Luis Enríquez Bacalov (30 August 1933 – 15 November 2017) was an Argentine-born film composer. He learned music from Enrique Barenboim, father of Daniel Barenboim - conductor of the Berlin and Chicago orchestras, and from Berta Sujovolsky.[1] He ventured into music for the cinema, and composed scores for Spaghetti Western films. In the early 1970s he collaborated with Italian progressive rock bands. Bacalov was nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Original Score, winning it in 1996 for Il Postino.[2] Bacalov composed significant works for chorus and orchestra. Before his death, he was the artistic director of the Orchestra della Magna Grecia in Taranto, Italy.[3]
Bacalov composed significant works for chorus and orchestra, including Misa Tango (1997), a work that set a Spanish-language adaptation of the classic liturgical Mass to the tango rhythms of his native Argentina. The standard Mass text was significantly truncated in accordance with Bacalov's desire that the work appeal to all Abrahamic faiths: Christians, Muslims and Jews.[6] All references to Christ — except for the Lamb of God (Latin: Agnus Dei) — have been deleted. Credo, the third and longest text part of a sung Mass, has been reduced to most of its first strophe and part of the second one: "Credo in unum Deum, ... omnipotentem, factorem cœli et terrae." (" I believe in one God, ... Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth") plus "Amen" at the end. Misa Tango debuted in Rome with Plácido Domingo as solo tenor in 2000 and was later recorded by Deutsche Grammophon with Plácido Domingo (tenor), Ana María Martínez (mezzo-soprano) and Héctor Ulises Passarella (bandoneón). Its first US performance was on 19 May 2002 at Harvard University's Sanders Theatre (William E. Thomas, Music Director).
Bacalov composed Cantones de Nuestro Tiempos (Psalms for our Times: The Cambridge Psalms) (2006), a commissioned work with text from the Psalms of David for baritone and soprano soloists, orchestra and chorus. It had its world premiere in spring 2006, also at Sanders Theatre, performed by the Cambridge Community Chorus (William E. Thomas, Music Director).
From 2005 to his death, he was the principal director of Orchestra della Magna Grecia in Taranto, southern Italy.[11] He was considered a brilliant pianist throughout his life.[12] He died in Rome from an ischemic stroke on 15 November 2017 at the age of 84.[13]
