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Ennio Morricone (; 10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Defi ...
, orchestrator
Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orch ...
, conductor, and trumpeter
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard B ...
who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 scores for cinema and television, as well as more than 100 classical works, Morricone is widely considered one of the most prolific and greatest film composers of all time. His filmography includes more than 70 award-winning films, all Sergio Leone
Sergio Leone (; 3 January 1929 – 30 April 1989) was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter credited as the pioneer of the Spaghetti Western genre and widely regarded as one of the most influential directors in the history of cin ...
's films since ''A Fistful of Dollars
''A Fistful of Dollars'' ( it, Per un pugno di dollari, lit=For a Fistful of Dollars titled on-screen as ''Fistful of Dollars'') is a 1964 Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood in his first leading role, a ...
'', all Giuseppe Tornatore
Giuseppe Tornatore (born 27 May 1956) is an Italian film director and screenwriter. He is considered one of the directors who brought critical acclaim back to Italian cinema.Katz, Ephraim, "Italy," ''The Film Encyclopedia'' (New York: HarperRes ...
's films since '' Cinema Paradiso'', ''The Battle of Algiers
ar, Maʿrakat al-Jazāʾir
, director = Gillo Pontecorvo
, producer = Antonio MusuSaadi Yacef
, writer = Franco Solinas
, story = Franco SolinasGillo Pontecorvo
, starring = Jean MartinSaadi YacefBrahim H ...
'', 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 ''Animal Trilogy'', ''1900
As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15), 2 ...
'', '' Exorcist II'', ''Days of Heaven
''Days of Heaven'' is a 1978 American romantic period drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick, and starring Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard and Linda Manz. Set in 1916, it tells the story of Bill and Abby, lovers who travel ...
'', several major films in French cinema, in particular the comedy trilogy '' La Cage aux Folles I'', '' II'', '' III'' and ''Le Professionnel
''The Professional'' (original title: ''Le Professionnel''; ) is a 1981 French action thriller film directed by Georges Lautner. The film stars Jean-Paul Belmondo as the title role. The film is based on award-winning 1976 novel ''Death of a Th ...
'', as well as '' The Thing'', ''Once Upon a Time in America
''Once Upon a Time in America'' ( it, C'era una volta in America) is a 1984 epic crime film co-written and directed by Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone and starring Robert De Niro and James Woods. The film is an Italian–American venture prod ...
'', '' The Mission'', ''The Untouchables
Untouchables or The Untouchables may refer to:
American history
* Untouchables (law enforcement), a 1930s American law enforcement unit led by Eliot Ness
* ''The Untouchables'' (book), an autobiography by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley
* ''The U ...
'', ''Mission to Mars
''Mission to Mars'' is a 2000 American science fiction adventure film directed by Brian De Palma, written by Jim Thomas, John Thomas, and Graham Yost, and suggested by Disney's theme park attraction of the same name. The film depicts the first ...
'', '' Bugsy'', ''Disclosure
Disclosure may refer to:
Arts and media
* ''Disclosure'' (The Gathering album), 2012
*Disclosure (band), a UK-based garage/electronic duo
* ''Disclosure'' (novel), 1994 novel written by Michael Crichton
** ''Disclosure'' (1994 film), an American ...
'', ''In the Line of Fire
''In the Line of Fire'' is a 1993 American political action thriller film directed by Wolfgang Petersen and starring Clint Eastwood, John Malkovich and Rene Russo. Written by Jeff Maguire, the film is about a disillusioned and obsessed former C ...
'', ''Bulworth
''Bulworth'' is a 1998 American political satire black comedy film co-written, co-produced, directed by, and starring Warren Beatty. It co-stars Halle Berry, Oliver Platt, Don Cheadle, Paul Sorvino, Jack Warden, and Isaiah Washington. The film fo ...
'', ''Ripley's Game
''Ripley's Game'' (1974) is a psychological thriller by Patricia Highsmith, the third in her series about the con artist and murderer Tom Ripley.
Plot summary
Tom Ripley continues enjoying his wealthy lifestyle in Villeperce, France, with his w ...
'', and ''The Hateful Eight
''The Hateful Eight'' (sometimes marketed as ''The H8ful Eight'' or ''The Hateful 8'') is a 2015 American Western mystery thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leig ...
''. His score to ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'' (1966) is regarded as one of the most recognizable and influential soundtracks in history. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame
The Grammy Hall of Fame is a hall of fame to honor musical recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance. Inductees are selected annually by a special member committee of eminent and knowledgeable professionals from all branches of ...
.
After playing the trumpet in jazz bands in the 1940s, he became a studio arranger for RCA Victor
RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Aris ...
and in 1955 started ghost writing
A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...
for film and theatre. Throughout his career, he composed music for artists such as Paul Anka
Paul Albert Anka (born July 30, 1941) is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter and actor. He is best known for his signature hit songs including " Diana", " Lonely Boy", "Put Your Head on My Shoulder", and " (You're) Having My Baby". Anka also ...
, Mina, Milva
Maria Ilva Biolcati, (; 17 July 1939 – 23 April 2021), known as Milva (), was an Italian singer, stage and film actress, and television personality. She was also known as ''La Rossa'' (Italian for "The Redhead"), due to the characteristic co ...
, Zucchero
Adelmo Fornaciari (; born 25 September 1955), more commonly known by his stage name Zucchero Fornaciari or simply Zucchero (), is an Italian singer, musician and songwriter. His stage name is the Italian word for "sugar", as his elementary teach ...
, and Andrea Bocelli
Andrea Bocelli (; born 22 September 1958) is an Italian tenor and multi-instrumentalist. He was born visually impaired, with congenital glaucoma, and at the age of 12, Bocelli became completely blind, following a brain hemorrhage resulting fr ...
. From 1960 to 1975, Morricone gained international fame for composing music for Westerns
The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...
and—with an estimated 10 million copies sold—''Once Upon a Time in the West
''Once Upon a Time in the West'' ( , "Once upon a time (there was) the West") is a 1968 epic Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone, who co-wrote it with Sergio Donati based on a story by Dario Argento, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Leone ...
'' is one of the best-selling scores worldwide. From 1966 to 1980, he was a main member of Il Gruppo, one of the first experimental
An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when ...
composers collectives, and in 1969 he co-founded Forum Music Village
Forum Music Village (previously called Ortophonic Recording Studio) is a recording studio located in Rome, Italy underneath the Sacro Cuore di Maria. It was founded by Ennio Morricone, Armando Trovajoli, Luis Bacalov and Piero Piccioni with the st ...
, a prestigious recording studio. From the 1970s, Morricone excelled in Hollywood, composing for prolific American directors such as Don Siegel
Donald Siegel ( ; October 26, 1912 – April 20, 1991) was an American film and television director and producer.
Siegel was described by ''The New York Times'' as "a director of tough, cynical and forthright action-adventure films whose taut ...
, Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols (born Michael Igor Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) was an American film and theater director, producer, actor, and comedian. He was noted for his ability to work across a range of genres and for his aptitude fo ...
, Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma (born September 11, 1940) is an American film director and screenwriter. With a career spanning over 50 years, he is best known for his work in the suspense, crime and psychological thriller genres. De Palma was a leading ...
, Barry Levinson
Barry Lee Levinson (born April 6, 1942) is an American filmmaker, comedian and actor. Levinson's best-known works are mid-budget comedy drama and drama films such as '' Diner'' (1982); ''The Natural'' (1984); ''Good Morning, Vietnam'' (1987); ' ...
, Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Stone won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay as writer of '' Midnight Express'' (1978), and wrote the gangster film remake '' Sc ...
, Warren Beatty
Henry Warren Beatty (né Beaty; born March 30, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker, whose career spans over six decades. He was nominated for 15 Academy Awards, including four for Best Actor, four for Best Picture, two for Best Director, ...
, John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, actor, and composer. Although he worked in various film genres, he is most commonly associated with horror, action, and science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s. He ...
, and Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, Black comedy, dark humor, Nonlinear narrative, non-lin ...
. In 1977, he composed the official theme for the 1978 FIFA World Cup
The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It was held in Argentina between 1 and 25 June.
The Cup was won by t ...
. He continued to compose music for European productions, such as ''Marco Polo
Marco Polo (, , ; 8 January 1324) was a Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known as ''Book of the Marv ...
'', '' La piovra'', ''Nostromo
''Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard'' is a 1904 novel by Joseph Conrad, set in the fictitious South American republic of "Costaguana". It was originally published serially in monthly instalments of '' T.P.'s Weekly''.
In 1998, the Modern Lib ...
'', '' Fateless'', '' Karol'', and '' En mai, fais ce qu'il te plait''. Morricone's music has been reused in television series, including ''The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...
'' and ''The Sopranos
''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The story revolves around Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey-based American Mafia, Italian-American mobster, portraying h ...
'', and in many films, including ''Inglourious Basterds
''Inglourious Basterds'' is a 2009 war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger and Mélanie Laurent. The film tells an alter ...
'' and ''Django Unchained
''Django Unchained'' () is a 2012 American revisionist Western film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson, with Walton Goggins, Dennis Ch ...
''. He also scored seven Westerns for Sergio Corbucci
Sergio Corbucci (; 6 December 1926 – 1 December 1990) was an Italian film director, screenwriter and producer. He directed both very violent Spaghetti Westerns and bloodless Bud Spencer and Terence Hill action comedies.
He is the older bro ...
, Duccio Tessari
Duccio Tessari (11 October 1926 – 6 September 1994) was an Italian director, screenwriter and actor, considered one of the fathers of Spaghetti Westerns.
Born in Genoa, Tessari started in the fifties as documentarist and as screenwriter of pe ...
's '' Ringo'' duology and Sergio Sollima
Sergio Sollima (17 April 1921 – 1 July 2015) was an Italian film director and script writer.
Biography
Sollima graduated from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in 1935. During World War II he was in the Italian Resistance.
After the ...
's ''The Big Gundown
''The Big Gundown'' ( it, La resa dei conti, lit=The Settling of Scores) is a 1966 Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Sollima, and starring Lee Van Cleef and Tomas Milian.
Plot
Possessing a reputation for bringing criminals to justice, ...
'' and '' Face to Face''. Morricone worked extensively for other film genres with directors such as Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci (; 16 March 1941 – 26 November 2018) was an Italian film director and screenwriter with a career that spanned 50 years. Considered one of the greatest directors in Italian cinema, Bertolucci's work achieved international ...
, Mauro Bolognini
Mauro Bolognini (28 June 1922 – 14 May 2001) was an Italian film and stage director of literate sensibility, known for his masterly handling of period subject matter.
Early years
Bolognini was born in Pistoia, in the Tuscany region of Italy. ...
, Giuliano Montaldo
Giuliano Montaldo (born 22 February 1930) is an Italian film director.
Biography
While he was still a young student, Montaldo was recruited by the director Carlo Lizzani for the role of leading actor in the film ''Achtung! Banditi!'' (1951). ...
, Roland Joffé
Roland Joffé (born 17 November 1945) is a British director and producer of film and television, known for the Academy Award-winning films ''The Killing Fields'' and '' The Mission''. He began his career in television, his early credits inclu ...
, Roman Polanski
Raymond Roman Thierry Polański , group=lower-alpha, name=note_a (né Liebling; 18 August 1933) is a French-Polish film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, two ...
, Henri Verneuil
Henri Verneuil (; born Ashot Malakian; 15 October 1920 – 11 January 2002) was a French-Armenian playwright and filmmaker, who made a successful career in France. He was nominated for Oscar and Palme d'Or awards, and won Locarno International ...
, Mario Bava
Mario Bava (31 July 1914 – 27 April 1980) was an Italian filmmaker who worked variously as a director, cinematographer, special effects artist and screenwriter, frequently referred to as the "Master of Italian Horror" and the "Master of the M ...
