It makes no sense on any level unless there is no licensing fee and even then what kind of profit would you make? A grand? Two? Me no comprehend.
They seem to release around 4 titles per month, so if it's just one person (the label owner) and everything else is contracted out, then a profit of 1 or 2 grand a month may be sufficient for someone to live on, depending on their circumstances (e.g. no mortgage or other debts, or receiving additional income such as pension or investment dividends).
They seem to release around 4 titles per month, so if it's just one person (the label owner) and everything else is contracted out, then a profit of 1 or 2 grand a month may be sufficient for someone to live on, depending on their circumstances
You seem to forget that Quartet during the last few years has also released many much "bigger" US titles by composers like Barry, Goldsmith, Jarre, Mancini, Schifrin, Silvestri etc. - and not to forget Morricone! - which were of course not limited to only 300 units, but mostly had a run of at least 1000 and even often got sold out. They have built up a solid reputation among collectors also in the USA with such titles. So you just can´t compare this small ROGOPAG CD with all those other titles where you may get a profit and which automatically will attract a much larger worldwide audience among soundtrack collectors. Something like this current Rustichelli title is possible for them because they have made some profit with other titles. That´s how it works in the end.
Is Group of Sugar GIVING these titles for free? Seriously. It makes no sense on any level unless there is no licensing fee and even then what kind of profit would you make? A grand? Two? Me no comprehend.
Based upon Stefan's subsequent posts, these types of archival vintage recordings are being issued onto discs for preservation against oblivion ... and not for any profit gain but more so for the love for the musical material.
This makes sense to me, haineshisway - not with respect to commerce, though. A few of us (whether album producers or couch potato connoisseurs) fancy ourselves as arbiters of taste (good or acquired). We've been listeners of film music for decades and we intuit that which has value/worth - musical values and musical worth, that is, not price tags. We learn of the existence of master tapes languishing (in estates and such) and in need of restoration - until there is an interest expressed by an album producer, after which the preservation process commences.
99% of the human race may care neither about these sound elements nor their musical content, but there are a few of us who still do - maybe around 300 of us folks willing to pay for albums such as this.
SchiffyM might not purchase this one (perhaps Rustichelli to him sounds worse than a Tiomkin score), but maybe David "MMM" Schecter will buy a Ro.Go.Pa.G ...
The sad reality is italian western fans and italian music collectors are dying. Even the youngest fans when they came out would be in their 60s and 70s now. We/they are a dwindling number.
Hey, BillCarson - I'm still age 49 for one more month. Don't kill me off just yet.
I had to suffer through this movie in college for a elective class on film studies. I laughed most of the way through the movie as did most of the class. Our teacher was upset because it was one of his favorite movies. I can understand why there will only be 300 CD sold after refreshing my memory with the music samples.
If most students in a class on film studies laughed at Ro.Go.Pa.G, then think of how many young(er) people (who are not studying cinema) would react in a similar manner. This is likely a generational situation, with younger generations unsympathetic towards the cinema and music dating from the time periods of their grandparents.
While we all should realize that the post-production process on Italian films made during that era (the looping of dialogue, lapses in continuity, etc.) are not at the levels of the current high-definition standards, we - as viewers - should nevertheless attempt to imagine ourselves as one amongst the theatre audiences of those times. Likewise with music. Imagine living in 1962 with the 'twist' being the pop music rage at that time.
I am in sympathy with your classroom teacher, Kim Peterson. My tastes align with his own, and I can only feel sad that students of international cinema can be so insular regarding art created prior to their own lifetimes.
Ro.Go.Pa.G is not "bad" cinema; watching it should not cause suffering. Perhaps the suffering was induced by your own intolerance?
Have listened to the samples a number of times at first thought some of the tracks might be a bit to whimsical for my taste, much of it has already won me over. The timing is impeccable on a number of the tracks just the sort of sound I crave from the era.
Its refreshing that italian westerns and italian film music has won some younger collectors over who were werent born when GBU came out, but as a rule, most fans of italian film scores are older (or gone).
Why not? The music is often used in a deliberately grotesque way for example in the brilliant Pasolini episode "La ricotta". And it was Pasolini´s clear intention to emphasize the ruptures between music and image, to use music as a contrasting device in most cases. Just think of the sacred paintings which get re-enacted on the set where Orson Welles is the director and where then at first the wrong music - the twist music - is played instead of the sacred one. Of course, this is very funny and was also the director´s (and composer´s) intention. Or the use of the "La Traviata" aria in a slapstick manner. So why not laugh in such scenes? It is really refreshing how all of this source music is used in the movie itself.
Why not? The music is often used in a deliberately grotesque way for example in the brilliant Pasolini episode "La ricotta". And it was Pasolini´s clear intention to emphasize the ruptures between music and image, to use music as a contrasting device in most cases. Just think of the sacred paintings which get re-enacted on the set where Orson Welles is the director and where then at first the wrong music - the twist music - is played instead of the sacred one. Of course, this is very funny and was also the director´s (and composer´s) intention. Or the use of the "La Traviata" aria in a slapstick manner. So why not laugh in such scenes? It is really refreshing how all of this source music is used in the movie itself.
I guess I did not say it right. We were not laughing because the movie was funny. The music was making us laugh because it was terrible and it was embarrassing sitting there having to listen to it as we watched.
I guess I did not say it right. We were not laughing because the movie was funny. The music was making us laugh because it was terrible and it was embarrassing sitting there having to listen to it as we watched.
