Nino Rota: Difference between revisions
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{{Short description|Italian composer (1911–1979)}} |
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{{Infobox person |
{{Infobox person |
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| name = Nino Rota |
| name = Nino Rota |
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| image = Nino Rota |
| image = Nino Rota.jpg |
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| image_size = |
| image_size = |
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| caption = |
| caption = Rota in 1976 |
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| birth_name = Giovanni Rota Rinaldi |
| birth_name = Giovanni Rota Rinaldi |
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| birth_date = 3 December 1911 |
| birth_date = 3 December 1911 |
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| birth_place = [[Milan]], Italy |
| birth_place = [[Milan]], [[Kingdom of Italy]] |
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| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1979|4|10|1911|12|3}} |
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1979|4|10|1911|12|3}} |
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| death_place = [[Rome]], Italy |
| death_place = [[Rome]], Italy |
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| children = Nina Rota |
| children = Nina Rota |
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| awards = |
| awards = |
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| website = {{URL| |
| website = {{URL|ninorota.com}} |
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}} |
}} |
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⚫ | '''Giovanni Rota Rinaldi''' ({{IPA-it|dʒoˈvanni ˈrɔːta riˈnaldi|lang}}; 3 December 1911 – 10 April 1979), better known as '''Nino Rota''' ({{IPA-it| |
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⚫ | '''Giovanni Rota Rinaldi''' ({{IPA-it|dʒoˈvanni ˈrɔːta riˈnaldi|lang}}; 3 December 1911 – 10 April 1979),<ref name="LarkinGE">{{cite book|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]|editor=[[Colin Larkin (writer)|Colin Larkin]]|publisher=[[Guinness Publishing]]|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-939-0|page=2149}}</ref> better known as '''Nino Rota''' ({{IPA-it|ˈniːno|IPA}}), was an Italian [[composer]], pianist, conductor and academic who is best known for his [[film score]]s, notably for the films of [[Federico Fellini]] and [[Luchino Visconti]]. He also composed the music for two of [[Franco Zeffirelli]]'s [[List of William Shakespeare screen adaptations|Shakespeare screen adaptations]], and for the first two installments of [[Francis Ford Coppola]]'s [[The Godfather (film series)|''The Godfather'' trilogy]], earning the [[Academy Award for Best Original Score]] for ''[[The Godfather Part II]]'' (1974).<ref name="Revoked Oscars">{{cite web |url=https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/73722/8-oscar-nominations-were-revoked |title=9 Oscar Nominations That Were Revoked|work=MentalFloss.com |first=Rudie|last=Obias|date=February 23, 2019|access-date=June 1, 2020}}</ref> |
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⚫ | During his long career, Rota was an extraordinarily prolific composer, especially of music for the cinema. He wrote more than 150 scores for Italian and international productions from the 1930s until his death in 1979 — an average of three scores each year over a 46-year period, and in his most productive period from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s he wrote as many as ten scores every year, and sometimes more, with a remarkable thirteen film scores to his credit in 1954. Alongside this great body of film work, he composed ten [[opera]]s, five [[ballet]]s and dozens of other orchestral, choral and chamber works, the best known being his string concerto. He also composed the music for many theatre productions by Visconti, Zeffirelli and [[Eduardo De Filippo]]<ref name="NinoRota.com - Biography">{{ |
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⚫ | During his long career, Rota was an extraordinarily prolific composer, especially of music for the cinema. He wrote more than 150 scores for Italian and international productions from the 1930s until his death in 1979 — an average of three scores each year over a 46-year period, and in his most productive period from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s he wrote as many as ten scores every year, and sometimes more, with a remarkable thirteen film scores to his credit in 1954. Alongside this great body of film work, he composed ten [[opera]]s, five [[ballet]]s and dozens of other orchestral, choral and chamber works, the best known being his string concerto. He also composed the music for many theatre productions by Visconti, Zeffirelli and [[Eduardo De Filippo]]<ref name="NinoRota.com - Biography">{{Cite web|url=http://www.ninorota.com/|title=Nino Rota Music Catalogue|website=Ninorota.com|access-date=8 October 2021}}</ref> as well as maintaining a long teaching career at the Liceo Musicale in [[Bari]], Italy, where he was the director for almost 30 years. |
