on the folks who put the new CD together: Ipecac is co-owned by Bay Area nutjob Mike Patton (Mr. Bungle, Fantomas), who shares Morricone’s taste for stylistic More Morricone A brilliantly curated trove of the sound track master’s lesser known works ENNIO MORRICONE CRIME AND DISSONANCE (IPECAC) Ennio Morricone in 1989
Transcript of ENNIO MORRICONE CRIME AND DISSONANCE (IPECAC) More Morricone · PDF fileEnnio Morricone in...
34 CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 16, 2005 | SECTION ONE
Music
By Peter Margasak
Ennio Morricone turned 77last month, but age appar-ently hasn’t slowed him
down much: according to theInternet Movie Database he’swritten scores for two feature-length films and five TV pro-grams that came out this year,and four more movies he’sworked on are slated for releasein 2006. I’ve yet to encounter acomplete list, but he’s quite likelythe most prolific film composerin history, scoring somewherebetween 450 and 500 moviessince 1961.
More important, he’s one ofthe few film composers worth lis-tening to outside the context of amovie: when’s the last time youyearned to hear a sound trackCD by John Williams or DannyElfman? The vast majority offilms have a score or incidentalmusic of some kind, but only ahandful of visionaries likeBernard Herrmann and NinoRota have achieved legendarystatus by reinforcing andenhancing the vision of a film-maker while also creating musicthat works without the visuals.
Even if you don’t know hisname, you know Morricone’smusic—his work for spaghettiwesterns directed by SergioLeone and others is now sofamiliar it’s become the stuff ofparody. The twangy electric gui-tar and spooky whistling (bothperformed by longtimeMorricone sidekick AlessandroAlessandroni), the lonesome har-monica stabs associated withCharles Bronson’s character inOnce Upon a Time in the West,
the fake ay-ye-ay-ye-ay coyotecry—all have become signifiersfor hard-boiled characters fromthe old west. But that’s only atiny proportion of his vast reper-toire. He’s written more conven-tionally orchestral scores forDays of Heaven, The Mission,The Untouchables, and Bugsy—all of which earned Oscar nomi-nations. And perhaps unsurpris-ingly given the sheer size of hisoutput, he’s created music forloads of sleepers, clunkers, andcult items in a variety of forms:documentaries, spy flicks, horrormovies, and giallo films—a genreof stylized Italian thrillers. Themovies themselves might be sub-par, but Morricone’s done excel-lent, highly distinctive work onthem, creating music rife withdaring experiments in melody,structure, and instrumentation.
For years reissues ofMorricone’s sound tracks tothese lesser-known films hasbeen limited to imports where noeffort was made to separate hismost original pieces from morefunctional themes. Crime andDissonance (Ipecac), a two-CDset compiled by Alan Bishop ofthe Sun City Girls, changes allthat. The carefully assembledcompilation focuses on the dark-est, most experimental momentsfrom the sound tracks to Italianfilms made between 1968 and ’74(and one from ’81). The music’shad a clear influence on the folkswho put the new CD together:Ipecac is co-owned by Bay Areanutjob Mike Patton (Mr. Bungle,Fantomas), who sharesMorricone’s taste for stylistic
More MorriconeA brilliantly curated trove of the sound track master’s lesser known works
ENNIO MORRICONE CRIME AND DISSONANCE (IPECAC)
Ennio Morricone in 1989
patchworks; the brief liner noteswere written by avant-jazz iconJohn Zorn, who delivered afeverish take on Morricone’scompositions on his 1985 albumThe Big Gundown, wildly magni-fying his herky-jerk sensibility.
Morricone’s had a keen interestin jazz throughout his career; inthe 60s he played trumpet in thelong-running radical Italianimprov outfit Gruppo diImprovvisazione NuovaConsonanza, which performs twoof the pieces on the compilation.“Seguita” and “Folle Folle” havedifferent percussive frame-works—the former is loose, thelatter more swinging—but bothuse wah-wah guitar, sour trum-pet blurts, bowed bass scrapes,and scratched piano strings topull against the rhythm, creating
an exquisite tension. Jazz is thetouchstone in all these works,which are often decidedlycreepy—there are patches of freeimprovisation and tightlydeployed swing passages, withmusic in between that seemsdeliberately designed to unnerveyou. The brief “Studio di Colore”sounds like the Gil EvansOrchestra wandered into a west-ern, the dark brass harmoniesturning its cool jazz murky.
