Chez vilaine fille, only one genius is known as il maestro tout court (sorry, Riccardone). Still, never let it be said that we are utterly without humility or reverence.
Maestro: from magister, “he who is greater.” Mauro is one of vilaine fille’s maestri—a bergamasco like Donadù (he teh hawt, yo!) and a generous and learnèd friend. Mauro recently paid tribute to another maestro, Ennio Morricone, a post that I warmly commend to all.
May vilaine fille point you towards some more obscure Morricone? While I am no great fan of Giuseppe Tornatore, his 1998 film The Legend of 1900 (also known as The Legend of the Pianist on the Ocean) really gets under my skin. It stars Tim Roth, whom you see above, is based on a theatrical monologue by Alessandro Baricco, features breathtaking cinematography by Lajos Koltai, and was scored by Maestro Ennio.
The sea exerts an irresistible pull on me—the heaving of the waves, the water’s trickles and swirls and ink-dark depths. Maestro Ennio’s main theme, so apparently humble, whispers to some primitive part of my brain and sends me sinking into the deep, lost in a still, watery sleep. You can hear a less introspective portion of the score here, and Roger Waters singing “Lost Boys Calling” here. Barnes & Noble sells both the soundtrack and the DVD. (Alas, I have never seen the original cut of the film.)
As you all know by now, Maestro Ennio wrote a heap of smashing pop songs. My very, very favorite one was set down as “Je changerais d’avis” by Françoise Hardy—she whose divinity is beyond words. Mina made famous what I presume is the original, “Se telefonando.” But, forgive me—our shared veneration for Ringhio aside—I do not love Mina. Too many distorted vowels, too much taffy-pull phrasing, too much changing the song to fit the singer instead of changing the singer to fit the song. In this respect, Mina reminds me of Barbra Streisand and Renée Fleming, neither of whom I love.
(All poofs immediately stop reading vilaine fille. Overall traffic, though, increases thanks to the Pazza di Filianoti™.)
Anyway, enough about Maestro Ennio. I’ve slept very little since Saturday. Two stream-of-consciousness tidbits spinning off earlier points:
- Go listen to “Il est des choses,” my all-time favorite Françoise song. ON YOUR KNEES!
- Speaking of Don Lisander, a trailer for Silk is available on YouTube. It looks all wrong. May I confess that I love Seta, abjectly and completely? (I have no idea how it reads in English, but when I read the Italian text, I barely breathe, so as not to drown out the silences between the words.)
(All Italians immediately stop reading vilaine fille. No one remains but the PdF™. vilaine fille and the PdF™ become great friends and together plan trips to Palermo, Pesaro, Hamburg…)
Many Thanks, milady.
Il mio post falsamente tecnico e sicuramente freddo stride non poco con il tuo che analizza acutamente le calde emozioni di una musica scritta da un maestro come Ennio.
Il film da noi si trova, as usual, per pochi dindi. Se ti aggrada non c'è che da chiedere!
Il paragone con il vero maestro Chez vous è davvero fin troppo lusinghiero. Non mi merito assolutamente tale nomea.
Ti suggerisco, ricordando il sempre importante Guccini, "eterno studente"
[...]perché la materia di studio sarebbe infinita
e soprattutto perché so di non sapere niente,
io, chierico vagante, bandito di strada,
io, non artista, solo piccolo baccelliere[...]
Conosci? Ecco, ora bestemmio, ma anche io preferisco di gran lunga il baccelliere all'artista.
Insomma Guccini sopra Mina. Il che è un'affermazione da giudizio universale a pollice verso, ma tant'è...
Ti dirò inoltre che anche io trovo la tigre di Modena assolutamente sopravvalutata, ma probabilmente siamo noi gli insensibili.
Anzi, sicuramente insomma.
E poi non so nemmeno dirti perchè! Adoro Stratos quindi non sono alla ricerca del belcanto sempre e comunque.
Ma, sinceramente, a me Mina non dice nulla.
Come si dice qui a Bergamo: Pota!
(as "cosa vuoi farci? E' così...")
Ti dedico un poco di silenzio delle mie montagne alla tua NY presumibilmente sempre caotica e sempre bellissima.
A presto e di nuovo grazie!
Yours
MAURO
Posted by: mauro | 01 March 2007 at 10:28