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==Early career== |
==Early career== |
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[[File:Nino_Rota_1923.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Rota at age 12]] |
[[File:Nino_Rota_1923.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Rota at age 12]] |
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Rota was born Giovanni Rota Rinaldi on 3 December 1911, into a musical family in [[Milan]]. Rota was a renowned child prodigy — his first ''[[oratorio]]'', ''L'infanzia di San Giovanni Battista'', was written at age 11<ref>Nicholas Slonimsky, ''The Concise Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Composers and Musicians'' (Simon & Schuster, London, 1988, {{ISBN|0-671-69896-6}}), p. 1063</ref> and performed in Milan and Paris as early as 1923; his three-act lyrical comedy after [[Hans Christian Andersen]], ''Il Principe Porcaro'', was composed when he was just 13 and published in 1926. He studied at the Milan conservatory there under [[Giacomo Orefice]]<ref name="NinoRota.com - Biography"/> and then undertook serious study of composition under [[Ildebrando Pizzetti]] and [[Alfredo Casella]] at the [[Santa Cecilia |
Rota was born Giovanni Rota Rinaldi on 3 December 1911, into a musical family in [[Milan]], Italy.<ref name="LarkinGE"/> Rota was a renowned child prodigy — his first ''[[oratorio]]'', ''L'infanzia di San Giovanni Battista'', was written at age 11<ref>Nicholas Slonimsky, ''The Concise Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Composers and Musicians'' (Simon & Schuster, London, 1988, {{ISBN|0-671-69896-6}}), p. 1063</ref> and performed in Milan and Paris as early as 1923; his three-act lyrical comedy after [[Hans Christian Andersen]], ''Il Principe Porcaro'', was composed when he was just 13 and published in 1926. He studied at the Milan conservatory there under [[Giacomo Orefice]]<ref name="NinoRota.com - Biography"/> and then undertook serious study of composition under [[Ildebrando Pizzetti]] and [[Alfredo Casella]] at the [[Conservatorio Santa Cecilia]] in [[Rome]], graduating in 1930.<ref name="Slonimsky, p. 1063">Slonimsky, p. 1063</ref> |
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Encouraged by [[Arturo Toscanini]], Rota moved to the United States where he lived from 1930 to 1932. He won a scholarship to the [[Curtis Institute]] of [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|Philadelphia]], where he was taught conducting by [[Fritz Reiner]] and had [[Rosario Scalero]] as an instructor in composition.<ref name="Slonimsky, p.1063"/> Returning to Milan, he wrote a thesis on the [[Renaissance music|Renaissance]] composer [[Gioseffo Zarlino]]. Rota earned a degree in literature from the University of Milan, graduating in 1937, and began a teaching career that led to the directorship of the Liceo Musicale in [[Bari, Italy|Bari]], a title he held from 1950 until 1978.<ref name="Slonimsky, p.1063"/> |
Encouraged by [[Arturo Toscanini]], Rota moved to the United States, where he lived from 1930 to 1932. He won a scholarship to the [[Curtis Institute]] of [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|Philadelphia]], where he was taught conducting by [[Fritz Reiner]] and had [[Rosario Scalero]] as an instructor in composition.<ref name="Slonimsky, p. 1063"/> Returning to Milan, he wrote a thesis on the [[Renaissance music|Renaissance]] composer [[Gioseffo Zarlino]]. Rota earned a degree in literature from the University of Milan, graduating in 1937, and began a teaching career that led to the directorship of the Liceo Musicale in [[Bari, Italy|Bari]], a title he held from 1950 until 1978.<ref name="Slonimsky, p. 1063"/> |
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==Film scores== |
==Film scores== |
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Nino Rota wrote |
Nino Rota wrote scores to more than 150 films. These included the score for ''[[The Glass Mountain (1949 film)|The Glass Mountain]]'' in 1949,<ref name="LarkinGE"/> which was notable for the singing of [[Tito Gobbi]]. The film won a number of awards. |
