Sunday 4 March 2018

Spaghetti and cowboys: part 6


Title: È tornato Sabata… hai chiuso un’altra volta (Return of Sabata)
Year: 1971
Composer: Marcello Giombini


For the last film in the Sabata trilogy, the actor playing the main character made his return along with the first film’s composer, Marcello Giombini. He didn’t reprise any of the thematic material of the first, rather than crafted a whole new score that was clearly more tongue-in-cheek and self-aware.

The more light-hearted tone is prevalent right from the opening theme song with hilarious scat ‘pom-pom’ censorship in its lyrics. Also the hand-claps and the macho delivery of the vocals combined to the powerful choral harmonies are a recipe for a fun cue. This theme song is the backbone once again for the rest of the score. It’s heard in the following Seq. 2 after a brief fast-paced action moment, played by a harpsichord and marimba in a comedic way. A jazzy flute, surf guitar and choir variate the melody in Seq.6 and 11 whereas Seq. 9 is just the rhythmic section playing the ‘pom-pom’ rhythm followed by a solo voice of Alessandro Alessandroni reciting the song lyrics. Finale is the reprise of the theme song strangely played twice in a row without noticeable variation, which is a slightly disappointing end to the score.

Giombini’s music explores many different genres throughout its duration and jumps between moods constantly. However the music never gets distracting since everything seems to be a part of a larger painting. The saloon piano returns of course in a cheery way in Seq. 3, 16, and in Seq. 13 it plays one of the film’s secondary themes. That love theme is heard fully in Seq.5 which is a violin-banjo duet in waltz tempo, a pretty little tune. The choral voices are utilized better here than in the preceding scores, for instance Seq. 4 has hissing and whispering voices shouting the name “Sabata”, and in Seq. 14 they offer a short snippet of church choir realness. The Gothic organ returns in Seq. 7 and it’s even more furious and judgmental than in the first film. In the following cue the organ is combined to tribal drum rhythms and shouting choral voices in an entertaining, over-the-top manner.

The suspenseful aspects of the story are introduced in Seq. 10 with echoing flute effects which resolve to bass clarinets and tremolo strings. In the middle of Seq. 11 a secondary, cool, jazzy electric guitar theme is heard for the first time and after a banjo interlude it returns in a full, menacing fashion combined to choral voices. The fullest statement of this idea is Seq. 12 which starts with marimbas, then introduces the melody with strings and keyboards and later turns into a psychedelic moment of terror for jazz flute, choir and the guitar. It’s probably my favourite cue in the whole score. Variations of the guitar theme are combined to tribal ‘pom-pom’ rhythms, comedic main theme statements and abstract bass clarinet tunes in Seq. 15. The score concludes to Seq. 17 which starts with a pastiche of Händel’s Hallelujah-choir before some suspense moments for percussion and Jew’s harp, and finally some jazzy reprises of the guitar theme.

The score for the last film may not be as polished as the one by Nicolai but I had the most fun with this one compared to all the others. It is cheesy for sure, but made me crack a smile several times during the album so it has to be doing something right. The constant surprises of different styles and inventive orchestrations combined to a killer secondary theme make this my favourite of the three Sabata scores.

Rating: ****


Tracklist:
1. È tornato Sabata... hai chiuso un'altra volta (Titoli - Seq. 1) (02:12) *****
2. È tornato Sabata... hai chiuso un'altra volta (Seq. 2) (02:10) ****
3. È tornato Sabata... hai chiuso un'altra volta (Seq. 3) (01:22) ****
4. È tornato Sabata... hai chiuso un'altra volta (Seq. 4) (01:25) *****
5. È tornato Sabata... hai chiuso un'altra volta (Seq. 5) (02:37) ****
6. È tornato Sabata... hai chiuso un'altra volta (Seq. 6) (01:25) ****
7. È tornato Sabata... hai chiuso un'altra volta (Seq. 7) (02:14) *****
8. È tornato Sabata... hai chiuso un'altra volta (Seq. 8) (01:12) *****
9. È tornato Sabata... hai chiuso un'altra volta (Seq. 9) (01:59) ****
10. È tornato Sabata... hai chiuso un'altra volta (Seq. 10) (01:29) ****
11. È tornato Sabata... hai chiuso un'altra volta (Seq. 11) (03:50) ****
12. È tornato Sabata... hai chiuso un'altra volta (Seq. 12) (02:44) *****
13. È tornato Sabata... hai chiuso un'altra volta (Seq. 13) (02:36) *****
14. È tornato Sabata... hai chiuso un'altra volta (Seq. 14) (00:54) ****
15. È tornato Sabata... hai chiuso un'altra volta (Seq. 15) (02:06) *****
16. È tornato Sabata... hai chiuso un'altra volta (Seq. 16) (02:26) ****
17. È tornato Sabata... hai chiuso un'altra volta (Seq. 17) (03:59) *****
18. È tornato Sabata... hai chiuso un'altra volta (Finale - Seq. 18) (04:23) ****

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