, Lucio Fulci
Lucio Fulci (; 17 June 1927 – 13 March 1996) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. Although he worked in a wide array of genres through a career spanning nearly five decades, including comedies and Spaghetti Westerns, he garn ...
, Umberto Lenzi
Umberto Lenzi (6 August 1931 – 19 October 2017) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and novelist.
A fan of film since young age, Lenzi studied at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and made his first film in 1958 which went unr ...
, and Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, filmmaker, writer and intellectual who also distinguished himself as a journalist, novelist, translator, playwright, visual artist and actor. He is considered one of ...
. His acclaimed soundtrack for '' The Mission'' (1986), was certified gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
in the United States. The album '' Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone'' stayed for 105 weeks on the ''Billboard'' Top Classical Albums.
Morricone's best-known compositions include "The Ecstasy of Gold
"The Ecstasy of Gold" ( it, L'estasi dell'oro) is a musical composition by Ennio Morricone, part of his score for the 1966 Sergio Leone film ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly''. It is played while Tuco (Eli Wallach) is frantically searching a ce ...
", " Se telefonando", " Man with a Harmonica", " Here's to You", the UK No. 2 single "Chi Mai
"Chi Mai" (Italian: whoever) is a composition by Ennio Morricone written in 1971. It was used in the films ''Maddalena'' directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz (1971)Gabriel's Oboe", and "
In 1941 Morricone was chosen among the students of the Saint Cecilia Conservatory to be a part of the Orchestra of the Opera, directed by
Morricone played a key role in The Group and was among the core members in its revolving line-up; in addition to serving as their trumpet player, he directed them on many occasions and they can be heard on a large number of his scores. Held in high regard in avant-garde music circles, they are considered to be the first experimental composers collective, their only peers being the British improvisation collective AMM. Their influence can be heard in free improvising ensembles from the European movements including the Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, the Swiss electronic free improvisation group
Subsequent to the success of the ''Dollars trilogy'', Morricone also composed the scores for ''Once Upon a Time in the West'' (1968) and Leone's last credited western film '' A Fistful of Dynamite'' (1971), as well as the score for ''
With Leone's films, Ennio Morricone's name had been put firmly on the map. Most of Morricone's film scores of the 1960s were composed outside the Spaghetti Western genre, while still using Alessandroni's team. Their music included the themes for ''Il Malamondo'' (1964), ''Slalom'' (1965), and ''Listen, Let's Make Love'' (1967). In 1968, Morricone reduced his work outside the movie business and wrote scores for 20 films in the same year. The scores included psychedelic accompaniment for
accessed September 2011. Morricone's main theme for the film was reflected in Marco Beltrami's film's score of prequel of the 1982 film, which was released in 2011.
HitFix, Guy Lodge, 14 November 2012. Morricone stated the following during a 2001 interview with ''The Guardian'': "I definitely felt that I should have won for ''The Mission''. Especially when you consider that the Oscar winner that year was ''Round Midnight'', which was not an original score. It had a very good arrangement by Herbie Hancock, but it used existing pieces. So there could be no comparison with ''The Mission''. There was a theft!" His score for ''The Mission'' was ranked at number 1 in a poll of the all-time greatest film scores. The top 10 list was compiled by 40 film composers such as Michael Giacchino and Carter Burwell. The score is ranked 23rd on the AFI's list of 25 greatest film scores of all time.
Ennio Morricone: 1928–2020
rogerebert.com & July 2020 The composer won several music awards for his scores in Tornatore's movies. Morricone received a fifth Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe nomination for ''Malèna''. For ''Legend of 1900'', he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score.Bizio, Silvio
In Memoriam: Ennio Morricone, Golden Globe Winner, 1928–2020
goldenglobes.com 6 July 2020 In September 2021 Tornatore presented out of competition at the 78th Venice International Film Festival a documentary film about Morricone, ''Ennio (film), Ennio''.
Morricone wrote the score for Sicilian Mafia, the Mafia television series '' La piovra'' seasons 2 to 10 from 1985 to 2001, including the themes "Droga e sangue" ("Drugs and Blood"), "La Morale", and "L'Immorale". Morricone worked as the conductor of seasons 3 to 5 of the series. He also worked as the music supervisor for the television project ''La bibbia'' ("The Bible").
In the late 1990s, he collaborated with his son Andrea on the ''Ultimo'' crime dramas, resulting in ''Ultimo'' (1998), ''Ultimo 2 – La sfida'' (1999), ''Ultimo 3 – L'infiltrato'' (2004) and ''Ultimo 4 – L'occhio del falco'' (2013). For ''Canone inverso'' (2000) based on the music-themed novel of the same name by the Paolo Maurensig, directed by Ricky Tognazzi and starring Hans Matheson, Morricone won Best Score awards in the David di Donatello, David di Donatello Awards and Silver Ribbons.
In the 2000s, Morricone continued to compose music for successful television series such as ''Il Cuore nel Pozzo'' (2005), ''Karol: A Man Who Became Pope'' (2005), ''La provinciale'' (2006), ''Giovanni Falcone'' (2007), ''Pane e libertà'' (2009) and ''Come Un Delfino 1–2'' (2011–2013).
Morricone provided the string arrangements on Morrissey's "Dear God Please Help Me" from the album ''Ringleader of the Tormentors'' in 2006.
In 2008, the composer recorded music for a Lancia commercial, featuring Richard Gere and directed by Harald Zwart (known for directing ''The Pink Panther 2'').
In spring and summer 2010, Morricone worked with Hayley Westenra for a collaboration on her album ''Paradiso (Hayley Westenra album), Paradiso''. The album features new songs written by Morricone, as well as some of his best-known film compositions of the last 50 years. Westenra recorded the album with Morricone's orchestra in Rome during the summer of 2010.
Since 1995, he composed the music for several advertising campaigns of Dolce & Gabbana. The commercials were directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.
In 2013, Morricone collaborated with Italian singer-songwriter Laura Pausini on a new version of her hit single "La solitudine" for her 20 years anniversary greatest hits album ''20 – The Greatest Hits (Laura Pausini album), 20 – The Greatest Hits''.
Morricone composed the music for ''The Best Offer'' (2013) by Giuseppe Tornatore.
He wrote the score for Christian Carion's '' En mai, fais ce qu'il te plait'' (2015) and the most recent movie by Tornatore: ''The Correspondence'' (2016), featuring Jeremy Irons and Olga Kurylenko. In July 2015, Quentin Tarantino announced after the screening of footage of his movie ''The Hateful Eight'' at the San Diego Comic-Con International that Morricone would score the film, the first Western that Morricone scored since 1981. The score was critically acclaimed and won several awards including the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and the Academy Award for Best Original Score.
In June 2015, Morricone premiered his ''Missa Papae Francisci (Mass for Pope Francis)'' at Rome's Chiesa del Gesù with the Orchestra Roma Sinfonietta and choruses from the Accademia Santa Cecilia and the Rome Opera Theater.
Before receiving his diplomas in trumpet, composition and instrumentation from the conservatory, Morricone was already active as a trumpet player, often performing in an orchestra that specialised in music written for films. After completing his education at Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Saint Cecilia, the composer honed his orchestration skills as an arranger for Italian radio and television. In order to support himself, he moved to RCA in the early sixties and entered the front ranks of the Italian recording industry. Since 1964, Morricone was also a founding member of the Rome-based avant-garde ensemble Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza. During the existence of the group (until 1978), Morricone performed several times with the group as trumpet player.
To ready his music for live performance, he joined smaller pieces of music together into longer Suite (music), suites. Rather than single pieces, which would require the audience to applaud every few minutes, Morricone thought the best idea was to create a series of suites lasting from 15 to 20 minutes, which form a sort of symphony in various Movement (music), movements – alternating successful pieces with personal favourites. In concert, Morricone normally had 180 to 200 musicians and vocalists under his baton, performing multiple genre-crossing collections of music. Rock, symphonic and ethnic instruments share the stage.
On 20 September 1984 Morricone conducted the Orchestre national des Pays de la Loire at ''Cinésymphonie '84'' ("Première nuit de la musique de film/First night of film music") in the French concert hall Salle Pleyel in Paris. He performed some of his best-known compositions such as ''
theflorencenewspaper.com, 12 October 2012 The composer started a world tour in 2001, the latter part sponsored by Giorgio Armani, with the Orchestra Roma Sinfonietta, touring London (Barbican 2001; 75th birthday ''Concerto'', Royal Albert Hall 2003), Paris, Verona, and Tokyo. Morricone performed his classic film scores at the Gasteig in Munich in 2004.
He made his North American concert debut on 3 February 2007 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The previous evening, Morricone had already presented at the United Nations a concert comprising some of his film themes, as well as the cantata ''Voci dal silenzio'' to welcome the new Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. A ''Los Angeles Times'' review bemoaned the poor acoustics and opined of Morricone: "His stick technique is adequate, but his charisma as a conductor is zero."
On 22 December 2012 Morricone conducted the 85-piece Belgian orchestra "Orkest der Lage Landen" and a 100-piece choir during a two-hour concert in the Sportpaleis in Antwerp.
In November 2013 Morricone began a world tour to coincide with the 50th anniversary of his film music career and performed in locations such as the Crocus City Hall in Moscow, Santiago, Chile, Berlin, Germany (Mercedes-Benz Arena (Berlin), O2 World, Germany), Budapest, Hungary, and Vienna (Stadhalle). Back in June 2014, Morricone had to cancel a US tour in New York (Barclays Center) and Los Angeles (Microsoft Theater, Nokia Theatre LA Live) due to a back procedure on 20 February. Morricone postponed the rest of his world tour.
In November 2014 Morricone stated that he would resume his European tour starting from February 2015.
''www.theparisreview.org'', accessed 9 September 2020 Over the years, Morricone played chess with many big names including GMs Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, Judit Polgar, and Peter Leko. He once held GM Boris Spassky to a draw in a simultaneous competition with 27 players, where Morricone was the last one standing. On 6 July 2020, Morricone died at the Università Campus Bio-Medico in Rome, aged 91, as a result of injuries sustained to his femur during a fall. Following a private funeral in the hospital's chapel, he was entombed in Cimitero Laurentino.
Morricone received his first Academy Awards, Academy Award nomination in 1979 for the score to ''Days of Heaven'' (Terrence Malick, 1978).
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences, accessed September 2011. He received his second Oscar nomination for '' The Mission''. He also received Oscar nominations for his scores to ''
''Ennio Morricone Fans Handbook''
2013 (China). * Sorce Keller, Marcello. "The Morricone Paradox: A Film Music Genius Who Missed Writing Symphonies". ''Asian-European Music Research Journal'' (AEMR). 6 (2020): 111–113.
Ennio Morricone
Myspace * *
Streaming audio of Morricone's "The Man with the Harmonica", from his soundtrack to ''Once upon a Time in the West''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morricone, Ennio Ennio Morricone, 1928 births 2020 deaths 20th-century classical composers 20th-century Italian composers 20th-century Italian conductors (music) 20th-century Italian male musicians 21st-century classical composers 21st-century Italian composers 21st-century Italian conductors (music) 21st-century Italian male musicians Academy Honorary Award recipients Accidental deaths in Italy Best Original Music BAFTA Award winners Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners Conservatorio Santa Cecilia alumni David di Donatello winners Accidental deaths from falls European Film Award for Best Composer winners Golden Globe Award-winning musicians Grammy Award winners Italian classical composers Italian film score composers Italian male classical composers Italian male conductors (music) Italian music arrangers Italian male film score composers Male television composers Musicians from Rome Nastro d'Argento winners People of Lazian descent Recipients of the Italian Order of Merit for Culture and Art Spaghetti Western composers Third Man Records artists Virgin Records artists
E Più Ti Penso
"E Più Ti Penso" ("The more I think of you" in English), alternatively titled "E Più Ti Penso (from ''Once Upon a Time in America'')" is an Italian song originally written by Ennio Morricone, Mogol, and Tony Renis for the movie ''Once Upon a ...
