A Pino Donaggio Primer

by John Maher

Pino Donaggio was born in Venezia, Italy, in 1941. He was writing and singing hit tunes on the Italian charts in the 1960s, then began writing film scores for many Italian directors. When director Nicolas Roeg (Walkabout) hired him to score his 1973 thriller, Don't Look Now, I became a fan. His score was both classical and horrifying in sound and structure, and added a depth and intensity to the film that would have been absent without it.

More importantly for Donaggio, director Brian DePalma became a fan, and hired him to score his 1976 blockbuster film, Carrie. What Donaggio did for Don't Look Now, he surpassed with Carrie. Carrie is unique in that it is a horror film, with real elements of true drama. Donaggio's brilliant score never reduces the film to its horror genre roots, and is so connected to DePalma's visuals, that they would be impossible to separate. Of course, any good film score accomplishes this, but Donaggio expertly does so. Take the famous prom sequence for example. DePalma employs all his trademark techniques to tremendous effect; but the scene is solidified by Donaggio's score, which communicates joy, tension, love and horror so well, that you could almost believe that DePalma directed the scene to match the score. Donaggio's trademark is his robust use of the orchestra's entire string section, and in Carrie, it is used to awesome effect.

The DePalma/Donaggio combination also worked well in Body Double, Home Movies and Raising Cain. He wrote another involving and sweeping score for DePalma's Blow Out. However, Donaggio's true masterpiece is DePalma's psychological thriller, Dressed to Kill. For me, there is no better example of superb film scoring than this. Like Carrie, it expertly combines visuals with music, creating a most satisfying effect. But Dressed to Kill presented Donaggio with far greater challenges than any of his films before it. He is called upon to score tremendously long sequences, without dialogue, and what he created, is sheer genius. The scene in the museum is almost 10 minutes long, followed by an equally long scene, both void of any dialogue. Most of these two scenes are accompanied by Donaggio's beautiful, lush score. The music alone, serves to put us and keep us on edge, because it speaks to the dread that is to come. Detached from DePalma's manipulative visuals, "The Museum" and "The Note" are extremely listen-able pieces. The unbearably suspenseful dream sequence, at the film's end, is equally riveting. In between, we are treated to dead-on perfect scoring. I would claim Donaggio's Dressed to Kill as the perfect film score. DePalma himself said of Donaggio: "Pino Donaggio is always able to find out musical solutions of suspense, like no one else could ever do, nevertheless maintaining that genial touch of sweetness and lyricism so necessary to my films."

Pino Donaggio has been, unfairly, I think, compared to Bernard Hermann. Since Bernard Hermann was a prolific and innovative composer, his influence has been heard in almost every composer who has come along since. However, apart from scoring films that have long, uninterrupted sequences, I have always failed to see or hear the comparison. I believe that Donaggio has been lumped into the equally unfair comparison of DePalma to Hitchcock. While I believe that DePalma's writing has been strongly influenced by his obvious obsession for both Vertigo and Rear Window, his directing style couldn't be more different from Hitchcock's. Hitchcock, for example, has never been known to employ slow motion or split screen, practically trademarks of DePalma. However, he and Donaggio have been criticized for being Hitchcock and Hermann rip-offs--an opinion I simply cannot share.

Donaggio's non DePalma works, Backlash, A Fine Romance, Zelly and Me, Tex and The Howling, to name only a few, are all fine examples of seamlessly blending the appropriate music to the action on the screen. I strongly recommend discovering Pino Donaggio, by listening to his music, for yourself. Better yet, watch a film that he has scored, and hear what great film scoring is all about.

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