Archive
Stelvio Cipriani, 1937-2018
Composer Stelvio Cipriani died in Rome on October 1, 2018, at the age of 81, following a period of ill health after suffering an ischemia the previous year.
One of the most prolific composers working in Italian cinema during the 1970s, Cipriani wrote more than 200 film scores, encompassing westerns, thrillers, horror films, crime dramas, comedies and romances.
Cipriani was born in Rome on August 20, 1937. He studied piano and composition at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia and began his professional career accompanying popular singers, including Rita Pavone. He later spent time in the United States studying jazz before returning to Italy and entering the film industry during the mid-1960s.
His first feature score was for the 1966 western The Bounty Killer, followed by The Stranger Returns in 1967, starring Tony Anthony. The latter contained the sort of immediately memorable melody that would become a Cipriani trademark, and its main theme was subsequently recorded by Henry Mancini. Westerns provided some of his earliest opportunities, but Cipriani quickly expanded into almost every area of Italian genre cinema.
His greatest popular success came with director Enrico Maria Salerno’s romantic drama The Anonymous Venetian (Anonimo Veneziano) in 1970. Cipriani’s melancholy central melody, usually led by piano and strings, perfectly captured the film’s story of lost love and impending death against the decaying beauty of Venice. The score became enormously popular in its own right and earned Cipriani the Nastro d’Argento for Best Music, establishing him as one of Italy’s most sought-after film composers. Read more…
Shop at the Movie Music UK Store
Member of the
MOVIE MUSIC UK 