". In 1971, he received a " Targa d'Oro" for worldwide sales of 22 million, and by 2016 Morricone had sold more than 70 million records worldwide. In 2007, he received the Academy Honorary Award
The Academy Honorary Award – instituted in 1950 for the 23rd Academy Awards (previously called the Special Award, which was first presented at the 1st Academy Awards in 1929) – is given annually by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Moti ...
"for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music". He was nominated for a further six Oscars
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
, and in 2016, received his only competitive Academy Award for his score to Quentin Tarantino's film ''The Hateful Eight'', at the time becoming the oldest person ever to win a competitive Oscar. His other achievements include three Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
s, three Golden Globes, six BAFTAs, ten David di Donatello, eleven Nastro d'Argento
The Nastro d'Argento, also known by its translated name Silver Ribbon, is an Italian film award awarded each year since 1946 by the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists (Italian: ''Sindacato Nazionale Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani ...
, two European Film Awards
The European Film Awards (or European Film Academy Awards) have been presented annually since 1988 by the European Film Academy to recognize excellence in European cinematic achievements. The awards are given in 19 categories, of which the mo ...
, the Golden Lion Honorary Award, and the Polar Music Prize
The Polar Music Prize is a Swedish international award founded in 1989 by Stig Anderson, best known as the manager of the Swedish band ABBA, with a donation to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. The award is annually given to one contemporary ...
in 2010. Morricone influenced many artists from film scoring to other styles and genres, including Hans Zimmer
Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Academy Awards, Oscars and four Grammy Awards, Grammys, and has been nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards, Emmys and a Tony Awar ...
, Danger Mouse, Dire Straits
Dire Straits were a British rock band formed in London in 1977 by Mark Knopfler (lead vocals and lead guitar), David Knopfler (rhythm guitar and backing vocals), John Illsley (bass guitar and backing vocals) and Pick Withers (drums and percuss ...
, Muse
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...
, Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...
, Fields of the Nephilim
Fields of the Nephilim are an English gothic rock band formed in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, in 1984. The band's name refers to a Biblical race of angel-human hybrids known as the Nephilim.
Career Early years (1984–1991)
Fields of the Nep ...
, and Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...
.
Early life and education
Morricone was born in Rome, the son of Libera Ridolfi and Mario Morricone, a musician. At the time of his birthItaly
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
was under fascist
Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...
rule. His family came from Arpino
Arpino (Southern Latian dialect: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the province of Frosinone, in the Latin Valley, region of Lazio in central Italy, about 100 km SE of Rome. Its Roman name was Arpinum. The town produced two consuls of the R ...
, near Frosinone
Frosinone (, local dialect: ) is a town and ''comune'' in Lazio, central Italy, the administrative seat of the province of Frosinone. It is located about south-east of Rome close to the Rome-Naples A1 Motorway. The city is the main city of the Va ...
. Morricone had four siblings — Adriana, Aldo, Maria, and Franca — and lived in Trastevere in the centre of Rome. His father was a professional trumpeter who performed in light-music orchestras while his mother set up a small textile business. During his early schooldays, Morricone was also a classmate of his later collaborator Sergio Leone
Sergio Leone (; 3 January 1929 – 30 April 1989) was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter credited as the pioneer of the Spaghetti Western genre and widely regarded as one of the most influential directors in the history of cin ...
.
Morricone's father first taught him to read music and to play several instruments. He entered the Saint Cecilia Conservatory to take trumpet lessons under the guidance of Umberto Semproni. He formally entered the conservatory in 1940 at age 12, enrolling in a four-year harmony program that he completed within six months. He studied the trumpet, composition, and choral music
A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...
under the direction of Goffredo Petrassi
Goffredo Petrassi (16 July 1904 – 3 March 2003) was an Italian composer of modern classical music, conductor, and teacher. He is considered one of the most influential Italian composers of the twentieth century.Petrassi, Goffredo. (2008). ...
, to whom Morricone would later dedicate concert pieces.
In 1941 Morricone was chosen among the students of the Saint Cecilia Conservatory to be a part of the Orchestra of the Opera, directed by Carlo Zecchi
Carlo Zecchi (8 July 190331 August 1984) was an Italian pianist, music teacher and conductor.
Zecchi was born in Rome. A pupil of F. Baiardi for piano and of L. Refice and A. Bustini for composition, he began his career as a concert pianist at o ...
on the occasion of a tour of the Veneto
Veneto (, ; vec, Vèneto ) or Venetia is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about five million, ranking fourth in Italy. The region's capital is Venice while the biggest city is Verona.
Veneto was part of the Roman Empire unt ...
region. He received his diploma in trumpet in 1946, continuing to work in classical composition and arrangement. Morricone received the ''Diploma in Instrumentation for Band Arrangement'' with a mark of 9/10 in 1952. His studies concluded at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in 1954 when he obtained a final 9.5/10 in his ''Diploma in Composition'' under Petrassi.
Career
First compositions
Morricone wrote his first compositions when he was six years old and he was encouraged to develop his natural talents. In 1946, he composed "Il Mattino" ("The Morning") for voice and piano on a text by Fukuko, first in a group of seven "youth" Lieder. In the following years, he continued to write music for the theatre as well as classical music for voice and piano, such as "Imitazione", based on a text by Italian poetGiacomo Leopardi
Count Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi (, ; 29 June 1798 – 14 June 1837) was an Italian philosopher, poet, essayist, and philologist. He is considered the greatest Italian poet of the nineteenth century and one of ...
, "Intimità", based on a text by Olinto Dini, "Distacco I" and "Distacco II" with words by R. Gnoli, "Oboe Sommerso" for baritone and five instruments with words by poet Salvatore Quasimodo
Salvatore Quasimodo (; August 20, 1901 – June 14, 1968) was an Italian poet and translator. In 1959, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own time ...
, and "Verrà la Morte", for alto and piano, based on a text by novelist Cesare Pavese.
In 1953, Morricone was asked by Gorni Kramer
Gorni Kramer (22 July 1913 – 26 October 1995) was an Italian songwriter, musician and band leader.
Biography
He was born Francesco Kramer Gorni at Rivarolo Mantovano (Lombardy). Despite the exotic sound of Gorni Kramer in the Italian lang ...
and Lelio Luttazzi
Lelio Luttazzi (27 April 1923 – 8 July 2010) was an Italian composer, musician, actor, singer, conductor, writer, and television and radio presenter.
Born in Trieste, Luttazzi began playing the piano at Radio Trieste and composing his first s ...
to write an arrangement for some medleys in an American style for a series of evening radio shows. The composer continued with the composition of other 'serious' classical pieces, thus demonstrating the flexibility and eclecticism that always has been an integral part of his character. Many orchestral and chamber compositions date, in fact, from the period between 1954 and 1959: ''Musica per archi e pianoforte'' (1954), ''Invenzione, Canone e Ricercare per piano''; ''Sestetto per flauto, oboe, fagotto, violino, viola, e violoncello'' (1955), ''Dodici Variazione per oboe, violoncello, e piano''; ''Trio per clarinetto, corno, e violoncello''; ''Variazione su un tema di Frescobaldi'' (1956); ''Quattro pezzi per chitarra'' (1957); ''Distanze per violino, violoncello, e piano''; ''Musica per undici violini, Tre Studi per flauto, clarinetto, e fagotto'' (1958); and the ''Concerto per orchestra'' (1957), dedicated to his teacher Goffredo Petrassi
Goffredo Petrassi (16 July 1904 – 3 March 2003) was an Italian composer of modern classical music, conductor, and teacher. He is considered one of the most influential Italian composers of the twentieth century.Petrassi, Goffredo. (2008). ...
.
Morricone soon gained popularity by writing his first background music for radio dramas and quickly moved into film.
Composing for radio, television, and pop artists
Morricone's career as an arranger began in 1950, by arranging the piece ''Mamma Bianca'' (Narciso Parigi). On occasion of the " Anno Santo" (Holy Year
A jubilee is a special year of remission of sins and universal pardon. In ''Leviticus'', a Jubilee (biblical), jubilee year ( he, יובל ''yūḇāl'') is mentioned to occur every 50th year; during which slaves and prisoners would be freed, deb ...
), he arranged a long group of popular songs of devotion for radio broadcasting.
In 1956, Morricone started to support his family by playing in a jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
band and arranging
In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchest ...
pop songs for the Italian broadcasting service RAI
RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...
. He was hired by RAI
RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...
in 1958 but quit his job on his first day at work when he was told that broadcasting of music composed by employees was forbidden by a company rule. Subsequently, Morricone became a top studio arranger at RCA Victor, working with Renato Rascel
Renato Rascel (), stage name of Renato Ranucci (; 27 April 1912 – 2 January 1991), was an Italian film actor and singer. He appeared in 50 films between 1942 and 1972. He represented Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1960 with the s ...
, Rita Pavone, Domenico Modugno, and Mario Lanza
Mario Lanza (, ; born Alfredo Arnold Cocozza ; January 31, 1921 – October 7, 1959) was an American tenor and actor. He was a Hollywood film star popular in the late 1940s and the 1950s. Lanza began studying to be a professional singer at ...
.
Throughout his career, Morricone composed songs for several national and international jazz and pop artists, including Gianni Morandi
Gianni Morandi (; born 11 December 1944) is an Italian pop singer, actor and entertainer.
Early life
Gian Luigi Morandi was born in a little village called Monghidoro on the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines. His father Renato was active within the ...
(''Go Kart Twist'', 1962), Alberto Lionello
Alberto Lionello (12 July 1930 – 14 July 1994) was an Italian film actor, voice actor, singer and presenter.
Life and career
Born in Milan into a family of Venetian origins, after studying acting at the Accademia dei Filodrammatici Lione ...
(''La donna che vale'', 1959), Edoardo Vianello
Edoardo Vianello (born 24 June 1938) is an Italian singer, composer and actor. He's considered one of the most popular Italian singers of the Sixties. Career
Born in Rome, Vianello started his career in 1956. His first successes came in 1961, w ...
(''Ornella'', 1960; ''Cicciona cha-cha'', 1960; ''Faccio finta di dormire'', 1961; ''T'ho conosciuta'', 1963; and also ''Pinne, fucine ed occhiali'', ''I Watussi'' and ''Guarda come dondolo''), Nora Orlandi (''Arianna'', 1960), Jimmy Fontana
Jimmy Fontana (13 November 1934 – 11 September 2013) was an Italian actor, composer and singer-songwriter. Two of his most famous songs are " Che sarà", performed also by José Feliciano with Ricchi e Poveri, and " Il Mondo".
Biography
Born ...
(''Twist no. 9''; ''Nicole'', 1962), Rita Pavone (''Come te non c'e' nessuno'' and ''Pel di carota'' from 1962, arranged by Luis Bacalov
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 the conductor of the Berlin, and Chicago orchestras, and also Berta Sujovolsky ...
), Catherine Spaak (''Penso a te''; ''Questi vent'anni miei'', 1964), Luigi Tenco
Luigi Tenco (21 March 1938 – 27 January 1967) was an Italian singer-songwriter.
Biography
Tenco was born in Cassine (province of Alessandria) in 1938, the son of Teresa Zoccola and Giuseppe Tenco. He never knew his father, who died in uncle ...
(''Quello che conta''; ''Tra tanta gente''; 1962), Gino Paoli
Gino Paoli (; born 23 September 1934 in Monfalcone) is an Italian singer-songwriter. He is a seminal figure who has written a number of songs widely regarded as classics in Italian popular music, including: " Il cielo in una stanza", "Che cosa ...
(''Nel corso'' from 1963, written by Morricone with Paoli), Renato Rascel
Renato Rascel (), stage name of Renato Ranucci (; 27 April 1912 – 2 January 1991), was an Italian film actor and singer. He appeared in 50 films between 1942 and 1972. He represented Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1960 with the s ...
