Per un pugno nell' occhio

Digitmovies wants to pay homage to four great personalities of Italian Cinema who are sadly not with us anymore: composer and musician Francesco De Masi, director Michele Lupo and comedy actors Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia. The integration of their splendour can be discovered in the Spaghetti Westerm “Per un pugno nell’occhio”, a delicious parody of Sergio Leone’s classic “Per un pugno di dollari”. It is the very first time that this music appears on CD, a true discographical rarity! We are releasing Francesco De Masi’s music with a great joy, thanks again to the friends at C.A.M. in whose archives the original mono master (36:00) of the undiscoverable album (C.A.M. CDR 33-11) issued in 1965 in very limited quantities has survived. This 33 r.p.m. record was considered to be an urban legend since rumours have always been around about its non-existence. The record is actually exist (as a proof we present its cover in the memorabilia section on page 3), but important is that now this extremely rare score is available in the CD market for the pleasure of collectors and fans of the Italian Western. M° De Masi composed and conducted an orchestral comment alternating between dramatic and comical passages enriched with delicious morriconian citations typical for the cult Leone movies. The record opens with gun shoots (reprising the opening credits style characteristic for some Leone westerns) that introduce “Titoli”, a funny theme with the great harmonica sound of Franco De Gemini accompanied by jewish’s harp, bell tolls, organ, harpsichord and fast vibe passages, followed by an epic Deguello for trumpet (Tr.1). This theme is reprised in a slower tempo yet with similar orchestration (Tr.2). The main theme, after a funny introduction, is developed in a dramatic and mysterious manner (Tr.3), reprised later in Tr.8. Another renditions of this particular theme include an epic ride for French horns (Tr.11), a joyful version with horns and electric bass (Tr.14), a version between romantic and dramatic (Tr.15), a march-style-version (Tr.16) and lastly a rhythmically-agitated one (Tr.17). The romantic side of the story is emphasized by a sweet theme for violin and orchestra (Tr.4). Francesco De Masi created a very varied score through a series of themes between comic and serious, like a Flamenco (Tr.5), a tango (Tr.6), suspense cues (Tr.7, Tr.18, Tr.19, Tr.20), burlesque music (Tr.12), a stunning Deguello reprising the mythic Morricone style (Tr.13, Tr.22). Another masterpiece from the Silver Age of the Italian Film Music, luckily rescued.