Luis Enríquez Bacalov was an Argentine-Italian composer of film scores. Early on in his career, he composed scores for Spaghetti Western films. In the early 1970s, he collaborated with Italian progressive rock bands. Bacalov was nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Original Score, winning it in 1996 for . Bacalov composed significant works for chorus and orchestra. Before his death, he was the artistic director of the Orchestra della Magna Grecia in Taranto, Italy.
Life and career
Luis Bacalov was born in Buenos Aires to a family of Bulgarian Jewish origin, but even though he identified as a Jew, he did not practice Judaism. His paternal grandparents were Banat Bulgarians who emigrated to Argentina. His film credits include westerns such as Django, A Bullet for the General, and The Grand Duel, and Italian crime films such as Caliber 9, Il Boss and Mister Scarface. He also scored Fellini's City of Women in 1980. Bacalov had been nominated twice for Academy Award for Original Score—music adaptation or treatment— in 1967 for Pasolini's The Gospel According to St. Matthew, and winning the award for in 1996. In the early 1970s, he collaborated with Italian progressive rock bands such as New Trolls, on their 1971 album, Concerto grosso per i New Trolls, Osanna, on the band's second album, Preludio Tema Variazioni e Canzona released in 1972, and Il Rovescio della Medaglia for the 1973 release of their third album, Contaminazione. Bacalov composed significant works for chorus and orchestra, including his Misa Tango, a work setting a Spanish-language adaptation of the classic liturgical Mass to the tango rhythms of his native Argentina. The standard Mass text was significantly truncated in accordance with Bacalov's desire that the work appeal to those of all Abrahamic faiths: Christians, Muslims and Jews. All references to Christ — except for the Lamb of God — have been deleted. Credo, the third and longest text part of a sung Mass, has been reduced to most of its first strophe and part of the second one: "Credo in unum Deum,... omnipotentem, factorem cœli et terrae." plus "Amen" at the end. Misa Tango debuted in Rome with Plácido Domingo as solo tenor in 2000 and was later recorded by Deutsche Grammophon with Plácido Domingo, Ana María Martínez and Héctor Ulises Passarella. Bacalov composed Porteña for 2 pianos and orchestra. Bacalov composed Cantones de Nuestro Tiempos , a commissioned work with text from the Psalms of David for baritone and soprano soloists, orchestra and chorus, which had its world premiere at Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in spring 2006 by the . This followed the 19 May 2002 U.S. premiere performance of "Misa Tango" also at Harvard University's Sanders Theatre. Two of his songs, "The Grand Duel " and "The Summertime Killer", were used in Quentin Tarantino's film Kill Bill. Tarantino also used three Bacalov songs from the Spaghetti western era in his 2012 movieDjango Unchained: "Django" and "La Corsa " originally from Django, and "Lo Chiamavano King" from His Name Was King. Bacalov was the first to write a triple-concerto for bandoneón, piano, soprano and symphony orchestra: Tango Music with Symphonic Proportions. From 2005 to his death, he was the principal director of Orchestra della Magna Grecia in Taranto, southern Italy. He was considered a brilliant pianist in his time. He died in Rome on 15 November 2017 at the age of 84.