(''Scirocco'', 1964), Paul Anka (''Ogni Volta''), Amii Stewart, Rosy Armen (''L'Amore Gira''), Milva
Maria Ilva Biolcati, (; 17 July 1939 – 23 April 2021), known as Milva (), was an Italian singer, stage and film actress, and television personality. She was also known as ''La Rossa'' (Italian for "The Redhead"), due to the characteristic co ...
(''Ridevi'', ''Metti Una Sera A Cena''), Françoise Hardy
Françoise Madeleine Hardy (; born 17 January 1944) is a French former singer and songwriter. Mainly known for singing melancholic sentimental ballads, Hardy has been an important figure in French pop music since her debut, spanning a career of ...
(''Je changerais d'avis'', 1966), Mireille Mathieu
Mireille Mathieu (; born 22 July 1946) is a French singer. She has recorded over 1200 songs in eleven languages, with more than 122 million records sold worldwide.
Biography and career
Early years
Mireille Mathieu was born on 22 July 1946 in A ...
(''Mon ami de toujours''; ''Pas vu, pas pris'', 1971; ''J'oublie la pluie et le soleil'', 1974), and Demis Roussos
Artemios "Demis" Ventouris-Roussos ( ; el, Αρτέμιος "Ντέμης" Βεντούρης-Ρούσσος, ; 15 June 1946 – 25 January 2015) was a Greek singer, songwriter and musician. As a band member he is best remembered for his work in ...
(''I Like The World'', 1970).
In 1963, the composer co-wrote (with Roby Ferrante) the music for the composition "Ogni volta" ("Every Time"), a song that was performed by Paul Anka
Paul Albert Anka (born July 30, 1941) is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter and actor. He is best known for his signature hit songs including " Diana", " Lonely Boy", "Put Your Head on My Shoulder", and " (You're) Having My Baby". Anka also ...
for the first time during the Festival di Sanremo
The Sanremo Music Festival, officially the Italian Song Festival () and commonly known as just (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria. It is the longest-running annual ...
in 1964. This song was arranged and conducted by Morricone and sold more than three million copies worldwide, including one million copies in Italy alone.
Another success was his composition "Se telefonando". Performed by Mina, it was a track on '' Studio Uno 66'', the 4th studio album by Mina. Morricone's sophisticated arrangement of "Se telefonando" was a combination of melodic trumpet lines, Hal Blaine
Hal Blaine (born Harold Simon Belsky; February 5, 1929 – March 11, 2019) was an American drummer and session musician, thought to be among the most recorded studio drummers in the music industry, claiming over 35,000 sessions and 6,000 singles. ...
–style drumming, a string set, a 1960s Europop
Europop (also spelled Euro pop) is a style of pop music that originated in Europe during the mid-to-late 1960s and developed to today's form throughout the late 1970s. Europop topped the charts throughout the 1980s and 1990s, with revivals and ...
female choir
A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...
, and intensive subsonic-sounding trombones. The Italian Hitparade No. 7 song had eight transitions of tonality
Tonality is the arrangement of pitches and/or chords of a musical work in a hierarchy of perceived relations, stabilities, attractions and directionality. In this hierarchy, the single pitch or triadic chord with the greatest stability is call ...
building tension throughout the chorus. During the following decades, the song was recorded by several performers in Italy and abroad including covers by Françoise Hardy
Françoise Madeleine Hardy (; born 17 January 1944) is a French former singer and songwriter. Mainly known for singing melancholic sentimental ballads, Hardy has been an important figure in French pop music since her debut, spanning a career of ...
and Iva Zanicchi
Iva or IVA may refer to:
Organizations
* Independent Voters Association, a North Dakota U.S. political organization
* Informationsvidenskabelige Akademi, a Danish university
* Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, (Swedish: ''Kungliga Ing ...
(1966), Delta V
Delta-''v'' (more known as "change in velocity"), symbolized as ∆''v'' and pronounced ''delta-vee'', as used in spacecraft flight dynamics, is a measure of the impulse per unit of spacecraft mass that is needed to perform a maneuver such as ...
(2005), Vanessa and the O's
Vanessa and the O's is a musical group formed in 2003/2004. It was created in New York City when Parisian Vanessa Contenay-Quinones (known for Allez Pop!) got together with Swedish musical collaborators Andreas Mattsson (Popsicle) and Niclas Fris ...
(2007), and Neil Hannon
Edward Neil Anthony Hannon (born 7 November 1970) is a Northern Irish singer and songwriter. He is the creator and front man of the chamber pop group The Divine Comedy, and is the band's sole constant member. Hannon wrote the theme tunes for ...
(2008). ''Françoise Hardy – Mon amie la rose'' site in the reader's poll conducted by the newspaper'' la Repubblica
''la Repubblica'' (; the Republic) is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and led by Eugenio Scalfari, Carlo Caracciolo and Arnoldo ...
'' to celebrate Mina's 70th anniversary in 2010, 30,000 voters picked the track as the best song ever recorded by Mina.
In 1987, Morricone co-wrote '' It Couldn't Happen Here'' with the Pet Shop Boys
The Pet Shop Boys are an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1981. Consisting of primary vocalist Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe, they have sold more than 50 million records worldwide, and were listed as the most successful duo i ...
. Other compositions for international artists include: ''La metà di me'' and ''Immagina'' (1988) by Ruggero Raimondi
Ruggero Raimondi (born 3 October 1941) is an Italian bass-baritone opera singer who has also appeared in motion pictures.
Life and career
Early training and career
Ruggero Raimondi was born in Bologna, Italy, during World War II. His voice matu ...
, ''Libera l'amore'' (1989) performed by Zucchero
Adelmo Fornaciari (; born 25 September 1955), more commonly known by his stage name Zucchero Fornaciari or simply Zucchero (), is an Italian singer, musician and songwriter. His stage name is the Italian word for "sugar", as his elementary teach ...
, ''Love Affair'' (1994) by k.d. lang
Kathryn Dawn Lang (born November 2, 1961), known by her stage name k.d. lang, is a Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter and occasional actress. Lang has won Juno Awards and Grammy Awards for her musical performances. Hits include the s ...
, ''Ha fatto un sogno'' (1997) by Antonello Venditti
Antonio "Antonello" Venditti (born 8 March 1949) is an Italian singer-songwriter and pianist who became famous in the 1970s for the social themes of his songs.
Biography
Antonello Venditti was born in Rome, the son of Vincenzino Italo Venditti f ...
, ''Di Più'' (1997) by Tiziana Tosca Donati
Tiziana Donati (born 29 August 1967), better known by the stage name Tosca, is an Italian singer and actress, born on 29 August 1967 in Rome.
She began her artistic career in the small theatre company of Checco Durante, a piano bar in her home to ...
, ''Come un fiume tu'' (1998), ''Un Canto'' (1998) and ''Conradian'' (2006) by Andrea Bocelli, ''Ricordare'' (1998) and ''Salmo'' (2000) by Angelo Branduardi
Angelo Branduardi (born 12 February 1950) is an Italian folk/folk rock singer-songwriter and composer who scored relative success in Italy and European countries such as France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and Greece.
Biography
Branduardi wa ...
, and ''My heart and I'' (2001) by Sting.
First film scores
After graduation in 1954, Morricone started to write and arrange music as aghost writer
A ghostwriter is hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are officially credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often ...
for films credited to already well-known composers, while also arranging for many light music orchestras of the RAI television network, working especially with Armando Trovajoli
Armando Trovajoli (also Trovaioli, 2 September 1917 – 28 February 2013) was an Italian film composer and pianist with over 300 credits as composer and/or conductor, many of them jazz scores for exploitation films of the Commedia all'italiana ...
, Alessandro Cicognini
Alessandro Cicognini (15 January 1906 – 9 November 1995) was an Italian composer who is chiefly remembered for his film scores.
Biography
Born in Pescara, Cicognini graduated with a degree in music composition from the Milan Conservatory in ...
, and Carlo Savina
Carlo Savina (2 August 1919 - 23 June 2002) was an Italian composer and conductor who composed, arranged, and conducted music for films, and is especially remembered for being the music director of films such as ''The Godfather'' (1972), ''Amarc ...
. He occasionally adopted Anglicized pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
s, such as Dan Savio and Leo Nichols.
In 1959, Morricone was the conductor (and uncredited co-composer) for Mario Nascimbene
Mario Nascimbene (28 November 1913 – 6 January 2002) was one of the best known Italian film soundtrack composers of the 20th century. His career spanned six decades, during which time he earned several awards for the innovative contents of his ...
's score to ''Morte di un amico'' (''Death of a Friend
''Death of a Friend'' ( it, Morte di Un Amico) is a 1959 Italian film directed by Franco Rossi, starring Spyros Focas, Gianni Garko, Angela Luce, Anna Mzzuchelli and Didi Perego.
Cast
* Gianni Garko as Aldo
* Spiros Focas as Bruno
* Didi Per ...
''), an Italian drama directed by Franco Rossi. In the same year, he composed music for the theatre show ''Il lieto fine'' by Luciano Salce
Luciano Salce (25 September 1922 – 17 December 1989) was an Italian film director, comedian, tv host, producer, actor and lyricist. His 1962 film ''Le pillole di Ercole'' was shown as part of a retrospective on Italian comedy at the 67th Ve ...
.
1961 marked his real film debut with Luciano Salce's '' Il Federale (The Fascist)''. In an interview with American composer Fred Karlin
Frederick James Karlin (June 16, 1936 – March 26, 2004) was an American composer of more than 130 scores for feature films and television movies. He also was an accomplished trumpeter adept at playing jazz, blues, classical, rock, and mediev ...
, Morricone discussed his beginnings, stating, "My first films were light comedies or costume movies that required simple musical scores that were easily created, a genre that I never completely abandoned even when I went on to much more important films with major directors".
With ''Il Federale'' Morricone began a long-run collaboration with Luciano Salce. In 1962, Morricone composed the jazz-influenced score for Salce's comedy '' La voglia matta (Crazy Desire)''. That year Morricone also arranged Italian singer Edoardo Vianello
Edoardo Vianello (born 24 June 1938) is an Italian singer, composer and actor. He's considered one of the most popular Italian singers of the Sixties. Career
Born in Rome, Vianello started his career in 1956. His first successes came in 1961, w ...
's summer hit "Pinne, fucile, e occhiali", a cha-cha song, peppered with added water effects, unusual instrumental sounds and unexpected stops and starts.
Morricone wrote works for the concert hall in a more avant-garde style. Some of these have been recorded, such as ''Ut'', a trumpet concerto dedicated to Mauro Maur.
The Group and New Consonance
From 1964 up to their eventual disbandment in 1980, Morricone was part of '' Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza'' (G.I.N.C.), a group of composers who performed and recordedavant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
free improvisations. The Rome-based avant-garde ensemble was dedicated to the development of improvisation
Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...
and new music methods. The ensemble functioned as a laboratory of sorts, working with anti-musical systems and sound techniques in an attempt to redefine the new music ensemble and explore "New Consonance".
Known as "The Group" or "Il Gruppo", they released seven albums across the Deutsche Grammophon
Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...
, RCA, and Cramps labels: ''Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza'' (1966), ''The Private Sea of Dreams'' (1967), ''Improvisationen'' (1968), ''The Feedback'' (1970), ''Improvvisazioni a Formazioni Variate'' (1973), ''Nuova Consonanza'' (1975), and ''Musica su Schemi'' (1976). Perhaps the most famous of these is their album entitled ''The Feed-back'', which combines free jazz
Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians during ...
and avant-garde classical music with funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
; the album frequently is sampled by hip hop DJs and is considered to be one of the most collectable records in existence, often fetching more than $1,000 at auction.
Morricone played a key role in The Group and was among the core members in its revolving line-up; in addition to serving as their trumpet player, he directed them on many occasions and they can be heard on a large number of his scores. Held in high regard in avant-garde music circles, they are considered to be the first experimental composers collective, their only peers being the British improvisation collective AMM. Their influence can be heard in free improvising ensembles from the European movements including the Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, the Swiss electronic free improvisation group Voice Crack
Voice Crack was a Swiss electronic free improvisation band. Formed in late 1972 by Andy Guhl and Norbert Möslang, Voice Crack began as a free jazz duo. Then they used pre-recorded tape effects and live sound processing. By 1983 they had elimina ...
