MOVIE MUSIC UK

Composer, pianist and conductor Armando Trovajoli died in Rome on February 28, 2013, at the age of 95.

One of the most prolific and versatile musicians of post-war Italian cinema, Trovajoli composed or conducted more than 300 film scores during a career spanning six decades, working with directors including Vittorio De Sica, Dino Risi, Mario Monicelli and, most extensively, Ettore Scola. His sophisticated mixture of jazz, orchestral writing, popular song and unmistakably Italian melody made him one of the defining musical voices of the commedia all’italiana.

Trovajoli was born in Rome on September 2, 1917, and began studying piano as a child. After military service during World War II he graduated from the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in 1948 and studied composition with fellow film composer Angelo Francesco Lavagnino. Jazz remained a lifelong passion: Trovajoli became one of Italy’s leading jazz pianists and performed alongside musicians including Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Stéphane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt.

His film career began when he collaborated with Goffredo Petrassi on Giuseppe De Santis’s neorealist classic Bitter Rice (1949). Alberto Lattuada’s Anna (1951) brought an early popular success through the Latin-flavored song “El Negro Zumbón,” performed onscreen by Silvana Mangano and subsequently an international hit.

During the 1960s Trovajoli became one of the busiest composers in Italian cinema. His important association with Vittorio De Sica included Two Women (1960), Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963) and Marriage Italian Style (1964), the latter two starring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni. His music could be romantic, playful or melancholy, but his jazz background frequently gave even light comedy an unusual sophistication and rhythmic elegance.

Trovajoli’s extraordinary productivity extended across virtually every popular Italian genre. Scores included Il vedovo (1959), The Magnificent Cuckold (1964), Seven Golden Men (1965), The Libertine (1968), Homo Eroticus (1971) and Dino Risi’s Scent of a Woman (1974). The latter is among his finest works, blending jazz, easy listening and orchestral writing around a poignant central theme that mirrors Vittorio Gassman’s embittered blind protagonist.

His most sustained film collaboration was with Ettore Scola. Trovajoli scored many of the director’s most important films, including The Pizza Triangle (1970), We All Loved Each Other So Much (1974), A Special Day (1977), The Terrace (1980), The Family (1987) and What Time Is It? (1989). A Special Day, starring Loren and Mastroianni, inspired one of his most restrained and affecting scores and won him the Nastro d’Argento for Best Music.

Away from cinema, Trovajoli was equally successful in musical theatre. His greatest stage triumph was Rugantino (1962), whose song “Roma nun fa’ la stupida stasera” became virtually an unofficial anthem for Rome. He later wrote Ciao Rudy and the enormously successful Aggiungi un posto a tavola, performed internationally for decades. In 2001 he received a special career Nastro d’Argento recognizing his contribution to Italian cinema.