[Thor Joachim Haga]

If we include compilations and library music, we must have more film music from Italy than any country other than the U.S. And if our film music accumulation skews slightly to the U.S., that says more about proximity and availability more than anything.

Yes, it’s something I’ve alluded to a couple of times in this thread. I find it fascinating that Italy was such a MASSIVE powerhouse in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Both in regards to film (running the gamut from genre flicks to arthouse cinema) and film scores. Morricone would have been enough in itself, but so many other great composers of the era that have been mentioned in this thread, each of them very prolific. And then the industry falls almost completely into oblivion in the 80s onwards. I mean, there are still some fine Italian films and scores being produced, but it’s largely a parenthesis in comparison. It’s that RISE and FALL thing I find interesting.

So that automatically means a LOT to collect. Not strange that this particular period of Italian film music has such a large amount of dedicated fans.