Music Supervisor Andrew Kotatko

Composer Cezary Skubiszewski

CEZARY SKUBISZEWSKI SCORE

© Copyright 2000 by Warner/Chappell Music Australia Pty Limited. Performed by Victorian Philharmonic Orchestra (members of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra) Trumpet Jeff Payne Harp Julie Raines Guitar Mario Lattuada

CEZARY'S COMBO

Trumpets Bob Veniard & David Newdick Sopranino & Saxophones John Barrett Accordian George Butrumlis Orchestration and Conducting Daryl McKenzie Recorded and Mixed by Robin Gray and Adam Rhodes Recorded at Sing-Sing Studio Allan Eaton Studio Metropolitan Studio, Melbourne

Music for the Italian Club written by Enzo Oscar Giribaldi

"A Tu Vera" Written by J. Solano/R. De Leon Performed by Lola Flores, Courtesy of Arcade Music Company

"He Venido" Written by R. Vergara Performed by Los Zafiros, Appears courtesy of World Circuit Ltd

"La Caminadora" Written by N. M. Bustillo Performed by Los Zafiros, Appears courtesy of World Circuit Ltd

Chorale Prelude - "Herzlich Tut Mich Verlangen", BWV 727 Written by J. S. Bach, Performed by Michael Dudman, Organ Courtesy of ABC Classics

"El Cordon De Mi Corpino" Written by Guerrero/Catellano, Courtesy of S.G.A.E Performed by Antonita Moreno, Courtesy of Arcade Music Company

"Que Me Coma El Tigre" Written by E. Garcia Performed by Lola Flores, Courtesy of Arcade Music Company

"Sevillanas Del Espartero" Written by Leon/Quiroga/Fernandez, Courtesy of S.G.A.E Performed by Conchita Piquer, Courtesy of Producciones El Delirio, S.L.

"Pain In My Heart" Words & Music by N. Neville, © 1964 Arc Music, Jewel Australia Performed by Otis Redding, Courtesy of Elektra Entertainment Group By arrangement with Warner Special Products

The soundtrack is available at www.la-spagnola-movie.com (Dead link, WM here)

MUSIC IN THE FILM:

There are a number of sourced songs heard in the film. A record player is sometimes used to explain the source.

A band also turns up at the big do in the hall, in which Lola dances with Bruno and is selected to draw the ticket for the prize lamb:

CD:

A CD of the soundtrack was released:

CD 2001 CZEE 0003 This soundtrack wasn’t made available commercially. It was a promotional effort by the composer, and featured only his tracks from the film. At time of writing, copies could still be found in the wild and on second hand sites.

The tracks:

1. Flight in the Dust 2. Rumba Viva 3. The Wedding 4. Abortion 5. The Day After 6. Travelling to Bruno 7. Lola’s Revenge 8. Manola’s says goodbye 9. Lucia’s First Kiss 10. Lucia Leaves Home

One track made it on to a collection of the composer’s film music (see below): 04: La Spagnola, Wedding (2’54”)

Review:

The ten track release was reviewed by Brad Green for Urban Cinefile on 24th January 2002, here, saved to WM here, with this “NOTE: This soundtrack is not available commercially; only a few promotional copies were made prior to the film's theatrical release”:

Cezary Skubiszewski is fast finding an affinity with foot-stomping rhythms. Last year he contributed the score between the toe-tapping (or was it boot- bopping?) pop songs of , and here he flirts quite brilliantly with flamenco. Opening with the crisp clatter of castanets and concluding with the poignant strains of a Spanish guitar, Skubiszewski’s soundtrack captures the full intensity and vicissitudes of living with passion.

The opening cues personify the feistiest side of a hot Latin temperament. Flight In The Dust features a bold, brass fanfare riding galloping strings and castanets. It is the fundamental flamenco rhythm overflowing with ebullience. Then the second cue ignites into a full blown rumba, courtesy of Skubiszewski’s own “Cezary’s Combo”: a good-sized ensemble comprising generous brass section, guitars, accordion, bass, drums, percussion and the composer himself on piano.

