布罗克斯顿评说莫里康内 MB-012-114

倒退三十年

乔纳森·布罗克斯顿（Jonathan Broxton）的原始评论

1980 年代初，《红色索尼娅》和其他各种剑与巫术史诗大获成功，讲述了一位野蛮战士公主的故事，改编自柯南的创作者罗伯特·霍华德的原创故事，由理查德·弗莱舍执导。这部电影由丹麦超模、西尔维斯特·史泰龙未来的妻子布丽吉特·尼尔森主演，在她的第一份表演工作中，她饰演一个女人，她向那些谋杀她父母的人复仇，同时开始寻找一个神奇的护身符，其力量可以摧毁世界。尽管阿诺德·施瓦辛格 （Arnold Schwarzenegger） 饰演传奇剑客卡利多勋爵 （Lord Kalidor） 的配角，但这部电影还是遭到了严重破坏，因其表演、写作、导演和木制动作场面而受到批评。事实上，《红色索尼娅》的演员和工作人员中可能唯一毫发无损地逃脱的是传奇作曲家埃尼奥·莫里康内，他出乎意料地发现自己为这部电影配乐。

1980 年代中期，莫里康内在欧洲和好莱坞之间平均分配时间——他当时的作品包括 1984 年的《美国往事》和 1986 年的《使命》等经典作品——所以对他来说，像《红色索尼娅》这样一部相当主流的电影配乐并不罕见， 特别是考虑到这部电影主要在意大利拍摄，主要是意大利工作人员。莫里康内对奇幻类型也不是完全陌生的，他在 1983 年为鲜为人知的英西作品 Hundra 配乐，其明星劳伦·伦敦也被考虑出演红色索尼娅的头衔角色。事实上，Red Sonja 和 Hundra 之间有许多概念上的相似之处，包括莫里康内音乐的整体基调，即冒险和夸张。在许多方面，《红色索尼娅》可以看作是莫里康内自己的幻想风格与巴兹尔·波莱杜里斯 (Basil Poledouris ) 为他的柯南配乐带来的一些作曲风格的融合，特别是在合唱写作方面，以及突出使用独奏小号和抒情木管乐器来引导主题线。因此，任何了解并喜欢这些作品的人也会在这里找到很多他们喜欢的东西。

在神奇的“序幕”中，合唱团的咕咕声短暂转移后，“主标题”呈现了一场激动人心的独奏小号独奏主题的英勇、奔腾的主题，随着乐团的进行，该主题在管弦乐队的不同部分传递，甚至在提示的后半部分拾起了一个无言的合唱团。许多人认为这是索尼娅的主题，但事实并非如此——这实际上是阿诺德施瓦辛格的角色卡利多勋爵的主题，他在整个故事中训练和指导索尼娅，并最终成为她的情人。虽然有些人可能认为它对于一个打算拥有巨大力量和高贵的角色来说太轻太有弹性了，但我一直非常喜欢它。这是一部典型的莫里康内作品，与他的一些意大利面条西部主题有很多共同之处，这些主题经常通过赋予他们坚忍的英雄模糊的滑稽色彩来颠覆该类型的惯例。它随后的总结，如“瓦纳之死”，是受欢迎的。

索尼娅的主题其实是一个更亲密、更温柔浪漫的想法，一个木管乐器和弦乐的六音上升和下降主题，与其说是关于原始的力量和野蛮，不如说是一种哀歌，反映了对她犯下的可怕错误，以及她追求的光荣本质。直到“Vanna's Death”的后半部分，你才真正听到它——这是 Sonja 任务的真正催化剂——但它在那个提示中的表演，以及随后在“Sonja Teach Tarn”、“Kalidor and Sonja”和“A Fair Fight”中的表演真的很可爱。莫里康内经常用柔和的合唱团和漂亮的竖琴滑音来装饰主题，以进一步增强索尼娅之后的正义感，而在“片尾字幕”中，他添加了轻快的流行节奏部分和独奏小号的华丽，以令人惊讶的现代音符结束了乐谱。

动作音乐强大而激进，这不是莫里康内所熟知的。乐谱中的每一个主要动作线索——“圣殿突袭”、“与士兵战斗”和“索尼娅击败女王”——都是围绕着一个尖锐的、上升的主题建立的，由互补的弦乐和铜管乐器组成，伴随着轰鸣的定音鼓，以及合唱团演唱“索尼娅”这个词的变奏。在正常情况下，最后一个元素应该将配乐沦为笑柄——伦纳德·罗森曼（Leonard Rosenman）的《机械战警2》就是这样——但表演的诚意和音乐创意的创造力在某种程度上使它起作用。莫里康内总是能够接受在纸面上听起来很荒谬的想法——谁知道低音长笛、电吉他、土狼的声音以及人们吹口哨和咕噜声的组合会成为《好、坏，丑》的传奇主题？– 而 Red Sonja 延续了这一趋势。

其他值得注意的线索包括“护身符”的宗教竖琴和合唱团主题，后来出现在“Touch It”和扩展的“The Chamber of Lights”等线索中;对《索尼娅与剑圣》序幕中魔幻主题的精湛重述;以及《索尼娅与布莱塔格》和《进入城堡》中紧张、断断续续的动作场面，这在很大程度上归功于他 1970 年代悬疑配乐中的不正常节奏，包括《对一个不容怀疑的公民的调查》。

