Journal | Archivio d’Annunzio
Journal issue | 4 | 2017
Research Article | Dalla ‘compilazione d’autore’ al ‘poema lirico-sinfonico’
Dalla ‘compilazione d’autore’ al ‘poema lirico-sinfonico’
La musica per la versione sonorizzata di Cabiria (1931)
Abstract
Musical accompaniment of films entered a new era as a dramaturgic practice in 1914, thanks to the world-wide success of Cabiria.
Giovanni Pastrone’s ‘Dannunzian’ film played an important role in the
creation of moving picture orchestras and synchronised scores. Manlio
Mazza’s compiled score paved the way to the comparable orchestral
accompaniment of D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915),
written by Joseph Carl Breil. Nevertheless, scholars have paid
insufficient attention to Mazza’s score, which has been overshadowed by
the famous Sinfonia del fuoco by Ildebrando Pizzetti. The
latter has been frequently associated with the sacrificial scene in the
temple of Moloch and, thus, has been used in modern exhibitions of the
film. Despite this spread interpretation, it is important to note that
Pizzetti did not write his symphony to score this scene. The
misunderstanding leading to this association is due on the one hand to
an aesthetic assumption, perhaps a bias, against the practice of
compiled scores and, on the other, to some incomprehension concerning
the restoration process of this film. In this article I re-examine the
vexata quaestio of the relationship between the film and Pizzetti’s Sinfonia del fuoco, by analysing the 1931 sound reissue of Cabiria,
which featured a newly composed score by Luigi Avitabile and José
Ribas. The latter’s accompaniment of the temple of Moloch scene,
including a chorus and a baritone soloist (as in the Sinfonia del fuoco),
explains beyond any reasonable doubt the origin of the misplacement of
Pizzetti’s piece, and why it has dragged on for so long.
Submitted: Dec. 17, 2016 | Accepted: May 17, 2017 | Published Oct. 5, 2017 | Language: it
Keywords Silent cinema • Early sound cinema • Film music • Musical Dramaturgy
Copyright © 2017 Emilio Sala. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.14277/2421-292X/AdA-4-17-11
