''Inferno'' is the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

Dario Argento Dario Argento (; born 7 September 1940) is an Italian film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and film critic, critic. His influential work in the horror film, horror genre during the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in the subgenre known as ...

's film of the same title, first released as a 15-track LP in 1980 on

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

(K 50753), in 1981 by

Cinevox Cinevox is an Italian record label specializing in the release of motion picture soundtrack albums. Founded in 1966, the label has released more than 200 titles, including numerous works by Ennio Morricone, Pino Donaggio, and various Dario Argento ...

, then as a CD in 2000, with a

bonus track An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records coll ...

outtake An outtake is a portion of a work (usually a film or music recording) that is removed in the editing process and not included in the work's final, publicly released version. In the digital era, significant outtakes have been appended to CD and DV ...

s reportedly utilized in the film itself, but not included on the original vinyl release. The score was composed and performed by

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instr ...

Keith Emerson Keith Noel Emerson (2 November 1944 – 11 March 2016) was an English keyboardist, songwriter, and record producer. He played keyboards in a number of bands before finding his first commercial success with the Nice in the late 1960s. He became ...

, former member of the

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

band

Emerson, Lake & Palmer Emerson, Lake & Palmer (informally known as ELP) were an English progressive rock supergroup formed in London in 1970. The band consisted of Keith Emerson (keyboards), Greg Lake (vocals, bass, guitar, producer) and Carl Palmer (drums, percus ...

. As a selection from Giuseppe Verdi's ''

Nabucco ''Nabucco'' (, short for Nabucodonosor ; en, " Nebuchadnezzar") is an Italian-language opera in four acts composed in 1841 by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera. The libretto is based on the biblical books of 2 Kings, ...

'' is played in several different sequences in the film, Argento tasked Emerson with including the piece in his soundtrack. Emerson re-orchestrated "

Va, pensiero "" (), also known as the "Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves", is a chorus from the opera ''Nabucco'' (1842) by Giuseppe Verdi. It recollects the period of Babylonian captivity after the loss of the First Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BCE. The libretto is ...

..." in five-four time to mimic a "fast and bumpy" taxi ride through Rome.Jones, Alan. ''Profondo Argento: The Man, The Myths And The Magic''. Godalming, UK: FAB Press, 2004. Page 116. When Argento reviewed Emerson's progress he did not initially recognize the remix, but was later pleased to discover it was used for Sara's taxi ride. Emerson's music met with a mixed response from critics, some of whom compared it unfavorably to

Goblin A goblin is a small, grotesque, monstrous creature that appears in the folklore of multiple European cultures. First attested in stories from the Middle Ages, they are ascribed conflicting abilities, temperaments, and appearances depending on t ...

's score for Argento's ''

Suspiria ''Suspiria'' () is a 1977 Italian supernatural horror film directed by Dario Argento, who co-wrote the screenplay with Daria Nicolodi, partially based on Thomas De Quincey's 1845 essay ''Suspiria de Profundis''. The film stars Jessica Harper as ...

'' (1977). ''Time Outs Scott Meek noted that "Argento's own over-the-top score or ''Suspiria''has been replaced by religioso thunderings from the keyboards of Keith Emerson." A review of the 2000 Cinevox CD from

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

notes, "The

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

selections are rather unremarkable, except for the finale, "Cigarettes, Ice, Etc.," on which Emerson uses his full keyboard arsenal to excellent effect. Unfortunately, the choral segments sound rather pretentious and dated." In a review of the Anchor Bay DVD, Michael Mackenzie of ''DVD Times'' opined, "The music is more or less adequate and at times adds to the tension, but it frequently contradicts what is happening on-screen, and is certainly nothing when compared to Goblin's soundtrack for ''Suspiria''." While Guido Henkel of the ''DVD Review'' website wrote that Emerson's score was "a beautiful and impressive piece", he felt that " e music is poorly spotted and too often cues are placed where they shouldn't be, or placed so that they actually break tension rather than help building it."

Track listing

# "Inferno (Main Titles Theme)" – 2:56 # "Rose's Descent into the Cellar" – 4:58 # "Taxi Ride (Rome)" – 2:15 # "The Library" – 0:57 # "Sarah in the Library Vaults" – 1:17 # "Bookbinder's Delight" – 1:11 # "Rose Leaves the Apartment" – 3:30 # "Rose Gets It" – 2:04 # "Elisa's Story" – 1:10 # "A Cat Attic Attack" – 3:13 # "Kazanian's Tarantella" – 3:34 # "Mark's Discovery" – 1:23 # "Mater Tenebrarum" – 2:38 # "Inferno Finale" – 2:26 # "Cigarettes, Ices, Etc." – 2:50 # "''Inferno'' Outtakes Suite" – 10:17 (CD bonus track) All songs composed and performed by Emerson, except for track 13: words by Emerson/Godfrey Salmon, arranged by Emerson/Salmon; orchestrated and conducted by Salmon.

References

{{Authority control Film scores Progressive rock soundtracks 1980 soundtrack albums 1980 debut albums