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In his entry on Rota in the 1988 edition of ''The Concise Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Composers and Musicians'', music scholar [[Nicolas Slonimsky]] described him as "brilliant" and stated that his musical style: |
In his entry on Rota in the 1988 edition of ''The Concise Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Composers and Musicians'', music scholar [[Nicolas Slonimsky]] described him as "brilliant" and stated that his musical style: |
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{{quote| |
{{quote|demonstrates a great facility and even felicity, with occasional daring excursions into [[dodecaphony]]. However, his most durable compositions are related to his music for the cinema; he composed the soundtracks of a great number of films by the Italian director Federico Fellini covering the period from 1950 to 1979.<ref name="Slonimsky, p. 1063"/>}} |
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One of Rota's compositional habits, however, came up for disapproving remarks: his penchant for pastiche of various past styles, which quite often turned into outright quotation of his own earlier music or even others' music. One of the most noticed examples of such incorporation is his use of the ''[[Larghetto]]'' from [[Antonín Dvořák|Dvorák]]'s [[Serenade for Strings (Dvořák)|''Serenade for Strings in E major'']] as a theme for a character in Fellini's ''[[La Strada]]''.<ref>''[[AllMusic]]''. [http://www.allmusic.com/composition/le-moli%C3%A8re-imaginaire-ballet-suite-for-orchestra-mc0002489811 Nino Rota - ''Le Molière imaginaire'', ballet suite for orchestra]</ref> |
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During the 1940s, Rota composed scores for more than 32 films, including [[Renato Castellani]]'s ''{{Interlanguage link multi|Zaza (1944 film)|it|3=Zazà (film 1944)|lt=Zaza}}'' (1944). His association with Fellini began with ''[[Lo |
During the 1940s, Rota composed scores for more than 32 films, including [[Renato Castellani]]'s ''{{Interlanguage link multi|Zaza (1944 film)|it|3=Zazà (film 1944)|lt=Zaza}}'' (1944). His association with Fellini began with ''[[Lo Sceicco Bianco]] ([[The White Sheik]])'' (1952), followed by ''[[I Vitelloni]]'' (1953) and ''[[La Strada]] (The Road)'' (1954).<ref name="LarkinGE"/> They continued to work together for decades, and Fellini recalled: |
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{{quote|The most precious collaborator I have ever had, I say it straightaway and don't even have to hesitate, was Nino Rota — between us, immediately, a complete, total, harmony ... He had a geometric imagination, a musical approach worthy of celestial spheres. He thus had no need to see images from my movies. When I asked him about the melodies he had in mind to comment one sequence or another, I clearly realized he was not concerned with images at all. His world was inner, inside himself, and reality had no way to enter it.<ref>[http://www.cadrage.net/films/orchestrarehearsal/orchestrarehearsal.html Rota & Fellini] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101120124900/http://cadrage.net/films/orchestrarehearsal/orchestrarehearsal.html |date=2010-11-20 }}, ''Cadrage'', April/May 2003</ref>}} |
{{quote|The most precious collaborator I have ever had, I say it straightaway and don't even have to hesitate, was Nino Rota — between us, immediately, a complete, total, harmony ... He had a geometric imagination, a musical approach worthy of celestial spheres. He thus had no need to see images from my movies. When I asked him about the melodies he had in mind to comment one sequence or another, I clearly realized he was not concerned with images at all. His world was inner, inside himself, and reality had no way to enter it.<ref>[http://www.cadrage.net/films/orchestrarehearsal/orchestrarehearsal.html Rota & Fellini] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101120124900/http://cadrage.net/films/orchestrarehearsal/orchestrarehearsal.html |date=2010-11-20 }}, ''Cadrage'', April/May 2003</ref>}} |
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The relationship between Fellini and Rota was so strong that |
The relationship between Fellini and Rota was so strong that at Fellini's funeral [[Giulietta Masina]], Fellini's wife, asked trumpeter [[Mauro Maur]] to play Rota's ''Improvviso dell'Angelo'' in the Basilica di [[Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri]] in Rome.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.santamariadegliangeliroma.it/paginamastersing.html?codice_url=fellini_funerali&lingua=ITALIANO&ramo_home=Eventi|title=fellini_funerali ITALIANO | Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri alle Terme di Diocleziano di Roma|website=Santamariadegliangeliroma.it|access-date=8 October 2021}}</ref> |