, John Zorn
John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conductor, saxophonist, arranger and producer who "deliberately resists category". Zorn's avant-garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation are inclusive of jaz ...
, and in the techniques of modern classical music and avant-garde jazz groups. The ensemble's groundbreaking work informed their work in composition. The ensemble also performed in varying capacities with Morricone, contributing to some of his 1960s and 1970s Italian soundtracks, including '' A Quiet Place in the Country'' (1969) and '' Cold Eyes of Fear'' (1971).
Film music genres
Comedy
Morricone's earliest scores were Italian light comedy and costume pictures, where he learned to write simple, memorable themes. During the 1960s and 1970s he composed the scores for comedies such as ''Eighteen in the Sun
''Eighteen in the Sun'' ( it, Diciottenni al sole, also known as ''Beach Party-Italian Style'') is a 1962 Italian teen comedy film directed by Camillo Mastrocinque.The movie was shot in Naples and in island of Ischia.
Cast
*Catherine Spaak
*Gi ...
'' (''Diciottenni al sole'', 1962), ''Il Successo
''Il Successo'' (also known as ''The Success'') is a 1963 Italian comedy film directed by Mauro Morassi. It is considered an unofficial sequel of Dino Risi's ''Il Sorpasso'', with Vittorio Gassman and Jean-Louis Trintignant reprising their roles w ...
'' (1963), Lina Wertmüller
Arcangela Felice Assunta Wertmüller von Elgg Spanol von Braueich (14 August 1928 – 9 December 2021), known as Lina Wertmüller (), was an Italian film director and screenwriter. She is best known for her 1970s art house films '' Seven Beauti ...
's ''I basilischi
''I basilischi'' (also known as ''The Basilisks'' and ''The Lizards'') is a 1963 Italian drama film. It is the directorial debut of Lina Wertmüller.
It was shown as part of a retrospective "Questi fantasmi: Cinema italiano ritrovato" at the 65t ...
'' (''The Basilisks''/''The Lizards'', 1963), '' Slalom'' (1965), ''Menage all'italiana
''Menage all'italiana'', also known as ''Menage Italian Style'', is a 1965 Italian comedy film about a bigamist who cannot resist getting married again and again. He has eight wives.
Cast
* Ugo Tognazzi: Alfredo
* Anna Moffo: Giovanna
* Maria ...
'' (''Menage Italian Style'', 1965), ''How I Learned to Love Women
''How I Learned to Love Women'' ( it, Come imparai ad amare le donne, french: Comment j'ai appris à aimer les femmes, german: Das gewisse Etwas der Frauen, also known as ''Love Parade'') is a 1966 Italian-French-German comedy film directed by Lu ...
'' (''Come imparai ad amare le donne'', 1966), ''Her Harem
''Her Harem'' ( it, L'harem, released in UK as ''The Harem'') is a 1967 Italian comedy-drama film written and directed by Marco Ferreri and starring Carroll Baker, Gastone Moschin and Renato Salvatori.
Plot
A woman has a number of male lovers so, ...
'' (''L'harem'', 1967), ''A Fine Pair
''A Fine Pair'' (original title ''Ruba al prossimo tuo'') is a 1968 Italian crime-comedy film directed by Francesco Maselli. It stars Rock Hudson and Claudia Cardinale, who had co-starred together two years earlier in the romantic drama, ''Blindfo ...
'' (''Ruba al prossimo tuo'', 1968), '' L'Alibi'' (1969), ''This Kind of Love
''This Kind of Love'' is the 22nd studio album by American singer-songwriter Carly Simon, released by Hear Music, on April 29, 2008.
Simon's first album of original material since ''The Bedroom Tapes'' in 2000, it is also her most recent albu ...
'' (''Questa specie d'amore'', 1972), '' Winged Devils'' (''Forza "G"'', 1972), and ''Fiorina la vacca
''Fiorina la vacca'' (''Fiorina the Cow'') is a 1972 commedia sexy all'italiana directed by Vittorio De Sisti. The film, loosely based on several works by Ruzante, is an example of the '' Decamerotici'' genre popular in the early 1970s.
Plot
Set ...
'' (1972).
His best-known scores for comedies includes '' La Cage aux Folles'' (1978) and ''La Cage aux Folles II
''La Cage aux Folles II'' is a 1980 French comedy film and the sequel to 1978's '' La Cage aux Folles''. It is directed by Édouard Molinaro and stars Michel Serrault as Albin (stage name ZaZa), the female impersonator star of a gay night-club re ...
'' (1980), both directed by Édouard Molinaro
Édouard Molinaro (13 May 1928 – 7 December 2013) was a French film director and screenwriter.
Biography
He was born in Bordeaux, Gironde.
He is best known for his comedies with Louis de Funès (''Oscar'', '' Hibernatus''), '' My Uncle B ...
, '' Il ladrone'' (''The Good Thief'', 1980), Georges Lautner
Georges Lautner (; 24 January 1926 – 22 November 2013) was a French film director and screenwriter, known primarily for his comedies created in collaboration with screenwriter Michel Audiard.
Lautner's ventures into other genres were less ...
's '' La Cage aux Folles 3: The Wedding'' (1985), Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar Caballero (; (often known simply as Almodóvar) born 25 September 1949) is a Spanish filmmaker. His films are marked by melodrama, irreverent humour, bold colour, glossy décor, quotations from popular culture, and complex narr ...
's ''Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
''Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!'' ( es, link=no, ¡Átame!, , "Tie Me!") is a 1989 Spanish dark romantic comedy film co-written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, starring Victoria Abril and Antonio Banderas alongside Loles Léon, Francisco Rabal, J ...
'' (1990) and Warren Beatty's ''Bulworth'' (1998). Morricone never ceased to arrange and write music for comedies. In 2007, he composed a lighthearted score for the Italian romantic comedy ''Tutte le Donne della mia Vita'' by Simona Izzo, the director who co-wrote the Morricone-scored religious mini-series ''Il Papa Buono''.
Westerns
Although his first films were undistinguished, Morricone's arrangement of an American folk song intrigued director and former schoolmateSergio Leone
Sergio Leone (; 3 January 1929 – 30 April 1989) was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter credited as the pioneer of the Spaghetti Western genre and widely regarded as one of the most influential directors in the history of cin ...
. Before being associated with Leone, Morricone already had composed some music for less-known western movies such as ''Duello nel Texas
''Duello nel Texas'', also known as ''Gunfight at Red Sands'' and ''Gringo'', is a 1963 Italian/Spanish international co-production directed by Ricardo Blasco and Mario Caiano, and produced by Albert Band
Albert Band (May 7, 1924 – June 14, 2 ...
'' (aka ''Gunfight at Red Sands'') (1963). In 1962, Morricone met American folksinger Peter Tevis, with the two collaborating on a version of Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter, one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American socialism and anti-fascism. He has inspired ...
's '' Pastures of Plenty''. Tevis is credited with singing the lyrics of Morricone's songs such as "A Gringo Like Me" (from ''Gunfight at Red Sands'') and "Lonesome Billy" (from ''Bullets Don't Argue''). Tevis later recorded a vocal version of ''A Fistful of Dollars'' that was not used in the film.
Association with Sergio Leone
The turning point in Morricone's career took place in 1964, the year in which his third child, Andrea Morricone
Andrea Morricone (born 10 October 1964) is an Italian composer and conductor, known for his film scores. He is the third child, and second son, of late composer and Academy Award winner Ennio Morricone.
He composed the film scores for the Americ ...
, who would also become a film composer, was born. Film director and former schoolmate Sergio Leone hired Morricone, and together they created a distinctive score to accompany Leone's different version of the Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
, ''A Fistful of Dollars
''A Fistful of Dollars'' ( it, Per un pugno di dollari, lit=For a Fistful of Dollars titled on-screen as ''Fistful of Dollars'') is a 1964 Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood in his first leading role, a ...
'' (1964).
The Dollars Trilogy
''Dollars Trilogy'' ( it, link=no, Trilogia del dollaro), also known as the ''Man with No Name Trilogy'' ( it, link=no, Trilogia dell'Uomo senza nome) or the ''Blood Money Trilogy'', is an Italian film series consisting of three Spaghetti Weste ...
Because budget strictures limited Morricone's access to a full orchestra, he used gunshots, cracking whips, whistle, voices, jew's harp, trumpets, and the new Fender electric guitar, instead of orchestral arrangements of Western standards à la John Ford
John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...
. Morricone used his special effects to punctuate and comically tweak the action—cluing in the audience to the taciturn
Taciturn or Taciturnity may refer to:
* HMS ''Taciturn'' (P334), a British submarine of the third group of the T class
* Silence
* Abandonment (legal) (known as ''taciturnity'' in Scots law), failure to assert a legal right in a way that implies ...
man's ironic stance.
As memorable as Leone's close-up
A close-up or closeup in filmmaking, television production, still photography, and the comic strip medium is a type of shot that tightly frames a person or object. Close-ups are one of the standard shots used regularly with medium and long s ...
s, harsh violence, and black comedy, Morricone's work helped to expand the musical possibilities of film scoring. Initially, Morricone was billed on the film as Dan Savio, a name they had used on Duello nel Texas
''Duello nel Texas'', also known as ''Gunfight at Red Sands'' and ''Gringo'', is a 1963 Italian/Spanish international co-production directed by Ricardo Blasco and Mario Caiano, and produced by Albert Band
Albert Band (May 7, 1924 – June 14, 2 ...
to help its appeal on the international market. ''A Fistful of Dollars'' came out in Italy in 1964 and was released in America three years later, greatly popularising the so-called Spaghetti Western
The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...
genre. For the American release, Sergio Leone followed Morricone and Massimo Dallamano
Massimo Dallamano (17 April 1917 – 4 November 1976), sometimes credited as Max Dillman, Max Dillmann or Jack Dalmas, was an Italian director and director of photography.
Life and career
Born in Milan, Dallamano began in the 1940s as camera ...
's lead and decided to adopt an American-sounding name, Bob Robertson. Over the film's theatrical release, it grossed more than any other Italian film up to that point. The film debuted in the United States in January 1967, where it grossed for the year. It eventually grossed $14.5 million in its American release, against its budget of 200,000.
With the score of ''A Fistful of Dollars'', Morricone began his 20-year collaboration with his childhood friend Alessandro Alessandroni
Alessandro Alessandroni (18 March 1925 – 26 March 2017) was an Italian musician and composer. He played multiple
instruments, including the guitar, mandolin, mandolincello, sitar, accordion and piano, and composed more than 40 film scores and ...
and his Cantori Moderni. Alessandroni provided the whistling and the twanging guitar on the film scores, while his Cantori Moderni were a flexible troupe of modern singers. Morricone in particular drew on the solo soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...
of the group, Edda Dell'Orso
Edda Dell'Orso (born Edda Sabatini; February 16, 1935) is an Italian singer known for her collaboration with composer Ennio Morricone, for whom she provided wordless vocals to a large number of his film scores. Dell'Orso also provided vocals to ...
, at the height of her powers "an extraordinary voice at my disposal".
The composer subsequently scored Leone's other two ''Dollars Trilogy
''Dollars Trilogy'' ( it, link=no, Trilogia del dollaro), also known as the ''Man with No Name Trilogy'' ( it, link=no, Trilogia dell'Uomo senza nome) or the ''Blood Money Trilogy'', is an Italian film series consisting of three Spaghetti Weste ...
'' (or '' Man with No Name Trilogy'') spaghetti westerns: '' For a Few Dollars More'' (1965) and ''The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly'' (1966). All three films starred the American actor Clint Eastwood
Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "''Doll ...
as ''The Man With No Name'' and depicted Leone's own intense vision of the mythical West. Morricone commented in 2007: "Some of the music was written before the film, which was unusual. Leone's films were made like that because he wanted the music to be an important part of it; he kept the scenes longer because he did not want the music to end." According to Morricone this explains "why the films are so slow".
