Saturday, June 6, 2020

Who Are Those Composers? ~ Gianfranco Plenizio


Gianfranco Plenizio was born in Sedegliano, Udine, Italy on January 10, 1931. Gianfranco studied piano and composition with Enrico De Angelis Valentini, conducting with Franco Ferrara and Zoltán Peskó. Fundamental to his training were his visits to Luigi Dallapiccola, Bruno Maderna, Hermann Scherchen and Gillo Dorfles, his professor of aesthetics at the University of Trieste.

After starting his activity as a director of opera, he dedicated himself to music for film collaborating, in the two roles of composer and conductor, with prestigious filmmakers including Pietro Germi, Billy Wilder, Renato Castellani, Franco Rosi, Elio Petri, Mario Monicelli, Luigi Comencini, Dino Risi, Ettore Scola, Ermanno Olmi and Federico Fellini - for which he composed the music for the film "E la nave va".

In the meantime he continued his concert activity, both as a pianist and as a conductor. He was the artistic director of the "Incontri Musicali Romani" a contemporary music festival. For almost thirty years he dealt with the despised repertoire of Italian chamber romance, and collected an archive containing about 20,000 vocal passages.

Plenizio wrote several musical scores for the theater, but his main production was film music. He composed the music for thirty films and conducted the orchestra in more than 250.

In 1985 he was awarded the SIAE - International Year of Music award and in 2004 the National Performing Arts Award.

Gianfranco Plenizio died in Rome, Italy on February 7, 2017.


PLENIZIO, Gianfranco (aka Gianfranco Plemizio, G. Ployer) [1/10/1931, Sedegliano, Udine, Italy - 2/7/2017, Rome, Lazio, Italy] – composer, conductor, muscian (piano), essayist.
Garter Colt – 1967 [composer, conductor]
Boot Hill* – 1969 [conductor]
El Puro* – 1969 [conductor]
The Price of Power* – 1969 [conductor]
They Call Me Trinity* – 1970 [conductor]
Bastard Go and Kill* – 1971 [conductor]
Trinity is STILL My Name* – 1971 [conductor]
The Three Musketeers of the West* – 1973 [conductor]
White Fang to the Rescue – 1974 [conductor]
Eh? Who’s Afraid of Zorro!* – 1975 [composer, conductor]
Red Coat – 1975 [conductor]
Spaghetti Western – 1975 [composer]
Zorro* – 1975 [conductor]
Django Strikes Again*- 1987 [composer, conductor]

*Available on CD

No comments:

Post a Comment