像这个时代的许多配乐一样，Red Sonja 原声带的发行历史是曲折而复杂的。在电影上映时，瓦雷泽·萨拉班德（Varese Sarabande）以黑胶唱片的形式发行了这首歌，但它的顺序很奇怪，被呈现为两首长长的“合唱团和管弦乐队交响组曲”，分别持续17分钟和19分钟。这两首交响组曲于1990年首次以CD形式发行，再加上莫里康内为电影《血线》配乐，作为瓦雷泽·萨拉班德CD俱乐部的一部分，但那张专辑很快就绝版了，成为非常珍贵的收藏品。当罗宾·埃斯特哈默（Robin Esterhammer）的精品唱片公司毅力唱片公司（Perseverance Records）在20年将其作为2000份限量版发行时，乐谱的粉丝将不得不再等2010年才能首次“正式发行”，并对其进行排序并分解为单独的提示。到目前为止，这是推荐的谱曲呈现方式，也是人们应该寻找的。

我想很多人发现自己对埃尼奥·莫里康内（Ennio Morricone）的大量电影和唱片感到不知所措，一旦他们将半打左右的“必需品”添加到他们的收藏中，他们就不知道下一步该去哪里。考虑到这一点，我会毫不犹豫地向那些想要探索莫里康内一些不太出名的作品的人推荐 Red Sonja。它具有使他成为如此出色的作曲家的所有作曲特征和风格理念，但它比他的许多更具实验性的乐谱更容易理解。出色的中心主题三重奏、激动人心的动作音乐以及声音的整体“直截了当”使其成为一种非常值得的消遣。

从英国电影音乐商店购买红色索尼娅原声带

曲目列表：

• 序幕 （1：24）
• 主标题 （2：22）
• 护身符 （3：15）
• 圣殿突袭 （1：39）
• 触摸它 （1：03）
• 索尼娅和剑圣 （1：49）
• 瓦纳之死 （2：00）
• 布莱塔格之门 （1：47）
• 索尼娅 vs. 布莱塔格 （1：14）
• 与士兵作战 （3：36）
• 光之室 （2：02）
• 巫术 （0：46）
• Sonja 教谭 （1：33）
• 洞穴中的宝藏 （2：07）
• Kalidor 和 Sonja （1：43）
• 公平的战斗 （1：50）
• 进入城堡 （2：12）
• 索尼娅击败女王 （1：36）
• 片尾字幕 （3：42）

片长：37分42秒

毅力唱片 PRD-035 （1985/2010）

音乐由埃尼奥·莫里康内（Ennio Morricone）作曲和指挥。由Unione Musiciste de Roma演出。埃尼奥·莫里康内（Ennio Morricone）的编排。由塞尔吉奥·马科图利（Sergio Marcotulli）录制和混音。由Cesare d'Amico编辑。乐谱由埃尼奥·莫里康内（Ennio Morricone）制作。专辑由Robin Esterhammer制作。

THROWBACK THIRTY

Original Review by Jonathan Broxton

Cashing in on the popular success of Conan the Barbarian and the various other sword-and-sorcery epics of the early 1980s was Red Sonja, the tale of a barbarian warrior princess, based on the original story by Robert Howard, the creator of Conan, and directed by Richard Fleischer. The film starred Brigitte Nielsen, the Danish supermodel and future wife of Sylvester Stallone in her first acting job, in the title role as a woman seeking vengeance upon those who murdered her parents, while simultaneously embarking on a quest to find a magical talisman whose power could destroy the world. Despite the presence of Arnold Schwarzenegger in a supporting role as the legendary swordsman Lord Kalidor, the film was critically decimated, receiving brickbats for its acting, writing, direction, and wooden action sequences. In fact, possibly the only member of the cast and crew of Red Sonja to escape unscathed was the legendary composer Ennio Morricone, who unexpectedly found himself scoring the movie.

Morricone was splitting his time fairly evenly between Europe and Hollywood in the mid 1980s – his output around that time included such classics as Once Upon a Time in America in 1984 and The Mission in 1986 – so for him to have scored a fairly mainstream movie like Red Sonja was not out of the ordinary, especially considering that the film was shot mainly in Italy with a predominantly Italian crew. Morricone was not entirely new to the fantasy genre either, having scored the little-known Anglo-Spanish effort Hundra in 1983, whose star Laurene London was also considered for the Red Sonja title role. In fact there are a number of conceptual similarities between Red Sonja and Hundra, including the overall tone of Morricone’s music, which was adventurous and bombastic. In many ways, Red Sonja can be seen as a blending of Morricone’s own fantasy style with some of the compositional touches Basil Poledouris brought to his Conan scores, especially in terms of the choral writing, and the prominent use of solo trumpets and lyrical woodwinds to lead the thematic lines. As such, anyone who knows and enjoys any of those works will find much to their liking here too.