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Rota's score for Fellini's ''[[8½]]'' (1963) is often cited as one of the factors |
Rota's score for Fellini's ''[[8½]]'' (1963) is often cited as one of the factors that makes the film cohesive. His score for Fellini's ''[[Juliet of the Spirits]]'' (1965) included a collaboration with [[Eugene Walter]] on the song, "Go Milk the Moon" (cut from the final version of the film), and they teamed again for the song "[[Romeo and Juliet 1968 film soundtrack|What Is a Youth?]]", part of Rota's score for [[Franco Zeffirelli]]'s ''[[Romeo and Juliet (1968 film)|Romeo and Juliet]]''. |
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The [[American Film Institute]] ranked Rota's score for ''[[The Godfather]]'' |
The [[American Film Institute]] ranked Rota's score for ''[[The Godfather]]'' number 5 on [[AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores|their list of the greatest film scores]]. After being nominated for an Academy Award for this score, the nomination was later revoked when it was discovered that Rota recycled a theme from a previous score, one he wrote two decades prior for the film ''[[Fortunella (film)|Fortunella]]'' and thus no longer considered original despite being played differently.<ref name="Revoked Oscars"/><ref name="The case of Nino Rota">{{cite web |url=https://www.copyrightuser.org/educate/the-game-is-on/episode-4-case-file-30/|title=30. The Creative Copy|work=copyrightuser.org|date=2 April 2018|access-date= June 1, 2020}}</ref> The nomination was then given to the film ''[[Sleuth (1972 film)|Sleuth]]'', while [[Charlie Chaplin]] and two co-authors for their score featured in ''[[Limelight (1952 film)|Limelight]]'', a 21-year-old film that had just become eligible because it had not been screened in [[Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles]] until 1972, went on to win the award.<ref name="Revoked Oscars"/><ref name="The case of Nino Rota"/> He went on to win an Oscar for his score for ''[[The Godfather Part II]]''. His score for ''[[War and Peace (1956 film)|War and Peace]]'' was also nominated for the list. |
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==Orchestral, chamber and choral music== |
==Orchestral, chamber and choral music== |
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Rota wrote numerous concerti and other orchestral works as well as piano, chamber and choral music, much of which has been recorded and released on CD. After his death from [[congestive heart failure|heart failure]]<ref>{{ |
Rota wrote numerous concerti and other orchestral works as well as piano, chamber and choral music, much of which has been recorded and released on CD. After his death from [[congestive heart failure|heart failure]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nndb.com/people/408/000093129/|title=Nino Rota|website=Nndb.com|access-date=8 October 2021}}</ref> in 1979, Rota's music was the subject of [[Hal Willner]]'s 1981 [[tribute album]] ''[[Amarcord Nino Rota]]'', which featured several jazz musicians who were relatively unknown at the time who went on to become famous. [[Gus Van Sant]] used some of Rota's music in his 2007 film ''[[Paranoid Park (film)|Paranoid Park]]'' and director [[Michael Winterbottom]] used several Rota selections in the 2005 film ''[[A Cock and Bull Story|Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story]]''. [[Danny Elfman]] frequently cites Nino Rota as a major influence (particularly on his scores for the Pee-Wee films). Director [[Mario Monicelli]] filmed a documentary ''Un amico magico: il maestro Nino Rota'' which featured interviews with [[Franco Zeffirelli]] and [[Riccardo Muti]] (a student under Rota at Bari Conservatory), and was followed by a German documentary ''Nino Rota - Un maestro della musica''. Both explored film and concert sides of the composer. |
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==Operas== |
==Operas== |
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Written for a radio production by [[RAI]] in 1950, his short opera, ''[[I due timidi]]'' (''The Two Timid Ones''), was presented by the Santa Fe Opera as part of their pre-season "One-Hour Opera" program in May/June 2008. |
Written for a radio production by [[RAI]] in 1950, his short opera, ''[[I due timidi]]'' (''The Two Timid Ones''), was presented by the Santa Fe Opera as part of their pre-season "One-Hour Opera" program in May/June 2008. |
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==Personal life and death== |
