New British book release - Italian Western – Violent Image – Savage Soundtrack – The Music of Spaghetti Westerns

 

Violent Image – Savage Soundtrack – The Music of Spaghetti Westerns

Author: John Mansell

(2025)

 

Country: England

Language: English

Publisher: ‎ Bear Manor Media

Pages: 212

ASIN: ‎B0F47BKPHH

Available: April 8, 2025

 

Music in an Italian western is far more than a background to the action; the music becomes an important and integral component of the film making process. It elevates and underlines the narrative and adds a new and greater dimension to each storyline. The composer interviews within this book are an insight into the workings of various Maestro’s who were involved with this quirky and innovative genre of films. The interviews were conducted over a period of twenty-five years. As most of the composers are now sadly deceased, it is a valuable and interesting look at how the music worked and the way in which each composer approached the genre.

Composers interviewed included. Alessandro Alessandroni, Piero Piccioni, Franco De Gemini, Franco Micalizzi, Francesco De Masi, Nico Fidenco, Guido, and Maurizio De Angelis, Stelvio Cipriani, Nora Orlandi and others, all of whom contributed original and thematic music to the genre. The book also contains chapters on the songs from the movies and the vocalists who performed them. Biographies of key composers such as Bruno Nicolai, Benedetto Ghiglia, Gianni Ferrio, Gianni Marchetti, Luis Enriquez Bacalov, Riz Ortolani, and many more.

The author John Mansell also discusses the use of music in the gunfight scenes, the screams, squeals, and whistles, which became the trademark of the movies and gives a brief history of the genre and how it was born. John Mansell is a British film music critic, soundtrack collector, and a member of the International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA).