NOTES OF LOVE

FRANCO PIERSANTI

Rating:

Original Review: It's a common misconception to say that ALL European film music is good. Within certain circles in the film music world, there seems to be a kind of inverted snobbery that maintains that North American film scores are given over to crass commercialism, while European cinema remains a true art form, with true artistic film music to match. To a certain extent I agree: I only need to mention the names Delerue, Jarre or Morricone to prove my point. But, as in all forms of art, there are some thing you care for and some things you don't - and I don't care at all for Franco Piersanti's Notes of Love.

Notes of Love (La Parola Amore Esiste) is a 1998 Italian feature directed by Mimmo Calopresti and starring Valeria Bruni Tedeschi as Angela, a young woman in contemporary Italy looking for some romance to enliven her life. Knowing that her psychoanalyst is physically attracted to her, and despite receiving lots of "friendly" advice from her family, Angela instead begins to fall for Marco (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) the older, divorced violin teacher who lives across the hall. Unfortunately, Marco is himself in love with one of his students, a factor which creates an unfortunate, and seemingly impossible love triangle for all.

The music for Notes of Love is by Italian composer Franco Piersanti, a new name to me, but who at one time acted as Nino Rota's assistant and who has apparently been composing for film since 1976. His work to date includes the award-winning efforts "On My Own", "Il Ladro di Bambini", "Lamerica" and "The Way We Laughed", but he has yet to develop any kind of reputation outside of his native Italy. And, to be honest, I'm less than impressed.

Piersanti's six original cues are almost unnecessarily classical, and consist mostly of a solo performances accompanied by a small string orchestra, playing in pizzicato time, and as a gentle backwash of music. There is no theme to speak of - just a series of instrumental textures and tones that invoke a mood of solemnity and solitude. The violin and piano 'Colpo di Fulmine', a flute in 'La Parola Amore', and the viola and orchestral effects in 'Stati D'Animo' make for pleasant enough tracks, and are technically well composed. But they just seem so bare, so flat and - dare I say it? - depressing, that I dread to think what kind of movie they accompany. It purports to be a love story, but the music suggests more of a tragedy. 'Idea Per Un Tango', which one might expect to be quite lively, is in fact the slowest and dourest of the lot. Only during 'Anagramma Sulla Parola Amore' to the spirits rise at all, and this is due totally to the unexpected introduction of some oddly Thomas Newman-esque percussion stylings in the opening minute of the track.

Several classical selections, ranging from a solo cello performance of Bach's Suite N.1 - Minuetto, to an almost ten-minute suite from Hindemith's Opera 25 round out the album. Although Paul Hindemith is famous in film music for indirectly influencing Danny Elfman's Batman via his opera Mathis de Maler, I have never been a fan of the German's stark, somewhat confrontational compositions. Their inclusion on this album, although appropriate in the context of the film, do nothing for me in terms of improving my enjoyment of the package as a whole.

Pacific Time Entertainment are going to have to start releasing better quality scores than Turbulence II, their last release, and this poor effort, or they are going to find themselves going out of business very soon. I'm sure that Franco Piersanti is a talented man. It's just a shame that they chose this score with which to introduce him to North America. Releasing bad scores that nobody wants to buy from films nobody wants to see is not exactly the most commercially viable way of going about things.

Track Listing: Running Time: 39 minutes 58 seconds

Pacific Time Entertainment PTE-8527-2 (2000)

Music composed and conducted by Franco Piersanti. Performed by Accademia Musicale Italiana. Orchestrations by Franco Piersanti. Featured instrumental soloists Aldo D'Amico and Lisa Green. Album produced by Piero Colasanti.

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