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Rota had one daughter, Nina Rota, from a relationship with pianist Magda Longari.<ref>Lombardi, Francesco, [https://books.google.com/books?id=pNTiZBQ6t2EC&q=longari "Nino Rota: un timido protagonista del Novecento musicale"] (EDT, Torino, 2012, ISBN 9788866397946, 8866397946), p. 189</ref> |
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Rota had one daughter, Nina Rota, from a relationship with pianist Magda Longari.<ref>Videtti, Giuseppe. [http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2014/04/20/amarcordninorota34.html "Amarcord Nino Rota"], ''[[La Repubblica]]'' Milano, 20 April 2014.</ref> |
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==Quotations== |
==Quotations== |
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:Critic: "Do you like playing?" |
:Critic: "Do you like playing?" |
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:Rota: "Whenever I can ... Is it hard to write for a newspaper?" |
:Rota: "Whenever I can ... Is it hard to write for a newspaper?" |
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:Critic: "It's not easy to do a good article" |
:Critic: "It's not easy to do a good article." |
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:Rota: "Have you come from Brussels |
:Rota: "Have you come from Brussels especially to hear my oratorio?" |
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:Critic: "I certainly have, my little friend." |
:Critic: "I certainly have, my little friend." |
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:Rota: "That's really funny. I won't be conducting it tonight. Yesterday the double bass snubbed me" |
:Rota: "That's really funny. I won't be conducting it tonight. Yesterday the double bass snubbed me." |
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On his friendship with [[Igor Stravinsky]]: |
On his friendship with [[Igor Stravinsky]]: |
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==References== |
==References== |
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{{Reflist |
{{Reflist}} |
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==Further reading== |
==Further reading== |
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*Richard Dyer. ''[https://www.amazon.com/Nino-Rota-Music-Film-Feeling/dp/1844572102 Nino Rota: Music, Film, and Feeling]''. New York: Palgrave and Macmillan (on behalf of the British Film Institute), 2010. |
*Richard Dyer. ''[https://www.amazon.com/Nino-Rota-Music-Film-Feeling/dp/1844572102 Nino Rota: Music, Film, and Feeling]''. New York: Palgrave and Macmillan (on behalf of the British Film Institute), 2010. |
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*Franco Sciannameo. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=qTwURkWIfoAC |
*Franco Sciannameo. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=qTwURkWIfoAC Nino Rota's The Godfather Trilogy: A Film Score Guide]''. Scarecrow Press, 2010. |
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*John Simon. ''[http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/rota-simon-2354 The Other Rota]''. The New Criterion, Vol. 34, No. 10 / June 2016 |
*John Simon. ''[http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/rota-simon-2354 The Other Rota]''. The New Criterion, Vol. 34, No. 10 / June 2016 |
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* {{Official website|http://www.ninorota.com/}} |
* {{Official website|http://www.ninorota.com/}} |
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* {{IMDb name|65}} |
* {{IMDb name|65}} |
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* {{Britannica|1394871}} |
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{{Nino Rota}} |
{{Nino Rota}} |
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[[Category:20th-century classical composers]] |
[[Category:20th-century classical composers]] |
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[[Category:20th-century Italian composers]] |
[[Category:20th-century Italian composers]] |
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[[Category:Conservatorio Santa Cecilia alumni]] |
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[[Category:Best Original Music BAFTA Award winners]] |
[[Category:Best Original Music BAFTA Award winners]] |
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[[Category:Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners]] |
[[Category:Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners]] |
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[[Category:Composers for carillon]] |