Despite the small film budgets, the ''Dollars Trilogy'' was a box-office success. The available budget for ''The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly'' was about 1.2 million, but it became the most successful film of the ''Dollars Trilogy'', grossing 25.1 million in the United States and more than Lire 2.3 billion (1.2 million EUR) in Italy alone. Morricone's score became a major success and sold more than three million copies worldwide. On 14 August 1968 the original score was certified by the RIAA
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
with a golden record for the sale of 500,000 copies in the United States alone.
The main theme to ''The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly'', also titled "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", was a hit in 1968 for Hugo Montenegro
Hugo Mario Montenegro (September 2, 1925 – February 6, 1981) was an American orchestra leader and composer of film soundtracks. His best-known work is interpretations of the music from Spaghetti Westerns, especially his cover version of Ennio M ...
, whose rendition was a No.2 Billboard pop single in the U.S. and a U.K. No.1 single (for four weeks from mid-November that year).
"The Ecstasy of Gold
"The Ecstasy of Gold" ( it, L'estasi dell'oro) is a musical composition by Ennio Morricone, part of his score for the 1966 Sergio Leone film ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly''. It is played while Tuco (Eli Wallach) is frantically searching a ce ...
" became one of Morricone's best-known compositions. The opening scene of Jeff Tremaine
Jeffrey Tremaine (born September 4, 1966) is an American television director, television producer, film director, film producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for co-creating the reality stunt show '' Jackass'' with Spike Jonze and Johnny ...
's ''Jackass Number Two
''Jackass Number Two'' is a 2006 American reality slapstick comedy film directed by Jeff Tremaine. It is the sequel to '' Jackass: The Movie'' (2002), both based upon the MTV series '' Jackass''. Like its predecessor and the original television ...
'' (2006), in which the cast is chased through a suburban neighbourhood by bulls, is accompanied by this piece. While punk rock band The Ramones
The Ramones were an American punk rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first true punk rock group. Despite achieving a limited commercial appeal in the United ...
used "The Ecstasy of Gold" as a closing theme during their live performances, Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...
uses "The Ecstasy of Gold" as the introductory music for its concerts since 1983. This composition is also included on Metallica's live symphonic album '' S&M'' as well as the live album '' Live Shit: Binge & Purge''. An instrumental metal cover by Metallica (with minimal vocals by lead singer James Hetfield) appeared on the 2007 Morricone tribute album ''We All Love Ennio Morricone
''We All Love Ennio Morricone'' is a 2007 tribute album honoring noted film composer Ennio Morricone. It features a diverse lineup of artists including Andrea Bocelli, Metallica, Bruce Springsteen, Roger Waters, and Celine Dion. Also, indus ...
''. This metal version was nominated for a Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
in the category of Best Rock Instrumental Performance. In 2009, the Grammy Award-winning hip-hop artist Coolio
Artis Leon Ivey Jr. (August 1, 1963 – September 28, 2022), known professionally as Coolio, was an American rapper. First rising to fame as a member of the gangsta rap group WC and the Maad Circle, Coolio achieved mainstream success as a solo ...
extensively sampled the theme for his song "Change".
''Once Upon a Time in the West'' and others
Subsequent to the success of the ''Dollars trilogy'', Morricone also composed the scores for ''Once Upon a Time in the West'' (1968) and Leone's last credited western film '' A Fistful of Dynamite'' (1971), as well as the score for ''My Name Is Nobody
''My Name Is Nobody'' ( it, Il mio nome è Nessuno) is a 1973 Italian/French/German international co-production comedy Spaghetti Western starring Terence Hill and Henry Fonda. The film was directed by Tonino Valerii and based on an idea by Ser ...
'' (1973).
Morricone's score for ''Once Upon a Time in the West
''Once Upon a Time in the West'' ( , "Once upon a time (there was) the West") is a 1968 epic Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone, who co-wrote it with Sergio Donati based on a story by Dario Argento, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Leone ...
'' is one of the best-selling original instrumental scores in the world today, with as many as 10 million copies sold, including one million copies in France, and more than 800,000 copies in the Netherlands.
The collaboration with Leone is considered one of the exemplary collaborations between a director and a composer. Morricone's last score for Leone was for his last film, the gangster drama ''Once Upon a Time in America
''Once Upon a Time in America'' ( it, C'era una volta in America) is a 1984 epic crime film co-written and directed by Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone and starring Robert De Niro and James Woods. The film is an Italian–American venture prod ...
'' (1984). Leone died on 30 April 1989 of a heart attack at the age of 60. Before his death in 1989, Leone was part-way through planning a film on the Siege of Leningrad
The siege of Leningrad (russian: links=no, translit=Blokada Leningrada, Блокада Ленинграда; german: links=no, Leningrader Blockade; ) was a prolonged military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the Soviet city of L ...
, set during World War II. By 1989, Leone had been able to acquire 100 million in financing from independent backers for the war epic. He had convinced Morricone to compose the film score. The project was cancelled when Leone died two days before he was to officially sign on for the film.
In early 2003, Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore
Giuseppe Tornatore (born 27 May 1956) is an Italian film director and screenwriter. He is considered one of the directors who brought critical acclaim back to Italian cinema.Katz, Ephraim, "Italy," ''The Film Encyclopedia'' (New York: HarperRes ...
announced he would direct a film called ''Leningrad''. The film has yet to go into production and Morricone was cagey as to details on account of Tornatore's superstitious nature.
Association with Sergio Corbucci and Sergio Sollima
Two years after the start of his collaboration with Sergio Leone, Morricone also started to score music for another Spaghetti Western director,Sergio Corbucci
Sergio Corbucci (; 6 December 1926 – 1 December 1990) was an Italian film director, screenwriter and producer. He directed both very violent Spaghetti Westerns and bloodless Bud Spencer and Terence Hill action comedies.
He is the older bro ...
. The composer wrote music for Corbucci's ''Navajo Joe
''Navajo Joe'' is a 1966 Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Corbucci and starring Burt Reynolds as the titular Navajo Indian who opposes a group of bandits responsible for killing his tribe.
Plot
Having massacred an Indian village with h ...
'' (1966), ''The Hellbenders
''The Hellbenders'' ( it, I crudeli, lit=The Cruel Ones, link=no) is a 1967 Spaghetti Western directed by Sergio Corbucci.
Plot
Colonel Jonas is a fanatical and unrepentant Confederate who led a regiment called the Hellbenders in the recently ...
'' (1967), '' The Mercenary/The Professional Gun'' (1968), ''The Great Silence
''The Great Silence'' ( it, Il grande silenzio) is a 1968 revisionist Spaghetti Western film directed and co-written by Sergio Corbucci. An Italian-French co-production, the film stars Jean-Louis Trintignant, Klaus Kinski, Vonetta McGee (in ...
'' (1968), '' Compañeros'' (1970), ''Sonny and Jed
''Sonny and Jed'' ( it, La banda J. & S. - Cronaca criminale del Far-West, lit. "The Band of J. & S. - Criminal Chronicle of the Far West") is a 1972 Italian Spaghetti Western film about a sheriff's (Sheriff Franciscus, played by Telly Savala ...
'' (1972), and '' What Am I Doing in the Middle of the Revolution?'' (1972).
In addition, Morricone composed music for the western films by Sergio Sollima
Sergio Sollima (17 April 1921 – 1 July 2015) was an Italian film director and script writer.
Biography
Sollima graduated from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in 1935. During World War II he was in the Italian Resistance.
After the ...
, ''The Big Gundown
''The Big Gundown'' ( it, La resa dei conti, lit=The Settling of Scores) is a 1966 Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Sollima, and starring Lee Van Cleef and Tomas Milian.
Plot
Possessing a reputation for bringing criminals to justice, ...
'' (with Lee Van Cleef
Clarence LeRoy Van Cleef Jr. (January 9, 1925 – December 16, 1989) was an American actor. He appeared in over 170 film and television roles in a career spanning nearly 40 years, but is best known as a star of Italian Spaghetti Westerns, parti ...
, 1966), '' Face to Face'' (1967), and ''Run, Man, Run
''Run, Man, Run'' ( it, Corri uomo corri, also known as ''Big Gundown 2'') is an Italian- French Zapata Western film. It is the second film of Sergio Sollima centred on the character of Cuchillo, again played by Tomas Milian, after the two-years e ...
'' (1968), as well as the 1970 crime thriller ''Violent City
''Violent City'' ( it, Città violenta, also released as ''The Family'') is a 1970 crime thriller film directed by Sergio Sollima from a screenplay co-written with Lina Wertmüller, starring Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland, and Telly Savalas. Bro ...
'' (with Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson (born Charles Dennis Buchinsky; November 3, 1921 – August 30, 2003) was an American actor. Known for his "granite features and brawny physique," he gained international fame for his starring roles in action, Western, and war ...
) and the poliziottesco
Poliziotteschi (; singular ''poliziottesco'') constitute a subgenre of crime and action films that emerged in Italy in the late 1960s and reached the height of their popularity in the 1970s. They are also known as ''polizieschi all'italiana'', ...
film ''Revolver
A revolver (also called a wheel gun) is a repeating handgun that has at least one barrel and uses a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold up to six roun ...
'' (1973).
Other westerns
Other relevant scores for less popular Spaghetti Westerns include ''Duello nel Texas
''Duello nel Texas'', also known as ''Gunfight at Red Sands'' and ''Gringo'', is a 1963 Italian/Spanish international co-production directed by Ricardo Blasco and Mario Caiano, and produced by Albert Band
Albert Band (May 7, 1924 – June 14, 2 ...
'' (1963), '' Bullets Don't Argue'' (1964), ''A Pistol for Ringo
''A Pistol for Ringo'' ( it, Una pistola per Ringo) is a 1965 Spaghetti Western, a joint Italian and Spanish production. Originally written and directed by Duccio Tessari, the film's success led to a sequel, ''The Return of Ringo'', later that y ...
'' (1965), ''The Return of Ringo
''The Return of Ringo'' ( it, Il ritorno di Ringo) is a 1965 Italian Spaghetti Western film directed by Duccio Tessari and the sequel to the earlier film ''A Pistol for Ringo''.
Like its predecessor, the film features a score composed by Ennio Mo ...
'' (1965), ''Seven Guns for the MacGregors
''Seven Guns for the MacGregors'' ( it, Sette pistole per i MacGregor) is a Technicolor 1966 Spaghetti Western. It is the directorial debut film of Franco Giraldi (here credited as Frank Garfield), who was Sergio Leone's assistant in ''A Fistfu ...
'' (1966), '' The Hills Run Red'' (1966), Giulio Petroni
Giulio Petroni (21 September 1917 – 31 January 2010) was an Italian director, writer, and screenwriter, best known for his spaghetti westerns ''Death Rides a Horse'' (1967), with Lee Van Cleef in one of his first starring roles, '' A Sky Full of ...
's ''Death Rides a Horse
''Death Rides a Horse'' ( it, Da uomo a uomo, lit=As man to man) is a 1967 Italian Spaghetti Western directed by Giulio Petroni, written by Luciano Vincenzoni and starring Lee Van Cleef and John Phillip Law.
Plot
Bill (John Phillip Law), a boy ...
'' (1967) and ''Tepepa
''Tepepa'', also known as ''Blood and Guns'', is an Italian epic Spaghetti Western film starring Tomas Milian and Orson Welles. The film was directed by Giulio Petroni. It was co-produced with Spain, where the film was released with the title ''T ...
'' (1968), '' A Bullet for the General'' (1967), ''Guns for San Sebastian
''Guns for San Sebastian'' () is a 1968 action- adventure film based on the 1962 novel ''A Wall for San Sebastian'', written by Rev. Fr. William Barnaby "Barby" Faherty, S.J. The film is directed by Frenchman Henri Verneuil, it stars Anthony ...
