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Was the violin piece played by the character of Fargas in Polanski's movie The Ninth Gate (when the main character Corso meets him in his mansion) created for the movie or based on a real, pre-existing piece?

The piece is diegetic music, and one of the movie's themes is the devil, so I was thinking it could be some sort of musical reference, as Polanski often quotes other artworks in his movies. The music sounded also kind of familiar to me when I heard it the first time.

You can hear it playing in the soundtrack at 26m:15s :

Chris Sunami
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tumasgiu
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  • The comments of the linked video says it is composed by Wojciech Kilar... do you have a reason to not trust this info? – Bebs Nov 17 '17 at 15:26
  • There's all soundtrack songs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ninth_Gate – Joe Taras Nov 17 '17 at 15:31
  • I was willing to edit the question for adding this bit of info. The piece is diegetic music (not sure if I use the term correctly) and one of the movie's themes is the devil so I was thinking it could be some sort of musical reference, as Polanski often quotes other artworks in his movies (In my opinion). The music sounded also kind of familiar to me when I heard it the first time. – tumasgiu Nov 17 '17 at 15:38

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According to the U.S. version of the Wikipedia article about the movie, the main theme is inspired by the "Havenese", by Camille St Saëns.

Much of the rest of the movie soundtrack also seems to be inspired by St Saëns. And I remembered that he composed a symphonic poem named "La danse macabre" which has the Devil for a protagonist.

So, it turns out that the little piece of violin played in the movie is actually a quote of the "Havanese": https://youtu.be/mnsBYmQ2-i4?t=5m58s

It is mentioned in the IMDB file of the movie and even appears at the end of the movie credits.

The record used in the movie is owned by the Boston Music Company.

tumasgiu
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