Spanish rhythm with real cicadas: this is one of the most beautiful music in French cinema

An ocean of white rock strewn with pine trees, rolling hills undulating under a triumphant sun, a flawless sky in which Yves Robert’s camera gently wanders. And to do musical justice to this “scrubland desert” that hosted Marcel Pagnoli’s first memories, a symphony of cicadas.

The genius of film music

Anyone who grew up in the glory of My Father, the excellent adaptation of the novel of the same name written in 1990, will not forget the masterful score that serves as the opening of the feature film and which is also found almost everywhere in the film.

This main theme, which can easily be considered among the most beautiful music of French cinema, was composed by one of its best composers: the legendary Vladimir Cosma, to whom we also owe original soundtracks such as La Boum, from The Ace of. Aces, Goats, The Adventures of Rabbi Jacob, or even a dinner of cons.

“I wanted to expand the Panioli world.”

In the case of La Gloire de mon père, it was precisely because of the brilliant idea of ​​using real cicadas to record his music that he so memorably satisfied Pagnol’s work, he tells us. He trusted in 2016 when we had A chance to meet him on his 50th career date.

“I had 3 months to come up with an idea of ​​what the music should be”he told us.

“I knew what I didn’t want to do. I didn’t want postcard Mediterranean music, with the kind of stuff we imagine from Marseille. On the one hand, I wanted to expand the world of Panioli. On the other hand. On the other hand, I didn’t want to make typical children’s music, on the pretext that it It’s childhood memories and to present a somewhat caricatured music, as we do it for children.”

Cicadas instead of percussion

Cosma’s main challenge then was to find the right balance between a subject matter grand enough to illustrate the landscape, but not so much that it overshadows it.

“My music had to be spacious enough to accompany these credits, where we only see mountains, but not so spacious, too huge, that it overwhelms the film. Until I came to the idea of ​​”Habanera. Why habanera”. Because at the time Pagnoli wrote his memoirs, in the 1930s, composers were very much inspired by Spanish music, flamenco, Ravel, Debussy… The dancing side gave lightness.

It was then that the maestro came up with the greatest idea of ​​his composition: to replace the usual drums with what Pagnol himself liked to call “the brass noise of cicadas”.

“(…) I went to Marseilles to record them so I could make sound plans. I replaced each instrument written on classical percussion with these different cicada sounds that I worked in time and matched to my symphony orchestra. So it gives the color of the Mediterranean.”

Comments collected by Bridget Baronet in September 2016

(Re)discover The Glory Of My Father Trailer…