Press "Enter" to skip to content

Additional music in SPECTRE

The latest Bond film “Spectre” features a selection of songs not included on the official soundtrack. Here is an overview of which these are and where we find them in the film.

[su_heading size=”15″ margin=”0″]Nisi Dominus (Psalm 126), R. 608: IV. “Cum dederit” (Andante)[/su_heading]

Vivaldi’s setting of Nisi Dominus (Psalm 126 in the Vulgate) dates from fairly early on his career possibly for the Pietà which produced not only excellent singers but also superbly talented instrumentalists. It’s a long and very ambitious piece whose nine movements vary enormously in their style and scoring. Cum dederit‘, written in the slow siciliana style, features chromatically ascending lines that Vivaldi often used to convey the idea of rest and sleep. The version heard in “Spectre” is performed by German countertenor Andreas Scholl, a classical singer in the alto vocal range, together with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra under the direction of its Artistic Director and conductor Paul Dyer. The music can be heard when Lucia Sciarra (Monica Bellucci) returns to her villa.

[su_table]

LATIN ENGLISH
Cum dederit dilectis suis somnum: ecce haereditas Domini, filii: merces, fructus ventris. For he has granted to those he loves rest: behold an inheritance from the Lord – sons: a reward, the fruit of the womb.

[/su_table]

[su_heading size=”15″ margin=”0″]New York, New York – Ray Quinn[/su_heading]

quinnDuring the car chase in Rome, Bond tries to activate the gadgets of the Aston Martin DB10 one by one. When he switches on “Atmosphere”, the first notes of the famous Liza Minelli song “New York, New York” are briefly heard. While the extract is very short, is is listed on IMDB as being a version by British singer Ray Quinn who participated in the third series of The X Factor in 2006, finishing in second place behind Leona Lewis. The song is taken from Quinn’s first album entitled “Doing it my Way” which was released in 2007 and sold 127.000 copies in the first week. Album and song are not that easy to find anymore, but you can check availability here.

[su_heading size=”15″ margin=”0″]La Llorona – Gloria De La Cruz & Los Trobadores De Rogelio Gaspar[/su_heading]

This piece of traditional South American music can briefly be heard as an interpolation from the moment when Estrella shows Bond the key in the Mexico City hotel lift until they enter the hotel room. The story of the music is somewhat mysterious: It is not known who exactly composed it since it derives from a hundred-year-old legend of a woman said to haunt the valleys of Mexico, weeping for her children whom she drowned in a fit of madness. Many different verses (currently 40) have been written for this song over the years and when you compare song and legend, you’ll find that both integrate common themes such as loneliness and despair. The version heard in “Spectre” is performed by soprano Gloria De La Cruz.

[su_heading size=”15″ margin=”0″]UNCLEAR SONGS[/su_heading]

IMDB lists five more tracks that I have not been able to identify in the film. While the first two might have been interpolated with the music of the Pre-Title-Sequence, occurrence of the other three is doubtful.

  • Virgin Cocktails – Yann Mccullough
  • Call And Response – Bill Bernstein & Tambuco
  • One Furtive Tear (L’elisir D’amore) – Geoff Love & His Orchestra
  • Te He De Querer – Los Organilleros
  • Verdi: “libiamo Ne’ Lieti Calici” – Luciano Pavarotti, Dame Joan Sutherland

One Comment

  1. Guillaume Guillaume June 29, 2020

    The Verdi track plays in the Italian man’s car during the car chase in Rome

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.