Title: Un
tranquillo posto di campagna (A quiet place in the country)
Year: 1968
Composer: Ennio Morricone
This time
we’re moving towards horror territory with Elio Petri’s supernatural film featuring
a challenging score by Ennio Morricone. The film tells a story about an artist
who retreats to the countryside in search of inspiration. However he is driven
insane by an apparition that haunts the place. Morricone provided a score that
combines two different styles inspired by modern classical music.
As I mentioned,
the score feels greatly inspired by 20th century contemporary
classical music and Musica per undici
violini actually IS exactly that. The piece was written originally in 1958
as a classical work but was recorded for the film in 1968. It is a very demanding
listen if you’re not used to modern classical works and might just sounds like
a bunch of screeching violins. However I think it’s a brilliant opener to the
album with a lot of structure and thought behind it, and it just painfully
introduces the brutal tone the rest of the album will have.
The first
original tracks reflect perfectly what the opening piece set up to do. They all
rely heavily on strings that are played in extremely menacing ways. Many of the
chord structures seem to derive from the classical work. Il fantasma di Wanda and I
sogni dell’artista feature the ghostly voice of Edda dell’Orso providing atonal
melodies on top of the bed of strings. L’automobile
della contessa provides the only pleasantish atonal harmonies that are the
closest thing the score might come to sounding somewhat ‘normal’. Fantasma
is an upgraded version of the original string work with added percussion and
the eerie voice that is first heard in the distance slowly becoming more
pronounced as the piece progresses. This version manages to outshine the
original work providing more colours with the expressive vocal performance.
For the
pieces following Fantasma, the
instruments start to get sparser. Do
naturale has just one long note played in unison. Delirio primo is just a piece for short percussion phrases with a lonely
voice in the empty space. Frenesia
drops the vocals and just has the plain percussion. Delirio secondo however adds a devilish string chord to the piece
which sends shivers down my spine. The last two tracks before the long suite
are just short slow moving string chord structures.
After the
string-heavy preparation of the album’s first half, we’re introduced to the
other side of the score which is the 34-minute suite written and performed by Gruppo
di improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza which Morricone was a part of. It was an
avant-garde group of 6 members which made music both by playing traditional
instruments in unconventional ways or using unconventional things as
instruments. The result is partly bonkers, partly extremely unnerving. I
actually think the other presentation of the film score by GDM records where
the suite is divided into smaller parts that are presented among the other
material might improve the listening experience. However the suite by itself is
a strange journey into the mind of a madman and I think it’s the most enjoyable
part of the album.
The cue’s first
part is a strange cabaret piece for out-of-tune instruments with a childlike
vocal performance and whistling solos that are interrupted by a moment of
suspense (and also an excerpt of a classical piece that I just can’t recognize
at the moment). The next part goes further into madness and has a weird toy
whistle and barking trumpet played against a dark honky-tonk piano. That part
is followed by some truly horrific material that consists of several screeching
noises among gong-like percussion effects that might be produced out of landfill
trash. After a short crescendo the sound calms down for a while to some
‘natural’ sounding piano playing amid the chaos followed by the introduction of
different kinds of plucked instruments. However the calm doesn’t last for long
when the loudest moment comes in form of rattling percussion, all kinds of
screaming brass instruments joined by pounding piano playing and the shouting
of the group members. The rest of the track is rather subdued experimentations
with all kinds of rambles and hisses including for instance what sounds like
marbles being dropped onto piano strings. The last part of the track starts
with a series of bell- and glass-like sounds that are slowly developed into something
more sinister and mad before fading away.
Horror
isn’t just monsters and jumpscares. It can also be subtle and psychological and
hence much scarier. Morricone’s score proves that brilliantly. It’s very ballsy
music. The middle tracks are the most unstartling pieces but luckily they are
gone in a short while to make way to more interesting material. No modern
director would dare to have music this challenging in his film. The score pays
homage to Morricone’s origins in classical music but also looks forward into
the future with the avant-garde material. An unprepared listener should
approach this score with caution because it takes many listens to fully appreciate.
However if I think of Morricone’s purely atonal soundtracks, this one is
strangely captivating and enjoyable almost for its whole duration.
Rating: *****
Tracklist:
1. Musica
per undici violini (06:51) *****
2. Vuoi
essere felice? (00:38) *****
3. Il fantasma
di Wanda (01:59) *****
4.
L'automobile della contessina (01:15) *****
5. I sogni
dell'artista (01:59) *****
6. Fantasma
(06:51) *****
7. Do
naturale (00:39) **
8. Delirio
primo (02:36) ****
9. I sogni
dell'artista II (01:58) *****
10.
Frenesia (00:58) **
11. Delirio
secondo (02:37) *****
12. Lo
spirito di Wanda (00:55) ***
13. Un
amore violento (01:02) ***
14. Un
tranquillo posto di campagna (suite) (34:39) *****
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