Title: L’harem
(Her harem)
Year: 1967
Composer: Ennio Morricone
Another
obscure project from the 60s for Maestro Morricone. The film is about a woman
who starts her own harem of men and at the end things turn deadly. The score is
a unique one and showcases once again Maestro’s chameleon like ability to adapt
to any film or situation.
The score
was previously paired up with Maestro’s score to Il ladrone but luckily Beat Records released a longer version in
early 2017. It’s still a very short one and presented here in a suite clocking
just over 30 minutes and divided into 5 sections. But for me it’s the perfect
length to discover this hidden gem.
The score
consists of two different themes highlighting two extraordinary musical
artists, Gato Barbieri on saxophone
and Bruno Battisti D’Amario on
guitar. These two really are the soul of the score which is otherwise scored
for a very small amount of other instruments. This chamber ensemble approach
nevertheless works and creates a wonderful feeling of sensual isolation for the
film’s remote locale.
A solo
saxophone opens L’harem primo and
slowly chimes, woodblocks, percussion fills and nostalgic Morriconean high
strings enter along with delicate brass chords. The real star is the saxophone
which develops from the main melody into more improvisatory verses before returning
to the original melody and then moving to another developmental section. The
atmosphere lingers at the border of atonality and tonality which gives the cue
some needed edge and hence prevents it from becoming boring. The solo sax version of the opening is
exactly that, just a 10-minute sax solo in the emptiness. On paper it sounds ludicrous
and I wonder who would even manage to listen to it completely. But right from
the first notes I was hooked. The intense performance goes through so many
emotions and the wonderful echo of the recording elevates it even further. At
times the sax sounds like it’s part of a sensual bar scene, sometimes like a
soundtrack to some film noir flick and sometimes like a screeching animal howling
at the moon. L’harem secondo is built
like the opening cue but there is an added woodwind layer in the orchestral
section and the brass chords become more prominent as the cue progresses
resembling Maestro’s signature ‘urban chords' depicting city life. The
atmosphere however stays at a comfortably low-key level and ends the score with
mysterious atmospheres and some wonderfully unresolved tension.
D’Amario’s
showpiece is called Sei corde (lit. ‘Six strings’) which actually has some
Middle-Eastern influences that the film’s title might suggest. It begins rather
slowly along with some pounding percussion backing and then turns into a
furious dance for the solo guitar and percussion. It’s an extremely groovy yet
brutal track which differs completely from the meditative nature of the
saxophone-heavy cues. You almost forget you’re listening to a film score rather
than some ethnic folk group just jamming in their pagan rituals. The reprise in
track 4 skips the cue’s slower opening and goes straight into the dance
sequence that doesn’t hold anything back and goes even further into the violent
madness. The album ends with a source cue from another Morricone score Menage all’italiana (1965) which is a
great, fast party cue complete with twanging surf rock guitars and some needed
attitude to end the album with a more positive note.
During the
first few listens I had some difficulties with getting into the essence of this
score. But the more I listen to it, the more I love it. It just floats so
beautifully from one atmosphere to another and then being temporarily disturbed
by the ethnic dancing. It might not be for everyone though since some might
discard the meditative quality of the music and consider it as boring. A top-quality
score by the Maestro and a great addition to your collection if you can bear
his writing for smaller ensembles.
Rating: *****
Tracklist:
1. L'harem
primo (07:06) *****
2. Sei
corde (05:21) *****
3. L'harem
primo – solo sax (09:55) *****
4. Sei
corde (#2) (02:45) *****
5. L'harem
secondo (06:26) *****
6. Bonus
track: Fermateli! (boutique scene source music) (02:45) ****
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