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[[Category:Curtis Institute of Music alumni]] |
[[Category:Curtis Institute of Music alumni]] |
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[[Category:David di Donatello winners]] |
[[Category:David di Donatello winners]] |
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[[Category:Deaths from coronary thrombosis]] |
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[[Category:Golden Globe Award-winning musicians]] |
[[Category:Golden Globe Award-winning musicians]] |
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[[Category:Grammy Award winners]] |
[[Category:Grammy Award winners]] |
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[[Category:Italian film score composers]] |
[[Category:Italian film score composers]] |
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[[Category:Italian male classical composers]] |
[[Category:Italian male classical composers]] |
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[[Category: |
[[Category:Italian male film score composers]] |
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[[Category: |
[[Category:Composers from Milan]] |
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[[Category:Nastro d'Argento winners]] |
[[Category:Nastro d'Argento winners]] |
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[[Category: |
[[Category:Milan Conservatory alumni]] |
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⚫ |
Revision as of 15:32, 7 July 2024
Nino Rota | |
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![]() Rota in 1976 | |
Born | Giovanni Rota Rinaldi 3 December 1911 |
Died | 10 April 1979 Rome, Italy | (aged 67)
Occupations |
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Children | Nina Rota |
Website | ninorota |
Giovanni Rota Rinaldi (Italian: [dʒoˈvanni ˈrɔːta riˈnaldi]; 3 December 1911 – 10 April 1979),[1] better known as Nino Rota (IPA: [ˈniːno]), was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti. He also composed the music for two of Franco Zeffirelli's Shakespeare screen adaptations, and for the first two installments of Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather trilogy, earning the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Godfather Part II (1974).[2]
During his long career, Rota was an extraordinarily prolific composer, especially of music for the cinema. He wrote more than 150 scores for Italian and international productions from the 1930s until his death in 1979 — an average of three scores each year over a 46-year period, and in his most productive period from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s he wrote as many as ten scores every year, and sometimes more, with a remarkable thirteen film scores to his credit in 1954. Alongside this great body of film work, he composed ten operas, five ballets and dozens of other orchestral, choral and chamber works, the best known being his string concerto. He also composed the music for many theatre productions by Visconti, Zeffirelli and Eduardo De Filippo[3] as well as maintaining a long teaching career at the Liceo Musicale in Bari, Italy, where he was the director for almost 30 years.
Early career
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fd/Nino_Rota_1923.jpg/200px-Nino_Rota_1923.jpg)
Rota was born Giovanni Rota Rinaldi on 3 December 1911, into a musical family in Milan, Italy.[1] Rota was a renowned child prodigy — his first oratorio, L'infanzia di San Giovanni Battista, was written at age 11[4] and performed in Milan and Paris as early as 1923; his three-act lyrical comedy after Hans Christian Andersen, Il Principe Porcaro, was composed when he was just 13 and published in 1926. He studied at the Milan conservatory there under Giacomo Orefice[3] and then undertook serious study of composition under Ildebrando Pizzetti and Alfredo Casella at the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome, graduating in 1930.[5]
Encouraged by Arturo Toscanini, Rota moved to the United States, where he lived from 1930 to 1932. He won a scholarship to the Curtis Institute of Philadelphia, where he was taught conducting by Fritz Reiner and had Rosario Scalero as an instructor in composition.[5] Returning to Milan, he wrote a thesis on the Renaissance composer Gioseffo Zarlino. Rota earned a degree in literature from the University of Milan, graduating in 1937, and began a teaching career that led to the directorship of the Liceo Musicale in Bari, a title he held from 1950 until 1978.[5]
Film scores
Nino Rota wrote scores to more than 150 films. These included the score for The Glass Mountain in 1949,[1] which was notable for the singing of Tito Gobbi. The film won a number of awards.
