Who Are Those Composers ~ Carlo Savina

 

Carlo Savina was born on August 2, 1919 and was an Italian composer and conductor who composed, arranged, and conducted music for films-and is especially remembered for being the music director of films such as “The Godfather” (1972), “Amarcord” (1973), and “The Bear” (1988).

Savina came from a musical family—his father was the first clarinet for the orchestra of Italian public radio broadcaster EIAR. Carlo learned the violin as a child and went on to graduate from the Conservatory of Music Giuseppe Verdi in Turin where he studied piano, violin, composition, and conducting. In 1945 he began composing music for radio. Early in his career he was awarded a prize by the Accademia Musicale Chigiana. He started his own orchestra and soon became famous. In 1950 he began composing and arranging music for film. For the next thirty years he composed, arranged, and conducted music for over 200 films and became one of the most prolific, and perhaps underrated, screen and television composers of the 20th century.

Savina composed scores for 30 Euro-westerns and has mostly been overlooked by fans of the genre who would be hard pressed to name a single film score he was responsible for composing. Yet looking over his resume we find some very memorable films such as “A Few Dollars for Django”, “Ringo and His Golden Pistol” (1966), “Vengeance” (1967), “And God Said to Cain” “A Long Ride from Hell” (1968), “The Stranger and the Gunfighter” (1974) and “Comin’ At Ya!” (1980).

Carlo Savina died in Rome on June 23, 2002.

SAVINA, Carlo (aka Herbert Buckman, James Munshin) [8/29/1919, Turin, Piedmont, Italy – 6/21/2002, Rome, Lazio, Italy] – composer, conductor, arranger, songwriter, singer, brother of sound engineer Federico Savina.

Zorro at the Court of Spain - 1962

Bullets and Flesh – 1964 (co)

Outlaw of Red River – 1964 (co)

The Colt is My Law – 1965 (co)

Mutiny at Fort Sharp – 1965

Rebels in Canada – 1965

Dynamite Joe* - 1966

A Few Dollars for Django - 1966

Ringo and His Golden Pistol* - 1966

The Tall Women – 1966 (co)

2 RRRingos from Texas – 1967

Vengeance* - 1967

And God Said to Cain – 1968

Between God, the Devil and a Winchester – 1968

Gun Shy Piluk – 1968

A Long Ride from Hell – 1968

Tierra Brava - 1968

Head or Tails – 1969

Hey Amigo, to Your Death! – 1970

He was Called the Holy Ghost – 1971

The Last Traitor – 1971

Thunder Over El Paso - 1971

An Animal Called Man – 1972

Gunmen and the Holy Ghost – 1972

Jesse and Lester, Two Brothers in a Place Called Trinity – 1972

Kill the Poker Player – 1972

Return of the Holy Ghost – 1972

Trinity & Sartana Those Sons of Bitches – 1972

The Stranger and the Gunfighter - 1974

Comin’ at Ya! - 1980