After a brief diversion for a cooing choir in the magical “Prologue,” the “Main Title” presents a rousing performance of a heroic, galloping theme for solo trumpet, which is passed around different sections of the orchestra as it progresses, even picking up a wordless choir during the cue’s second half. Many believe this to be Sonja’s theme, but it isn’t – it’s actually the theme for Lord Kalidor, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character, who trains and guides Sonja throughout the story, and eventually becomes her lover. Although some may consider it to be too light and bouncy for a character intended to have a great deal of power and nobility, I’ve always really liked it. It’s a typical Morricone piece, and has a great deal in common with some of his spaghetti western themes, which often subverted the conventions of the genre by giving a vaguely comical aspect to their stoic heroes. Its subsequent recapitulations, in cues like “Vanna’s Death,” are welcome.

Sonja’s theme is actually a more intimate, gently romantic idea, a six-note rising and falling motif for woodwinds and strings, which is less about raw power and barbarism, and more of a lament, reflecting on the terrible wrongs done to her, and the honorable nature of her quest. You don’t really hear it until the second half of “Vanna’s Death” – the actual catalyst for Sonja’s mission – but its performances in that cue, and subsequently in “Sonja Teaches Tarn,” “Kalidor and Sonja,” and “A Fair Fight” are really lovely. Morricone often adorns the theme with a softly intonating choir and pretty harp glissandi, to further enhance the sense of righteousness that follows Sonja, while in the “End Credits” he adds a light pop rhythm section and solo trumpet flourishes, concluding the score on a surprisingly contemporary note.

The action music is powerful and aggressive, which is not something Morricone is known for. Each of the score’s main action cues – “Temple Raid,” “Fighting the Soldiers,” and “Sonja Defeats the Queen” – is built around a shrill, rising motif for complementary strings and brass, accompanied by great booming timpani hits, and a choir singing variations of the word ‘Sonja’. This last element should, under normal circumstances, reduce the score to a laughing stock – it did on Leonard Rosenman’s Robocop 2 – but the sincerity of the performances, and the creativity of the musical ideas somehow make it work. Morricone has always been able to take ideas which, on paper, sound ludicrous – who knew that the combination of bass flute, electric guitar, coyote noises, and people whistling and grunting could become the legendary theme for The Good the Bad and the Ugly? – and Red Sonja continues that trend.

Other cues of note include the religioso harp and choir motif for “The Talisman,” which appears later in cues such as “Touch It” and the extended “The Chamber of Lights”; the superb restatement of the magical theme from the Prologue in “Sonja and the Sword Master”; and the nervous, staccato action sequences in “Sonia vs. Brytag” and “Entering the Castle,” which owe a great debt to the off-kilter rhythms from his 1970s suspense scores, including Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion.

Like many scores from this era, the release history of Red Sonja’s soundtrack is checkered and complicated. It was released on vinyl LP by Varese Sarabande at the time of the film’s release, but it was sequenced oddly, being presented as two long “Symphonic Suites for Chorus and Orchestra,” lasting 17 and 19 minutes respectively. The two Symphonic Suites were released on CD for the first time in 1990, coupled with Morricone’s score for the film Bloodline, as part of the Varese Sarabande CD Club, but that album quickly went out of print and became a highly prized collectible. Fans of the score would have to wait another 20 years for its first ‘proper release’, sequenced and broken down into individual cues, when Robin Esterhammer’s boutique label Perseverance Records released it as a 2000-copy limited edition in 2010. This is, by far, the recommended presentation of the score, and is the one people should seek out.

I think many people find themselves quite overwhelmed by Ennio Morricone’s vast filmography and discography, and don’t know where to go next once they have added the half dozen or so ‘essentials’ to their collections. With that in mind, I would not hesitate to recommend Red Sonja to people who want to explore some of Morricone’s less famous works. It has all the compositional hallmarks and stylistic ideas that make him such a wonderful composer, but it is much more accessible than many of his more experimental scores. The excellent trio of central themes, the exciting action music, and the overall ‘straightforwardness’ of the sound make it a more than worthwhile diversion.

Buy the Red Sonja soundtrack from the Movie Music UK Store

Track Listing:

• Prologue (1:24)
• Main Title (2:22)
• The Talisman (3:15)
• Temple Raid (1:39)
• Touch It (1:03)
• Sonja and the Sword Master (1:49)
• Vanna’s Death (2:00)
• The Gate of Brytag (1:47)
• Sonja vs. Brytag (1:14)
• Fighting the Soldiers (3:36)
• The Chamber of Lights (2:02)
• Sorcery (0:46)
• Sonja Teaches Tam (1:33)
• Treasure in the Cavern (2:07)
• Kalidor and Sonja (1:43)
• A Fair Fight (1:50)
• Entering the Castle (2:12)
• Sonja Defeats the Queen (1:36)
• End Credits (3:42)

Running Time: 37 minutes 42 seconds

Perseverence Records PRD-035 (1985/2010)

Music composed and conducted by Ennio Morricone. Performed by Unione Musiciste de Roma. Orchestrations by Ennio Morricone. Recorded and mixed by Sergio Marcotulli. Edited by Cesare d’Amico. Score produced by Ennio Morricone. Album produced by Robin Esterhammer.