In his entry on Rota in the 1988 edition of The Concise Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Composers and Musicians, music scholar Nicolas Slonimsky described him as "brilliant" and stated that his musical style:
demonstrates a great facility and even felicity, with occasional daring excursions into dodecaphony. However, his most durable compositions are related to his music for the cinema; he composed the soundtracks of a great number of films by the Italian director Federico Fellini covering the period from 1950 to 1979.[5]
One of Rota's compositional habits, however, came up for disapproving remarks: his penchant for pastiche of various past styles, which quite often turned into outright quotation of his own earlier music or even others' music. One of the most noticed examples of such incorporation is his use of the Larghetto from Dvorák's Serenade for Strings in E major as a theme for a character in Fellini's La Strada.[6]
During the 1940s, Rota composed scores for more than 32 films, including Renato Castellani's Zaza (1944). His association with Fellini began with Lo Sceicco Bianco (The White Sheik) (1952), followed by I Vitelloni (1953) and La Strada (The Road) (1954).[1] They continued to work together for decades, and Fellini recalled:
The most precious collaborator I have ever had, I say it straightaway and don't even have to hesitate, was Nino Rota — between us, immediately, a complete, total, harmony ... He had a geometric imagination, a musical approach worthy of celestial spheres. He thus had no need to see images from my movies. When I asked him about the melodies he had in mind to comment one sequence or another, I clearly realized he was not concerned with images at all. His world was inner, inside himself, and reality had no way to enter it.[7]
The relationship between Fellini and Rota was so strong that at Fellini's funeral Giulietta Masina, Fellini's wife, asked trumpeter Mauro Maur to play Rota's Improvviso dell'Angelo in the Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri in Rome.[8]
Rota's score for Fellini's 8½ (1963) is often cited as one of the factors that makes the film cohesive. His score for Fellini's Juliet of the Spirits (1965) included a collaboration with Eugene Walter on the song, "Go Milk the Moon" (cut from the final version of the film), and they teamed again for the song "What Is a Youth?", part of Rota's score for Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet.
The American Film Institute ranked Rota's score for The Godfather number 5 on their list of the greatest film scores. After being nominated for an Academy Award for this score, the nomination was later revoked when it was discovered that Rota recycled a theme from a previous score, one he wrote two decades prior for the film Fortunella and thus no longer considered original despite being played differently.[2][9] The nomination was then given to the film Sleuth, while Charlie Chaplin and two co-authors for their score featured in Limelight, a 21-year-old film that had just become eligible because it had not been screened in Los Angeles until 1972, went on to win the award.[2][9] He went on to win an Oscar for his score for The Godfather Part II. His score for War and Peace was also nominated for the list.
Orchestral, chamber and choral music
Rota wrote numerous concerti and other orchestral works as well as piano, chamber and choral music, much of which has been recorded and released on CD. After his death from heart failure[10] in 1979, Rota's music was the subject of Hal Willner's 1981 tribute album Amarcord Nino Rota, which featured several jazz musicians who were relatively unknown at the time who went on to become famous. Gus Van Sant used some of Rota's music in his 2007 film Paranoid Park and director Michael Winterbottom used several Rota selections in the 2005 film Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story. Danny Elfman frequently cites Nino Rota as a major influence (particularly on his scores for the Pee-Wee films). Director Mario Monicelli filmed a documentary Un amico magico: il maestro Nino Rota which featured interviews with Franco Zeffirelli and Riccardo Muti (a student under Rota at Bari Conservatory), and was followed by a German documentary Nino Rota - Un maestro della musica. Both explored film and concert sides of the composer.
Operas
His 1955 opera Il cappello di paglia di Firenze (The Florentine Straw Hat) is an adaptation of the play by Eugène Labiche and was presented by the Santa Fe Opera in 1977. In 2005 his opera Aladino e la lampada magica (Aladdin and the Magical Lamp), with Cosmin Ifrim in the title role, was performed in German translation at the Vienna State Opera and released on DVD. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze and Aladino e la lampada magica are regularly staged in Europe as are many symphonic and chamber titles
Written for a radio production by RAI in 1950, his short opera, I due timidi (The Two Timid Ones), was presented by the Santa Fe Opera as part of their pre-season "One-Hour Opera" program in May/June 2008.
Personal life and death
Rota had one daughter, Nina Rota, from a relationship with pianist Magda Longari.[11]
Rota died in Rome on 10 April 1979,[1] aged 67, from a coronary thrombosis.