'' (with Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson (born Charles Dennis Buchinsky; November 3, 1921 – August 30, 2003) was an American actor. Known for his "granite features and brawny physique," he gained international fame for his starring roles in action, Western, and war ...
and Anthony Quinn
Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (April 21, 1915 – June 3, 2001), known professionally as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican-American actor. He was known for his portrayal of earthy, passionate characters "marked by a brutal and elemental v ...
, 1968), '' A Sky Full of Stars for a Roof'' (1968), ''The Five Man Army
''The Five Man Army'' ( it, Un esercito di 5 uomini) is a 1969 Italian Zapata Western film in which a group of five men are enlisted to rob a train of a gold shipment during the Mexican Revolution. Directed by Don Taylor, it featured a script b ...
'' (1969), Don Siegel
Donald Siegel ( ; October 26, 1912 – April 20, 1991) was an American film and television director and producer.
Siegel was described by ''The New York Times'' as "a director of tough, cynical and forthright action-adventure films whose taut ...
's ''Two Mules for Sister Sara
''Two Mules for Sister Sara'' is a 1970 American-Mexican Western film in Panavision directed by Don Siegel and starring Shirley MacLaine (billed above Clint Eastwood in the film's credits, but not on the poster) set during the French interve ...
'' (1970), ''Life Is Tough, Eh Providence?
''Life Is Tough, Eh Providence?'' ( it, La vita a volte è molto dura, vero Provvidenza?, also known as ''Sometimes Life Is Hard - Right, Providence?'') is a 1972 Italian-Spanish Spaghetti Western comedy film directed by Giulio Petroni. The film w ...
'' (1972), and ''Buddy Goes West
''Buddy goes West'' ( it, Occhio alla penna, also known as ''A fist goes West'') is a 1981 Spaghetti Western comedy film directed by Michele Lupo.
Plot
In the Old West, a mysterious man, nicknamed "Doc", arrives in a dusty town. Doc is a band ...
'' (1981).
Dramas and political movies
With Leone's films, Ennio Morricone's name had been put firmly on the map. Most of Morricone's film scores of the 1960s were composed outside the Spaghetti Western genre, while still using Alessandroni's team. Their music included the themes for ''Il Malamondo'' (1964), ''Slalom'' (1965), and ''Listen, Let's Make Love'' (1967). In 1968, Morricone reduced his work outside the movie business and wrote scores for 20 films in the same year. The scores included psychedelic accompaniment for Mario Bava
Mario Bava (31 July 1914 – 27 April 1980) was an Italian filmmaker who worked variously as a director, cinematographer, special effects artist and screenwriter, frequently referred to as the "Master of Italian Horror" and the "Master of the M ...
's superhero romp '' Danger: Diabolik'' (1968).
Morricone collaborated with Marco Bellocchio
Marco Bellocchio (; born 9 November 1939) is an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor.
Life and career
Born in Bobbio, near Piacenza, Marco Bellocchio had a strict Catholic upbringing – his father was a lawyer, his mother a schoolt ...
(''Fists in the Pocket
''Fists in the Pocket'' ( it, I pugni in tasca) is a 1965 Italian psychological drama film written and directed by Marco Bellocchio, his directorial debut. A dark satire of family and social values, the film centers on a young man suffering from ...
'', 1965), Gillo Pontecorvo
Gilberto Pontecorvo (; 19 November 1919 – 12 October 2006) was an Italian filmmaker associated with the political cinema movement of the 1960s and 1970s. He is best known for directing the landmark war docudrama ''The Battle of Algiers'' (19 ...
(''The Battle of Algiers
ar, Maʿrakat al-Jazāʾir
, director = Gillo Pontecorvo
, producer = Antonio MusuSaadi Yacef
, writer = Franco Solinas
, story = Franco SolinasGillo Pontecorvo
, starring = Jean MartinSaadi YacefBrahim H ...
'' (1966), and '' Queimada!'' (1969) with Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he received numerous accolades throughout his career, which spanned six decades, including two Academ ...
), Roberto Faenza
Roberto Faenza (born 21 February 1943) is an Italian film director. Born in Turin in 1943, Faenza received a degree in Political Science and a diploma at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia.
Career
Faenza made his directing debut in 1968 ...
(H2S, 1968), Giuliano Montaldo ('' Sacco e Vanzetti'', 1971), Giuseppe Patroni Griffi
Giuseppe Patroni Griffi (26 February 1921 – 15 December 2005) was an Italian playwright, screenwriter, director, and author.
He was born in Naples in an aristocratic family and moved to Rome immediately after the end of World War II and spent ...
('' 'Tis Pity She's a Whore'', 1971), Mauro Bolognini (''Drama of the Rich
''The Murri Affair'' ( it, Fatti di gente perbene; french: La grande bourgeoise) is a 1974 historical drama film directed by Mauro Bolognini, starring Giancarlo Giannini and Catherine Deneuve. It is based on real events of a notorious 1902 murde ...
'', 1974), Umberto Lenzi
Umberto Lenzi (6 August 1931 – 19 October 2017) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and novelist.
A fan of film since young age, Lenzi studied at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and made his first film in 1958 which went unr ...
('' Almost Human'', 1974), Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, filmmaker, writer and intellectual who also distinguished himself as a journalist, novelist, translator, playwright, visual artist and actor. He is considered one of ...
(''Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom
''Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom'' ( it, Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma, billed on-screen ''Pasolini's 120 Days of Sodom'' on English-language prints and commonly referred to as simply ''Salò'' []) is a 1975 horror film, horror art film dir ...
'', 1975), Bernardo Bertolucci (''1900 (film), Novecento'', 1976), and Tinto Brass (''The Key (1983 film), The Key'', 1983).
In 1970, Morricone wrote the score for ''Violent City''. That same year, he received his first Nastro d'Argento
The Nastro d'Argento, also known by its translated name Silver Ribbon, is an Italian film award awarded each year since 1946 by the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists (Italian: ''Sindacato Nazionale Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani ...
for the music in ''Metti una sera a cena
''Metti, una sera a cena'' (a.k.a. "Love Circle", literally "Let's Say, an Evening for Dinner") is a 1969 Italian drama film directed by Giuseppe Patroni Griffi. It was entered into the 1969 Cannes Film Festival.
Plot
Michel (Jean-Louis Trintig ...
'' (Giuseppe Patroni Griffi
Giuseppe Patroni Griffi (26 February 1921 – 15 December 2005) was an Italian playwright, screenwriter, director, and author.
He was born in Naples in an aristocratic family and moved to Rome immediately after the end of World War II and spent ...
, 1969) and his second only a year later for '' Sacco e Vanzetti'' (Giuliano Montaldo, 1971), in which he collaborated with the legendary American folk singer and activist Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...
. His soundtrack for ''Sacco e Vanzetti'' contains another well-known composition by Morricone, the folk song " Here's to You", sung by Baez. For the writing of the lyrics, Baez was inspired by a letter from Bartolomeo Vanzetti: ''"Father, yes, I am a prisoner / Fear not to relay my crime"''. The song was later included in movies such as ''The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
''The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou'' is a 2004 American adventure comedy-drama film written by Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach and directed by Anderson. It is Anderson's fourth feature-length film and was released in the United States on Decembe ...
''.
Giallo and Horror
Morricone's eclecticism found its way to films in the horror genre, such as the giallo thrillers ofDario 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 ...
, from ''The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
''The Bird with the Crystal Plumage'' () is a 1970 giallo film directed by Dario Argento, in his directorial debut. The film has been credited with popularizing giallo, an Italian genre of thriller developed in the 1960s. It is the first in what ...
'' (1970), ''The Cat o' Nine Tails
''The Cat o' Nine Tails'' ( it, Il gatto a nove code) is a 1971 ''giallo'' film written and directed by Dario Argento, adapted from a story by Dardano Sacchetti, Luigi Cozzi, and an uncredited Bryan Edgar Wallace. It stars Karl Malden, Jame ...
'' (1971), and ''Four Flies on Grey Velvet
''Four Flies on Grey Velvet'' ( it, 4 mosche di velluto grigio) is a 1971 '' giallo'' film written and directed by Dario Argento. The film concerns Roberto Tobias ( Michael Brandon), who accidentally kills a man and is then tormented by someone w ...
'' (1971) to ''The Stendhal Syndrome
''The Stendhal Syndrome'' ''(Ital. La Sindrome di Stendhal)'' is a 1996 Italian Giallo film written and directed by Dario Argento and starring his daughter Asia Argento, with Thomas Kretschmann and Marco Leonardi. It was the first Italian film t ...
'' (1996) and ''The Phantom of the Opera
''The Phantom of the Opera'' (french: Le Fantôme de l'Opéra) is a novel by French author Gaston Leroux. It was first published as a serial in from 23 September 1909 to 8 January 1910, and was released in volume form in late March 1910 by Pierr ...
'' (1998). His other horror scores include ''Nightmare Castle
''Nightmare Castle'' ( it, Amanti d’Oltretomba) is a 1965 Italian horror film directed by Mario Caiano. The film stars Paul Muller, Helga Liné and Barbara Steele in a dual role.
Mario Caiano shot the film in Rome and declared it his tribut ...
'' (1965), '' A Quiet Place in the Country'' (1968), '' The Antichrist'' (1974), and '' Night Train Murders'' (1975).
In addition, Morricone composed music for many popular and cult Italian giallo
In Italian cinema, ''Giallo'' (; plural ''gialli'', from ''giallo'', Italian for yellow) is a genre of mystery fiction and thrillers that often contains slasher, crime fiction, psychological thriller, psychological horror, sexploitation, and, ...
films, such as '' Unknown Woman'' (1969), '' Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion'' (1970), ''A Lizard in a Woman's Skin
''A Lizard in a Woman's Skin'' ( it, Una lucertola con la pelle di donna) is a 1971 ''giallo'' film directed by Lucio Fulci and produced by Edmondo Amati and Robert Dorfmann. It stars Florinda Bolkan, Stanley Baker, Jean Sorel, Leo Genn, and ...
'' (1971), '' Cold Eyes of Fear'' (1971), ''The Fifth Cord
''The Fifth Cord'' (Italian: ''Giornata nera per l'ariete'', lit. "Black Day for Aries") is a 1971 Italian giallo film directed by Luigi Bazzoni. The film's Italian title reprises Dario Argento's practice of using animals in the titles of his th ...
'' (1971), ''Short Night of Glass Dolls
''Short Night of Glass Dolls'' (Italian: ''La Corta notte delle bambole di vetro'') is a 1971 Italian giallo film. It is the directorial debut of Aldo Lado and stars Ingrid Thulin, Jean Sorel and Barbara Bach.
Plot
The corpse of reporter Grego ...
'' (1971), '' The Black Belly of the Tarantula'' (1971) ''My Dear Killer
''My Dear Killer'' ( it, Mio caro assassino) is a 1972 Italian-Spanish giallo film directed by Tonino Valerii and starring George Hilton (actor), George Hilton, Marilù Tolo, Patty Shepard, Helga Line, Salvo Randone and William Berger (actor), Wil ...
'' (1972), ''What Have You Done to Solange?
''What Have You Done to Solange?'' ( it, Cosa avete fatto a Solange?) is a 1972 '' giallo'' film directed by Massimo Dallamano and starring Fabio Testi, Karin Baal, Joachim Fuchsberger, Cristina Galbó, and Camille Keaton. The plot follows a ser ...
'' (1972), '' Who Saw Her Die?'' (1972), ''Spasmo
''Spasmo'' is a 1974 Italian ''giallo'' film directed by Umberto Lenzi and starring Robert Hoffmann and Suzy Kendall.
Plot
A young couple on their nightly hormonal romp decide to go to the beach, where they first meet a mysterious man who is ...
'' (1974), and ''Autopsy
An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any di ...
'' (1975).