Thanks for the clarification, but the passive aggression came through loud and clear. IMHO.
I guess I did not say it right. We were not laughing because the movie was funny. The music was making us laugh because it was terrible and it was embarrassing sitting there having to listen to it as we watched.
Ok, I can understand that the various twist and slapstick music tracks typical of the early 60s did not appeal to you in any way. No problem. But if you write that the music of the entire movie was terrible, then it seems that also the classical excerpts from the Beethoven string quartets in the Godard episode "Le nouveau monde" - and Godard uses only Beethoven in that episode and nothing else - or the sacral baroque pieces now and then used by Pasolini (Scarlatti, Tommaso de Celano) made you laugh - and there I really can´t follow you anymore.
I am too young to be a fan of twist, but somehow I think it works well to show of the mood of the period. Quite a few European soundtracks from the early 60s have such music -- and I've never had issues with that. It is a bit more problematic when the only thing released from a movie is a 7" single with two takes on a twist. It doesn't really give an idea of the music of the film, but neither most 7" soundtrack releases.
That said, after listening to the samples, I'm all in for RoGoPaG!
It is a bit more problematic when the only thing released from a movie is a 7" single with two takes on a twist. It doesn't really give an idea of the music of the film, but neither most 7" soundtrack releases.
In this case, the old rare CAM 7" EP which had 6 tracks with about 13 minutes represented all those pieces which Rustichelli had especially written for the film very well. Keep in mind that the score contains almost no regular dramatic underscore as usual by Rustichelli, but almost only diegetic/source music tracks which are played or danced to within the film itself. Therefore his credit in the film is also not as otherwise "composer", but only "musical coordinator". What you get in addition on the CD now are either just alternate takes/versions of the EP tracks or Rustichelli´s adaptations above all of the two opera arias (in a quite grotesque manner) and of the Dies Irae motif which is quite unusually played in the film by an accordion.
Worth checking to see if you have a good copy of Rogopag ordered a copy from Amazon back in April which had a flaw on the play side of the disc which effected track 6. would not play through.
Have been very busy with things and have not had a lot of time for listening to my cds especially all the way through, Thought maybe it was just the cd player that was at error at the time but that was not the case.
Received a replacement that also had flaw on play side track 6. again third time unlucky replacement had flaw on play side in a different area this time track 2 would not play. Amazon was good enough to send replacements and ended up giving me a refund when they had no copies left in stock. The flaw is hard to see but under really good light holding the cd at correct angle you can see the flaws that cause a tiny shadow which must have caused the errors in playback.
Emailed Quartet but never heard back from them.
Have just Ordered a copy from Quartet hopefully it will have a good disc inside.
Worth checking to see if you have a good copy of Rogopag ordered a copy from Amazon back in April which had a flaw on the play side of the disc which effected track 6. would not play through.
Have been very busy with things and have not had a lot of time for listening to my cds especially all the way through, Thought maybe it was just the cd player that was at error at the time but that was not the case.
Received a replacement that also had flaw on play side track 6. again third time unlucky replacement had flaw on play side in a different area this time track 2 would not play. Amazon was good enough to send replacements and ended up giving me a refund when they had no copies left in stock. The flaw is hard to see but under really good light holding the cd at correct angle you can see the flaws that cause a tiny shadow which must have caused the errors in playback.
Emailed Quartet but never heard back from them.
Have just Ordered a copy from Quartet hopefully it will have a good disc inside.
RoGoPaG! I have a flawed disc also WoW. Ordered direct from Quartet, they didn't reply to my email either, maybe all the copies pressed are flawed! Hope you get a flawless copy. Seems there are some poor quality pressing plants about, we are in the "cheapo" vinyl era of CD these days. Unfortunate for Quartet too. I hope there are flawless pressings of RoGoPaG out there somewhere.
RoGoPaG! I have a flawed disc also WoW. Ordered direct from Quartet, they didn't reply to my email either, maybe all the copies pressed are flawed! Hope you get a flawless copy. Seems there are some poor quality pressing plants about, we are in the "cheapo" vinyl era of CD these days. Unfortunate for Quartet too. I hope there are flawless pressings of RoGoPaG out there somewhere.
Ah Hopefully Quartet will be able to replace bad copies likely just a bad batch of discs that had been used at the pressing plant.
Will post another message to let you know if I receive a good or a bad disc from Quartet.
I pre-ordered RoGoPaG from Screen Archives and when I received it, I burned it to my hard drive in FLAC files (as is my routine) and have listened to it many times -- did not have any trouble burning and have not noticed any flaws while listening.
Today, because of the comments here, I listened through the actual CD disc twice, once on my (circa 1996?) Technics SL-PG100 CD player, and once on my Sony CDP-CE375 5-disc player (circa 2004?). Both of these players are rather temperamental, but the disc played just fine -- just wanted to share that there are good copies out there. It sounds like it may be a problem with the pressing (or damaged discs) rather than a mastering error.
I do enjoy this one -- 1960s soundtracks with "twist" or "shake" numbers are always a quick purchase for me. I was surprised to hear Giovanni Fusco's "Eclisse Twist" on here. I've run into this song in a number of versions on various discs -- maybe this was a popular tune back in the day?
I was surprised to hear Giovanni Fusco's "Eclisse Twist" on here. I've run into this song in a number of versions on various discs -- maybe this was a popular tune back in the day?
Yes, it was. The "Eclisse Twist" single sung by Mina (released on the Italdisc label) even climbed up on number 12 of the top-selling records in Italy in 1962.
