John Mansell, the author of Italian Western. Violent Image, Savage Soundtrack talks to James Anthony Phillips about writing the book and his love of the genre and its music.
James Anthony Phillips is an adjunct lecturer at several New York City universities and is a freelance journalist specializing in film and music.
James Anthony Phillips.
Why were you interested in Italian Westerns and not American? What are the differences in cinematic approach?
John Mansell.
Like so many people, I too was interested in American westerns. I enjoyed films such as The Big Country, Shane, The Magnificent Seven, and Vera Cruz etc. The Italian western came along at a time when I suppose I was discovering my own likes and dislikes, and I was drawn to it because it was just different from the Hollywood western. The settings and the camera work were different, but mostly it was the music that attracted me. Most American westerns had good guys and bad guys, whereas an Italian western had the same but the good guys were just as bad as the villains. Maybe that was the attraction. There were no heroes.
J.A.P. Musically, the Italian music scores were distinctly European and more pop-flavored, post-modernistic, and more experimental than traditional American scores.
JM. Yes, I agree with that observation, the Italian western used electric guitar, choir, grunts, screams, whips and rifle butts cracking, whistling, solo trumpet passages, and later soaring female vocals. A very different approach from say Steiner, Moross, and Bernstein. The Italian western score also employed traditional western film instrumentation as in Harmonica, but in the hands of Morricone or Nicolai it took on a more chilling persona.
J.A.P. Name your top three composers and why?
JM. Number one has to be Morricone, because it was he who first attracted me to Italian western scores, his inventive and original compositions were, and still are important.
It’s difficult to say really which composer comes closest to Morricone for me, as there are so many Maestros who along with Morricone created the sound that we all associate with the Italian western. I would probably say Francesco de Masi, because of the way he fused the style of the spaghetti western with the more conventional styles of composers like Tiomkin, Steiner, and Bernstein. De Masi combined that pop orientated style of the Spaghetti western with melodic sounding strings and dramatic brass, which I liked a lot.
Number three Would have to be Alessandro Alessandroni, because he was not just a composer, but a performer, and if it were not for his distinctive whistle and flawless guitar playing on various soundtracks, I think the sound of the Italian western and indeed Italian cinema would not have evolved in the way it did.
But all the composers involved with the genre contributed great soundtracks, Nora Orlandi, Nico Fidenco, Stelvio Cipriani, Piero Piccioni, the list is endless.
J.A.P. Do you feel Italian Western music scores were more emotional in tone to other types of Italian films?
JM. No not really, I think that they were more raw and savage sounding. They had to be to match the images and the storylines. They were also quirky, even odd at times. But there were rare glimpses of emotion, such as in the Good the Bad and the Ugly, with the track The Story of a Soldier. The lyrics are poignant and its almost like a lullaby, telling us of the futility of war. In Once Upon a Time in the West, Morricone creates a rich and romantic sounding theme that accompanies Jill the lead female character. It is as if Morricone is paying homage to the old western films from Hollywood with his sweeping and lyrical theme. It’s a theme that gives us hope, as in the film we see the old west and its ways fading out, as the railway brings civilization, and gunfighters like Harmonica, Frank, and Cheyenne head off into the distance. There is also the Gunfight scenarios, the music becoming integral to the scene in most cases. Morricone was a master at this, and the music elevated the situation on screen to new heights of excitement and anticipation. It was like a bolero of death, the music punctuating the tense moments, until the final shot rings out.
J.A.P. What was your impetus in writing this book?
JM. It was something I wanted to do for a long time, ever since I read Italian western the opera of Violence, by Laurence Staig. I used to read that all the time, but it only had composer biographies, so I thought a book about the genres music with interviews as well as biographies would be great. I had met and interviewed a number of composers in Italy and England and decided to put it all together. I hope its something that can be used as a reference about the music from the genre, and a guide to how the composers approached the films. It took a while to get it all published, mainly because I didn’t think anyone would be interested in it. But the interviews are probably now even more appealing and valuable as many of the composers have sadly passed away.