As the score develops, the dynamics of a life of uncompromising ardour are explored. Strings skip giddily on Travelling To Bruno, while the solo guitar and solo harp of The Day After and Manola’s Says Goodbye respectively, are achingly reflective. Some of the more bleakly titled cues have an ironic humour to them. Lola’s Revenge is an insanely exuberant dialogue of horns and concertina, exchanging repartee over firstly a syncopated guitar beat, and then a lumbering, down-beat tuba.

Performances go back and forth between Cezary’s Combo, the Victorian Philharmonic Orchestra and the solo-instrument cues; and every instrumentalist promotes a seductive, organic sound. It is a bright sound though, with plenty of glossy ambience in the recordings to sweeten the spicy rhythms.

By the time we get to the penultimate cue, Lucia’s First Kiss, things are really sizzling and the saxophones are flying. Yet for all this aural stimulation, Skubiszewski smoothly brings us down with the final cue, Lucia Leaves Home, an ambiguous interplay of emotions between guitar and trumpet. Both haunting and both full of lament, hope, regret and resilience.

A marvellous cocktail of controlled volatility, there is not a weak moment on this soundtrack. In fact, it is such an intoxicating fiesta of melody and rhythm it should have any self-respecting Novocastrian steelworker trading in the boots for a pair of flamenco heels. Published January 24, 2002 Proposed CD, never realised?:

A grander CD was at first proposed, and was apparently to be released under the label Warner CBG410501N 2001. Details of this could be found on the film’s site on the Wayback Machine here.

Details as they appeared on the site:

THE TRACKS

1) "A Tu Vera”, written by J.Solano/ R.De Leon (Peer Music), performed by Lola Flores Courtesy of Divusca Music, S.A 2) Fight in the Dust * 3) Rumba Viva * 4) The Wedding * 5) "La Caminadora”, written by N.M.Bustillo, performed by Los Zafiro, taken from the World Circuit Album ’Bossa Cubana’, courtesy of Groupo del Notro (Canada)/World Circuit Ltd ¨ 1999 World Circuit Ltd 6) "He Venido”, written by R.Vergara, performed by Los Zafiros, taken from the World Circuit Album ’Bossa Cubana’, ourtesy of Groupo del Notro (Canada)/World Circuit Ltd ¨ 1999 World Circuit Ltd 7) Abortion * 8) The day after *, performed by Mario Lattuada - guitar 9) "Que Me Coma El Tigre”, written by E.Garcia (Edimusica), performed by Lola Flores, courtesy of Divusca Music, S.A 10) Travelling to Bruno, words & music by N.Neville ©1964 Arc Music, Jewel Australia, performed by Otis Redding Courtesy of Elektra Entertainment Group, by arrangement with Warner Special Products 11) Lola’s Revenge* 12) Manola’s Says Goodbye*, performed by Julie Raines-Harp 13) Pain In My Heart, written by N.Neville ©1964 Arc Music, Jewel Australia, performed by Otis Redding ¨ WEA International Inc., licensed from Warner Music Australia Pty Ltd 14) Lucia’s First Kiss* 15) Lucia Leaves Home*

* Music composed and produced by Cezary Skubiszewski

Cezary Skubiszewski Score © Copyright 2000 by Warner/Chappell Music Australia Pty Limited.

Added to this was a little bio of the composer:

Composer’s Cezary Skubiszewski music covers a broad range of musical styles. He has written music for 11 feature films including "Two Hands", "Bootmen", "The Sound of One Hand Clapping", "The Wog Boy" and "Lilian’s Story". His orchestral works include "Symphony - Home at Last" and "Soundscape". Cezary has also written arrangements for some of Australia’s top bands (Killing Hiedi, Jebedaiah). He won Best Original Music Score AFI (Australian Film Institute) Award and Film Critics Circle of Australia for Best Film Score, for "Bootmen”, APRA 2000 and Australian Guild of Screen Composers Award for "Two Hands", as well as awards for "The Sound of One Hand Clapping" and "Lillian’s Story".

A final note read:

The cd will be available soon from this site

The site never updated this part of the listing before it went into recess, and it headed off to the Wayback Machine. It is not clear that this form of the CD was ever released, as opposed to the cut down promotional composer version, which avoided tackling the question of rights for tracks not done by the composer. Lyrics:

Songs with Spanish lyrics run over the head and tail credits.

