Pino Donaggio
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So I’ve reached Donaggio in my collection walkthrough, some 12-13 albums, I think.
I’ve had a connection to him since the 90s, with bits and bobs entering (and sometimes even leaving) my collection. But I only set out to explore his work after I met him in Ghent in 2012. And when I did, I was struck by his extreme sense of versatility. Such an eclectic approach, and often within the same score itself – from synth to pop to lush orchestral to jazz to everything inbetween.
My favourite probably remains CARRIE, but I have several less-known recommendations as well, some of which I’ll revisit in the “erotica” thread.
What are your favourites?
Not a real expert bu CARRIE is great as are other De Palma scores. I also like:
– DePalma scores in general
– DON’T LOOK NOW
– HERCULES
– THE HOWLING
– TOURIST TRAP
– PIRANHA
– THE BARBARIANS (even or because it is a bit 80s cheesy ;-))I liked Pino Donaggio from the first time I ever noticed his name or music, that was way back in the 1980s when I saw DON’T LOOK NOW for the first time. Incidentally, that was also Donaggio’s first film score. And it’s a favorite to this day. To mention my “top 5” Donaggio scores:
DON’T LOOK NOW
That childlike piano theme alone, in a purposely “child-practice” like performance played by Donaggio himself, is just pure gold.BODY DOUBLE
I really love both the score and the movie; like Thor said, the score is highly eclectic, from lush romantic strings to suspense and synths. The “famous” cue “Telescope” is just like mystery-sleaze turned into music (in the best sense).HERCULES
Pino Donaggio in full blown orchestral fantasy mode… you don’t get to hear that often. The movie is a hoot, with Erector-set monsters, goofy plot, and Donaggio’s music just fully embraces the swashbuckling and adventure.ZELLY AND ME
Haven’t seen the movie (though it is one of the few with David Lynch as an actor), but the music is like a summer afternoon, soft and breezy, with a touch of melancholy. It’s got one of those Donaggio themes that lingers and stays in my head long after I stopped playing the album.DRESSED TO KILL
Of course, all the De Palma collaborations are great and interesting… so at first, I even thought to just lump them all together and say “Donaggio/De Palma”, but if I had to pick one more out of this great collaboration (after BODY DOUBLE), it might as well be DRESSED TO KILL. This might be the quintessential Donaggio/De Palma score.That theme from PASSION (Perversions & Diversions) is wonderful. BODY DOUBLE and BARBARIANS are great too.
That theme from PASSION (Perversions & Diversions) is wonderful.
Sure is. In fact, I love Donaggio’s synth stuff just as much as the orchestral.
There are many to choose from (and there is quite a bit in the three erotica scores that I will share later, in that thread), but here’s another one – the track “Giú dal cielo” from DON CAMILLO (1984). It sounds like a take on TOP GUN, but was actually composed two years earlier:
I like Donaggio’s PASSION a lot too, just like I enjoy all the Donaggio/De Palma collaborations. PASSION is of course heavily influenced by lots of works, most notably Ravel’s Pavane Pavane pour une infante défunte, but also Jon Brion’s MAGNOLIA and Morricone’s THE THING among other things. But Donaggio fuses it all together into one highly listenable album.
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