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) ****