Quotations
Federico Fellini recalls his first chance meeting with Rota:
- "Outside Cinecittà, I noticed a funny little man waiting in the wrong place for the tram. He seemed happily oblivious of everything. I felt compelled... to wait with him... I was certain that the tram would stop in its regular place and we would have to run for it, and he was equally certain it would stop where he was standing... To my surprise, the tram did stop right in front of us."
A critic conversing with Nino Rota at the age of eleven just prior to a performance of his oratorio, The Childhood of St. John the Baptist, in 1923:
- Critic: "Do you like playing?"
- Rota: "Whenever I can ... Is it hard to write for a newspaper?"
- Critic: "It's not easy to do a good article."
- Rota: "Have you come from Brussels especially to hear my oratorio?"
- Critic: "I certainly have, my little friend."
- Rota: "That's really funny. I won't be conducting it tonight. Yesterday the double bass snubbed me."
On his friendship with Igor Stravinsky:
- "Stravinsky was fun; his mind struck sparks. Age was no barrier - ours became a true friendship, despite distance and meeting ever more rarely."
Nino Rota reflecting on the unhappiness of others:
- "When I'm creating at the piano, I tend to feel happy; but - the eternal dilemma - how can we be happy amid the unhappiness of others? I'd do everything I could to give everyone a moment of happiness. That's what's at the heart of my music."
Federico Fellini on Nino Rota:
- "He was someone who had a rare quality belonging to the world of intuition. Just like children, simple men, sensitive people, innocent people, he would suddenly say dazzling things. As soon as he arrived, stress disappeared, everything turned into a festive atmosphere; the movie entered a joyful, serene, fantastic period, a new life."
Works
Discography
References
- ^ a b c d e Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 2149. ISBN 0-85112-939-0.
- ^ a b c Obias, Rudie (February 23, 2019). "9 Oscar Nominations That Were Revoked". MentalFloss.com. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
- ^ a b "Nino Rota Music Catalogue". Ninorota.com. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
- ^ Nicholas Slonimsky, The Concise Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Composers and Musicians (Simon & Schuster, London, 1988, ISBN 0-671-69896-6), p. 1063
- ^ a b c d Slonimsky, p. 1063
- ^ AllMusic. Nino Rota - Le Molière imaginaire, ballet suite for orchestra
- ^ Rota & Fellini Archived 2010-11-20 at the Wayback Machine, Cadrage, April/May 2003
- ^ "fellini_funerali ITALIANO | Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri alle Terme di Diocleziano di Roma". Santamariadegliangeliroma.it. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
- ^ a b "30. The Creative Copy". copyrightuser.org. 2 April 2018. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
- ^ "Nino Rota". Nndb.com. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
- ^ Lombardi, Francesco, "Nino Rota: un timido protagonista del Novecento musicale" (EDT, Torino, 2012, ISBN 9788866397946, 8866397946), p. 189
Further reading
- Kennedy, Michael (2006), The Oxford Dictionary of Music, 985 pages, ISBN 0-19-861459-4
- Richard Dyer. Nino Rota: Music, Film, and Feeling. New York: Palgrave and Macmillan (on behalf of the British Film Institute), 2010.
- Franco Sciannameo. Nino Rota's The Godfather Trilogy: A Film Score Guide. Scarecrow Press, 2010.
- John Simon. The Other Rota. The New Criterion, Vol. 34, No. 10 / June 2016
External links
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- Official website
- Nino Rota at IMDb
- Schott Music profile
- 1911 births
- 1979 deaths
- 20th-century classical composers
- 20th-century Italian composers
- 20th-century Italian male musicians
- Conservatorio Santa Cecilia alumni
- Best Original Music BAFTA Award winners
- Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners
- Composers for carillon
- Curtis Institute of Music alumni
- David di Donatello winners
- Deaths from coronary thrombosis
- Golden Globe Award-winning musicians
- Grammy Award winners
- Italian film score composers
- Italian male classical composers
- Italian male film score composers
- Composers from Milan
- Nastro d'Argento winners
- Milan Conservatory alumni