Angelo Francesco Lavagnino was born into a family with musicians on both sides in 1909, and, attracted to the sight and sounds of a live theater orchestra, he first discovered film music as a boy during the silent era. He later attended the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory of Music in Milan, where he studied composition under Renzo Bossi. He graduated in the early '30s and, in the years that followed, he composed several symphonies, a large body of chamber music, a small group of symphonic poems, and one opera. He was also a teacher at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena between the ages of 32-53. Lavagnino began composing music for films in the early '50s, and by the time he'd retired two decades later, had amassed credits for some 300 movies, including Orson Welles' Othello and Chimes at Midnight, the science fiction thriller Gorgo, the fantasy film Lost Continent, the adventure yarn Legend of the Lost, and costume epics such as The Last Days of Pompeii (1960). Lavagnino had a special gift for melody and a talent for orchestration that manifested themselves in the best of those scores, particularly Gorgo -- whose folk-based soundtrack is often referred to as the prettiest score ever to grace a dinosaur movie -- and Legend of the Lost. Lavagnino was very nearly the choice of Sergio Leone to score A Fistful of Dollars -- having composed the music for the director's The Last Days of Pompeii and The Colossus of Rhodes. Leone was favorably disposed toward him, but the insistence of Leone's distributor that he meet with Ennio Morricone led to the revelation that they had attended grammar school together, so the director gave the assignment to Morricone. Despite losing that job, Lavagnino remained one of the busiest screen composers in England, and continued working until the mid-'70s on films that included his share of spaghetti Westerns. He died August 21, 1987.
| Title | Year | Editors' Rating | User Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
La Rabbia di Pasolini
Featured Music |
2008 | |||
|
Filming 'Othello'
Composer (Music Score) |
1978 | |||
|
Daisy Miller
Composer (Music Score) |
1974 | |||
|
Beatrice Cenci
Composer (Music Score) |
1969 | |||
|
Drop Them or I'll Shoot
Composer (Music Score) |
1969 | |||
|
La Battaglia dell'Ultimo Panzer
Composer (Music Score) |
1969 | |||
|
Una Pistola Per Cento Bare
Composer (Music Score) |
1968 | |||
|
Mission Bloody Mary
Composer (Music Score), Musical Direction/Supervision |
1967 | |||
|
Chimes at Midnight
Composer (Music Score) |
1966 | |||
|
Four Dollars of Revenge
Composer (Music Score) |
1966 | |||
|
Gli Uomini dal Passo Pesante
Composer (Music Score) |
1966 | |||
|
Hypnosis
Composer (Music Score), Screenwriter |
1966 | |||
|
McGuire, Go Home!
Composer (Music Score) |
1966 | |||
|
Zorro Il Ribelle
Composer (Music Score) |
1966 | |||
|
Gunmen of the Rio Grande
Composer (Music Score), Musical Direction/Supervision |
1965 | |||
|
I Criminali della Galassia
Composer (Music Score) |
1965 | |||
|
I Diavoli dallo Spazio
Composer (Music Score) |
1965 | |||
|
Missione Planeta Errante
Composer (Music Score) |
1965 | |||
|
Dark Purpose
Composer (Music Score) |
1964 | |||
|
Extraconiugale
Composer (Music Score) |
1964 | |||
|
Agent 8 3/4
Composer (Music Score) |
1963 | |||
|
Ercole Sfida Sansone
Composer (Music Score) |
1963 | |||
|
Saladin
Composer (Music Score) |
1963 | |||
|
The Wastrel
Composer (Music Score) |
1963 | |||
|
Venere Imperiale
Composer (Music Score) |
1963 | |||
|
Zorro Contro Maciste
Composer (Music Score), Musical Direction/Supervision |
1963 | |||
|
Commando
Composer (Music Score) |
1962 | |||
|
Dal Sabato Al Lunedi
Composer (Music Score) |
1962 | |||
|
Damon and Pythias
Composer (Music Score) |
1962 | |||
|
Il Figlio del Capitano Blood
Composer (Music Score) |
1962 | |||
|
Madame Sans-Gene
Composer (Music Score) |
1962 | |||
|
Marco Polo
Composer (Music Score) |
1962 | |||
|
Pontius Pilate
Composer (Music Score) |
1962 | |||
|
Duel of the Champions
Composer (Music Score) |
1961 | |||
|
Gorgo
Composer (Music Score) |
1961 | |||
|
Il Colosso di Rodi
Composer (Music Score) |
1961 | |||
|
La Grande Olimpiade
Composer (Music Score) |
1961 | |||
|
La Rivolta degli Schiavi
Composer (Music Score) |
1961 | |||
|
Le Meraviglie Di Aladino
Composer (Music Score) |
1961 | |||
|
Maciste Contro il Vampiro
Composer (Music Score) |
1961 | |||
|
Odissea Nuda
Composer (Music Score), Musical Direction/Supervision |
1961 | |||
|
Conspiracy of Hearts
Composer (Music Score) |
1960 | |||
|
Esther and the King
Composer (Music Score) |
1960 | |||
|
Five Branded Women
Composer (Music Score) |
1960 | |||
|
Gli Ultimi Giorni di Pompeii
Composer (Music Score) |
1960 | |||
|
Hercules and the Masked Rider
Composer (Music Score) |
1960 | |||
|
L'Assedio di Siracusa
Composer (Music Score) |
1960 | |||
|
Les Nuits de Raspoutine
Composer (Music Score) |
1960 | |||
|
Saffo, Venere di Lesbo
Composer (Music Score) |
1960 | |||
|
Tutti a Casa
Composer (Music Score) |
1960 | |||
|
Behind the Great Wall
Composer (Music Score) |
1959 | |||
|
Calypso
Composer (Music Score) |
1959 | |||
|
The Naked Maja
Composer (Music Score) |
1959 | |||
|
The Savage Innocents
Composer (Music Score) |
1959 | |||
|
The Sign of the Gladiator
Composer (Music Score), Musical Direction/Supervision |
1959 | |||
|
Pezzo, Capopezzo e Capitano
Composer (Music Score) |
1958 | |||
|
Soledad
Composer (Music Score) |
1958 | |||
|
The Awakening
Composer (Music Score) |
1958 | |||
|
The Passionate Summer
Composer (Music Score) |
1958 | |||
|
The Wind Cannot Read
Composer (Music Score) |
1958 | |||
|
Femmine Tre Volte
Composer (Music Score) |
1957 | |||
|
L'Ultimo Paradiso
Composer (Music Score) |
1957 | |||
|
Legend of the Lost
Composer (Music Score), Musical Direction/Supervision |
1957 | |||
|
Non Scherzare Con Le Donne
Composer (Music Score) |
1957 | |||
|
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Songwriter |
1957 | |||
|
L'Impero del Sole
Composer (Music Score) |
1956 | |||
|
La Risaia
Composer (Music Score) |
1956 | |||
|
Lo Scapolo
Composer (Music Score) |
1956 | |||
|
Mio figlio Nerone
Composer (Music Score) |
1956 | |||
|
Vertigine Bianca
Composer (Music Score) |
1956 | |||
|
Bravissimo
Composer (Music Score) |
1955 | |||
|
Continente Perduto
Composer (Music Score) |
1955 | |||
|
La Bella Mugnaia
Composer (Music Score) |
1955 | |||
|
La Donna del Fiume
Composer (Music Score) |
1955 | |||
|
Mambo
Composer (Music Score) |
1954 | |||
|
Africa Sotto I Mari
Composer (Music Score) |
1953 | |||
|
Othello
Composer (Music Score) |
1952 | |||
|
Mamma Mia, Che Impressione!
Composer (Music Score) |
1951 | |||
|
Che Tempi!
Composer (Music Score) |
1948 |



