Dalla ‘compilazione d’autore’ al ‘poema lirico-sinfonico’

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DC Field	Value
dc.identifier	ECF_article_1218
dc.title	Dalla ‘compilazione d’autore’ al ‘poema lirico-sinfonico’. La musica per la versione sonorizzata di Cabiria (1931)
dc.contributor.author	Sala Emilio
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing
dc.type	Research Article
dc.language.iso	it
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.it/en/edizioni4/riviste/archivio-dannunzio/2017/1/dalla-compilazione-dautore-al-poema-lirico-sinfoni/
dc.description.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.
dc.relation.ispartof	Archivio d’Annunzio
dc.relation.ispartof	Vol. 4 \| October 2017
dc.issued	2017-10-05
dc.dateAccepted	2017-05-17
dc.dateSubmitted	2016-12-17
dc.identifier.issn
dc.identifier.eissn	2421-292X
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.identifier.doi	10.14277/2421-292X/AdA-4-17-11
dc.peer-review	yes
dc.subject	Early sound cinema
dc.subject	Early sound cinema
dc.subject	Film music
dc.subject	Film music
dc.subject	Musical Dramaturgy
dc.subject	Musical Dramaturgy
dc.subject	Silent cinema
dc.subject	Silent cinema

Research Article
open access peer reviewed

La musica per la versione sonorizzata di Cabiria (1931)

Emilio Sala Università degli Studi di Milano, Italia

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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.

Published

Oct. 5, 2017

Accepted

May 17, 2017

Submitted

Dec. 17, 2016

Language

Keywords: Silent cinema • Musical Dramaturgy • Early sound cinema • Film music

permalink http://doi.org/10.14277/2421-292X/AdA-4-17-11

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.

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