Miles Davis’s electric periodalso had a strong influence: thereare loads of squealing and dis-torted electric guitars, roilingand funky bass lines, andHarmon-muted trumpet cries.But instead of letting the musicsettle into extended grooves,Morricone keeps the pieces terseand frequently juxtaposes other
sounds: dissonant piano clusters,female heavy breathing thatcould be heard as sexual ecstasyor sheer terror. His compositionsfor the tawdry, violent giallofilms have the familiar hallmarksof horror sound tracks—slashingstrings a la Psycho, the harrow-ing church organ featured incountless creature features—butMorricone marvelously extendsthat tradition, adding atonalstring arrangements, lurchingrhythms, wordless female vocals,and splattery electric keyboards.
These pieces were designed fora specific purpose—to creep outa moviegoer, usually—but manyof them succeed in their ownright thanks to this experimentalinstrumentation. “Astratto 3,”from Veruschka (Poesia di unacontinued on page 36
CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 16, 2005 | SECTION ONE 35
Veruschka (Poesia di una Donna)
Music
Donna), a film about the 60sfashion model, mixes faux-ethnicpercussion, woozy wordlessvocals, and damped marimbamelodies; on “Ric Happening,”sleepy koto notes and haggardbamboo-flute toots drift overblocky percussion; and on“Rapimento in Campo Aperto”an almost comic-sounding Jew’sharp bounces over sinister, saw-ing strings, but instead of easingthe tension it seems to addanother level of madness andfury. On “Memento,” snippets ofa romantic orchestral workseemingly played through a
cheap speaker are layered overdissonant string arrangements,and the effect of them fading inand out of the mix is downrightnightmarish.
There are a few sweetermoments, but they rarely work ina straightfoward manner.“Ricreazione Divertita” morphsfrom a delicate music-box melodylimned by a lyric violin to a snip-pet of a woman singing a cappel-la to some 60s-style dance-pop;less than two minutes in you get astately string procession alternat-ing with a stiff voice-and-drummarching rhythm, then a repriseof the a cappella section. “Ninna
Nanna per Adulteri” features agorgeous wordless female vocalfloating amid lean but prettystrings and sparse glockenspiel,but its singsong repetition beginsto sound ominous over time.
After a dozen spins I’m stillstruck by the originality anddynamic sound of the comp as awhole. Bishop’s an odd but effec-tive curator: he doesn’t adhere toany chronological or stylisticorganizational model; instead hesequences the material in theway that flows most seamlessly,and it’s as if he’s created a newsound track for the greatestmovie ever made. v
36 CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 16, 2005 | SECTION ONE
continued from page 35
CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 16, 2005 | SECTION ONE 37
Theater
By Kerry Reid
I f nothing else, you have toadmire Dessa Rose for the risksit takes. Composer Stephen
Flaherty and librettist LynnAhrens have adapted an unspar-ing 1986 novel by Sherley AnneWilliams, who weaves togetherthe stories of two real-life peoplefrom the antebellum south, one apregnant slave, the other an aban-doned wife. This is hardly the sortof musical popular now in ourculture, which favors thinly plot-ted jukebox revues a la MammaMia! and shows based on popularcomic movies or cult favorites likeHairspray, The Producers, andSpamalot. And Apple TreeTheatre has made a brave choiceby producing a script at the holi-days that deals with rape, torture,murder, and all the other atroci-ties of the “peculiar institution.”
For her novel, Williams drew onthe story of a female slave inKentucky who in 1829 was sen-tenced to be hanged for leading anuprising on a coffle, a chain gang
of slaves headed to market, butwas spared until she could deliverher baby—a valuable asset, ofcourse. Williams imagines thatthis woman escaped and met awhite woman who turned herNorth Carolina farm into a sanc-tuary for runaway slaves in 1830,after her husband left her. Thenovelist not only indicts slavery(duh) but looks unblinkingly atthe roots of America’s unease withinterracial romance and at whitewriters’ tendency to speak for theirblack subjects. Like the novel, themusical includes a smug whitejournalist, Adam Nehemiah, who’swriting a book on slave rebellionsand tries to make the imprisonedDessa Rose talk by implying thather story will be forgotten unlessshe cooperates.
Perhaps “bloody tales are goodfor sales,” as Nehemiah says. Butsomething of the novel’s waspish-ness is lost in translation to thestage even though Ahrens and
Slavery, the MusicalApple Tree tries to illuminate the “peculiar institution” in Dessa Rose.
DESSA ROSE APPLE TREE THEATRE
Dessa Rose
MIC
HA
EL B
ROSI
L OW
continued on page 38