Head Credits:

The opening song is a heavily cut down version of a longer song, A Tu Vera, sung by Lola Flores:

Que no bebiese en tu pozo, que no jurase en la reja, que no mirase contigo, la luna de primavera. Ayer, hoy, mañana y siempre eternamente a tu vera, eternamente a tu vera. A tu vera, siempre a la verita tuya, siempre a la verita tuya, hasta que de amor me muera.

The full lyrics and an English translation could be found here (note: these lyrics and the translation are indicative, and better versions might be available on the internet): Tail credits:

The end song, He Venido, by Los Zefiros, is followed by an instrumental. The lyrics can be heard in full, following what is usually their accepted form (note: as before, these lyrics and the translation are indicative, and better versions which might more accurately reflect what is heard in the film might be available on the internet): Composer Cezary Skubiszewski:

Composer Cezary Skubiszewski has had a long career in Australian film and television, but he was particularly fashionable for feature films in the late 1990s, especially in the arthouse area, as shown by this career note in The Age, Thursday, 25th May 2000: The comedies The Craic and The Wogboy were something of a change of pace for him; the arthouse antics of La Spagnola were a comfortable fit with the titles he did early in his composing career.

Cezary Skubiszewski is too well-known a composer to dwell on at length here. Skubiszewski was listed at move here, WM here, had a reasonably detailed wiki listing here, and his own eponymous website here, WM here, which contained information about his works, YouTube links, awards, recordings, etc, as well as this short CV:

Cezary Skubiszewski is an Australian film and TV composer whose work has claimed numerous awards. Cezary’s first film score was for Lilian’s Story (1996), directed by fellow Pole Jerzy Domaradzki and staring Toni Collette. This was followed by Bootmen (2000) and La Spagnola (2001), for which he collected Best Original Music awards from the Australian Film Institute. His other early works include Black & White (2002), The Brush Off (2004), The Book of Revelation and Blessed. His work on the 1999 film Two Hands saw Cezary collect the Best Film Score Award from APRA at the annual Screen Music awards. This was followed in later years by the mini-series After the Deluge (2003) starring Hugo Weaving and Rachel Griffiths, and (2007) for which he also received Best Film Score Awards. He then went on to compose scores for The Book of Revelation (2006) and Blessed (2009). His latest work composing for Night (2008) Bran Nue Dae (2009), Red Dog (2011) and The Sapphires(2012) – which received critical acclaim at an international level, have seen him win awards from Inside Film and the Film Critics Circle of Australia. In last few years Cezary composed music for Serrangoon Road (2013 APRA AWARD), The Broken Shore (2014) (APRA AWARD) Parer’s War (2014), Jeziorak (2014 Polish Film Festival Best Music Award) Turkey Shoot (2014), Women H'e Undressed (2015) , Karbala (2015) Oddball (2015), Red Dog - True Blue (2016) and USA film Tiger (2016). In 2017 Cezary Received ACCTA Award for Best Music in a documentary for his score to Monsieur Mayonnaise. Cezary just finished scoring TV mini-series Picnic At Hanging Rock. In 1981 Cezary composed the symphony Home at Last and in 1991 created musical theatre multi-media production Soundescape which was performed at Melbourne and Adelaide Festivals. (2015) Cezary has also composed music for a number of adverts,including Sydney 2000 Olympics, Australian Football Finals, Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games, Carlton Draught Big Ad campaign and the VB Bottle Symphony which became a worldwide hit. In 2008 and 2011 Cezary was the Musical Director of APRA/AGSC Screen Music Awards. Cezary is the Recipient of the Centenary Medal 2003 "For Service to Australian Society and Australian Film Production" and Film Circle of Australia (FCCA) 2010 Award "in recognition of contribution to Australian Cinema".

(Below: Cezary Skubiszewski)

As noted above, in 2010 Albert published a collection of Skubiszewski’s soundtrack work. There were some 18 tracks from a variety of films on the CD, but significantly neither The Craic nor The Wogboy made the cut. However, one track from La Spagnola did, along with music from his more respectable upmarket, arthouse orientated shows:

Skubiszewski’s discography can be checked at Discogs here - the site had this list of tracks for his Filmworks album: