Eccidio sul Ponte dell’industria op. 3

“Eccidio sul ponte dell’industria” is a piece for symphonic orchestra written during the Masterclass with Dario Marianelli, the Oscar Prize winner in 2008 for the movie “Atonement”.

The goal of the masterclass was composing the soundtrack for the movie “Rumon”, produced by “Istituto Cine-Tv Roberto Rossellini” in Rome, and later presented at the 16^th edition of the “Rome Film Fest” 2021.

This episode of the movie refers to a true event, happened in Rome on the 7th Aprile 1944, under the Nazi occupation.

A group of ten starving women assaulted a bakery nearby the iron bridge, to get some fresh bread and flour. Unfortunately, they got caught by the SS Security Services and slaughtered on the bridge.

My attempt was to describe step by step the different moments of that events. The harp glissando symbolizes the beginning of the flashback, as it is meant to be in the movie. Then, we have the women approaching the bakery and getting arrested, with the timpani symbolizing the order given by the SS when they caught them. The tension starts to increase while they gather the woan on the bridge, and after the climax of the massacre, the music gets a little suspension. It is the view of the falling body in the river, in a a slow-motion scene.

The final chords of the horns sections represent the background context. The war is still on, and there is no hope at the horizion for peace and liberation.