In 1977 Morricone scored John Boorman
Sir John Boorman (; born 18 January 1933) is a British film director, best known for feature films such as ''Point Blank'' (1967), ''Hell in the Pacific'' (1968), ''Deliverance'' (1972), ''Zardoz'' (1974), '' Exorcist II: The Heretic'' (1977), ...
's '' Exorcist II: The Heretic'' and Alberto De Martino
Alberto De Martino (12 June 1929 – 2 June 2015) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Born in Rome, De Martino started as a child actor and later returned to the cinema where worked as a screenwriter, director and dubbing supervis ...
's apocalyptic horror film ''Holocaust 2000
''Holocaust 2000'' (also released as ''The Chosen'' and ''Rain of Fire'') is a 1977 horror film directed by Alberto De Martino, written by De Martino, Michael Robson, and Sergio Donati, and starring Kirk Douglas, Simon Ward, Agostina Belli, Ant ...
'', starring Kirk Douglas. In 1982 he composed the score for John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, actor, and composer. Although he worked in various film genres, he is most commonly associated with horror, action, and science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s. He ...
's science fiction horror movie '' The Thing''.From AFI (The American Film Institute)accessed September 2011. Morricone's main theme for the film was reflected in Marco Beltrami's film's score of prequel of the 1982 film, which was released in 2011.
Hollywood career
The ''Dollars Trilogy'' was not released in the United States until 1967 whenUnited Artists
United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studi ...
, who had already enjoyed success distributing the British-produced James Bond
The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...
films in the United States, decided to release Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns. The American release gave Morricone an exposure in America and his film music became quite popular in the United States.
One of Morricone's first contributions to an American director concerned his music for the religious epic film '' The Bible: In the Beginning...'' by John Huston
John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...
. According to Sergio Miceli's book ''Morricone, la musica, il cinema'', Morricone wrote about 15 or 16 minutes of music, which were recorded for a screen test and conducted by Franco Ferrara
Franco Ferrara (Palermo, 4 July 1911Florence, 7 September 1985) was an Italian conductor and teacher. Among his many students are various prominent conductors, including Roberto Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Andrew Davis and Riccardo Muti.
Life and ...
. At first Morricone's teacher Goffredo Petrassi
Goffredo Petrassi (16 July 1904 – 3 March 2003) was an Italian composer of modern classical music, conductor, and teacher. He is considered one of the most influential Italian composers of the twentieth century.Petrassi, Goffredo. (2008). ...
had been engaged to write the score for the great big-budget epic, but Huston preferred another composer. RCA Records
RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...
then proposed Morricone who was under contract with them, but a conflict between the film's producer Dino De Laurentiis
Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis (; 8 August 1919 – 10 November 2010) was an Italian-American film producer. Along with Carlo Ponti, he was one of the producers who brought Italian cinema to the international scene at the end of World War II. He ...
and RCA occurred. The producer wanted to have exclusive rights for the soundtrack, while RCA still had the monopoly on Morricone at that time and did not want to release the composer. Subsequently, Morricone's work was rejected because he did not get permission from RCA to work for Dino De Laurentiis alone. The composer reused the parts of his unused score for ''The Bible: In the Beginning'' in such films as ''The Return of Ringo
''The Return of Ringo'' ( it, Il ritorno di Ringo) is a 1965 Italian Spaghetti Western film directed by Duccio Tessari and the sequel to the earlier film ''A Pistol for Ringo''.
Like its predecessor, the film features a score composed by Ennio Mo ...
'' (1965) by Duccio Tessari
Duccio Tessari (11 October 1926 – 6 September 1994) was an Italian director, screenwriter and actor, considered one of the fathers of Spaghetti Westerns.
Born in Genoa, Tessari started in the fifties as documentarist and as screenwriter of pe ...
and Alberto Negrin's ''The Secret of the Sahara'' (1987).
Morricone never left Rome to compose his music and never learned to speak English. But given that the composer always worked in a wide field of composition genres, from "absolute music", which he always produced, to "applied music", working as orchestrator as well as conductor in the recording field, and then as a composer for theatre, radio, and cinema, the impression arises that he never really cared that much about his standing in the eyes of Hollywood.
1970–1985: From ''Two Mules'' to ''Red Sonja''
In 1970, Morricone composed the music forDon Siegel
Donald Siegel ( ; October 26, 1912 – April 20, 1991) was an American film and television director and producer.
Siegel was described by ''The New York Times'' as "a director of tough, cynical and forthright action-adventure films whose taut ...
's ''Two Mules for Sister Sara
''Two Mules for Sister Sara'' is a 1970 American-Mexican Western film in Panavision directed by Don Siegel and starring Shirley MacLaine (billed above Clint Eastwood in the film's credits, but not on the poster) set during the French interve ...
'', an American-Mexican western film starring Shirley MacLaine and Clint Eastwood. The same year the composer also delivered the title theme ''The Men from Shiloh'' for the American Western television series The Virginian (TV series), The Virginian.
In 1974–1975 Morricone wrote music for ''Spazio 1999'', an Italian-produced compilation movie made to launch the Italian-British television series ''Space: 1999'', while the original episodes featured music by Barry Gray. A soundtrack album was only released on Compact disc, CD in 2016 and on LP record, LP in 2017. In 1975 he scored the George Kennedy revenge thriller ''The "Human" Factor (1975 film), The "Human" Factor'', which was the final film of director Edward Dmytryk. Two years later he composed the score for the sequel to William Friedkin's 1973 film ''The Exorcist (film), The Exorcist'', directed by John Boorman
Sir John Boorman (; born 18 January 1933) is a British film director, best known for feature films such as ''Point Blank'' (1967), ''Hell in the Pacific'' (1968), ''Deliverance'' (1972), ''Zardoz'' (1974), '' Exorcist II: The Heretic'' (1977), ...
: '' Exorcist II: The Heretic''. The horror film was a major disappointment at the box office. The film grossed 30,749,142 in the United States.
In 1978, the composer worked with Terrence Malick for ''Days of Heaven
''Days of Heaven'' is a 1978 American romantic period drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick, and starring Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard and Linda Manz. Set in 1916, it tells the story of Bill and Abby, lovers who travel ...
'' starring Richard Gere, for which he earned his first nomination at the Oscars for Best Original Score.
Despite the fact that Morricone had produced some of the most popular and widely imitated film music ever written throughout the 1960s and 1970s, ''Days of Heaven'' earned him his first Academy Awards, Oscar nomination for Academy Award for Best Original Score, Best Original Score, with his score up against Jerry Goldsmith's ''The Boys from Brazil (film), The Boys from Brazil'', Dave Grusin's ''Heaven Can Wait (1978 film), Heaven Can Wait'', Giorgio Moroder's ''Midnight Express (film), Midnight Express'' (the eventual winner), and John Williams's ''Superman (1978 film), Superman: The Movie'' at the 51st Academy Awards, Oscar ceremonies in 1979.
1986–2020: From ''The Mission'' to ''The Hateful Eight''
Association with Roland Joffé ''The Mission'', directed by Joffé, was about a piece of history considerably more distant, as Society of Jesus, Spanish Jesuit Missionary, missionaries see their work undone as a tribe of Paraguayan natives fall within a territorial dispute between the Spanish and Portuguese. At one point the score was one of the world's best-selling film scores, selling over 3 million copies worldwide. Morricone finally received a second Oscar nomination for ''The Mission''. Morricone's original score lost out to Herbie Hancock's coolly arranged jazz on Bertrand Tavernier's ''Round Midnight (film), Round Midnight''. It was considered a surprising win and a controversial one, given that much of the music in the film was pre-existing."'The Mission' tops Variety composers' poll of the all-time greatest film scores"HitFix, Guy Lodge, 14 November 2012. Morricone stated the following during a 2001 interview with ''The Guardian'': "I definitely felt that I should have won for ''The Mission''. Especially when you consider that the Oscar winner that year was ''Round Midnight'', which was not an original score. It had a very good arrangement by Herbie Hancock, but it used existing pieces. So there could be no comparison with ''The Mission''. There was a theft!" His score for ''The Mission'' was ranked at number 1 in a poll of the all-time greatest film scores. The top 10 list was compiled by 40 film composers such as Michael Giacchino and Carter Burwell. The score is ranked 23rd on the AFI's list of 25 greatest film scores of all time.
Association with De Palma and Levinson
On three occasions, Brian De Palma worked with Morricone: ''The Untouchables
Untouchables or The Untouchables may refer to:
American history
* Untouchables (law enforcement), a 1930s American law enforcement unit led by Eliot Ness
* ''The Untouchables'' (book), an autobiography by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley
* ''The U ...
'' (1987), the 1989 war drama ''Casualties of War'' and the science fiction film ''Mission to Mars
''Mission to Mars'' is a 2000 American science fiction adventure film directed by Brian De Palma, written by Jim Thomas, John Thomas, and Graham Yost, and suggested by Disney's theme park attraction of the same name. The film depicts the first ...
'' (2000). Morricone's score for ''The Untouchables'' resulted in his third nomination for Academy Award for Best Original Score.
In a 2001 interview with ''The Guardian'', Morricone stated that he had good experiences with De Palma: "De Palma is delicious! He respects music, he respects composers. For ''The Untouchables'', everything I proposed to him was fine, but then he wanted a piece that I didn't like at all, and of course, we didn't have an agreement on that. It was something I didn't want to write – a triumphal piece for the police. I think I wrote nine different pieces for this in total and I said, 'Please don't choose the sixth!' because it was the worst. And guess what he chose? The sixth one. But it really suits the movie."
Another American director, Barry Levinson, commissioned the composer on two occasions. First, for the crime-drama ''Bugsy'', starring Warren Beatty, which received ten Oscar nominations, winning two for Academy Award for Best Production Design, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Dennis Gassner, Nancy Haigh) and Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Best Costume Design.
"He doesn't have a piano in his studio, I always thought that with composers, you sit at the piano, and you try to find the melody. There's no such thing with Morricone. He hears a melody, and he writes it down. He hears the orchestration completely done", said Levinson in an interview.
Other notable Hollywood scores
During his career in Hollywood, Morricone was approached for numerous other projects, including the Gregory Nava drama ''A Time of Destiny'' (1988), ''Frantic (film), Frantic'' by Polish-French directorRoman Polanski
Raymond Roman Thierry Polański , group=lower-alpha, name=note_a (né Liebling; 18 August 1933) is a French-Polish film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, two ...
(1988, starring Harrison Ford), Franco Zeffirelli's 1990 drama film ''Hamlet (1990 film), Hamlet'' (starring Mel Gibson and Glenn Close), the neo-noir crime film ''State of Grace (1990 film), State of Grace'' by Phil Joanou (1990, starring Sean Penn and Ed Harris), ''Rampage (1987 film), Rampage'' (1992) by William Friedkin, and the romantic drama ''Love Affair (1994 film), Love Affair'' (1994) by Warren Beatty.
Association with Quentin Tarantino
In 2009, Tarantino originally wanted Morricone to compose the film score for ''Inglourious Basterds
''Inglourious Basterds'' is a 2009 war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger and Mélanie Laurent. The film tells an alter ...
''. Morricone was unable to, because the film's sped-up production schedule conflicted with his scoring of Giuseppe Tornatore's ''Baarìa (film), Baarìa''. However, Tarantino did use eight tracks composed by Morricone in the film, with four of them included on the Inglourious Basterds (soundtrack), soundtrack. The tracks came originally from Morricone's scores for ''The Big Gundown
''The Big Gundown'' ( it, La resa dei conti, lit=The Settling of Scores) is a 1966 Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Sollima, and starring Lee Van Cleef and Tomas Milian.
Plot
Possessing a reputation for bringing criminals to justice, ...
'' (1966), ''Revolver
A revolver (also called a wheel gun) is a repeating handgun that has at least one barrel and uses a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold up to six roun ...
'' (1973) and ''Allonsanfàn'' (1974).
In 2012, Morricone composed the song "Ancora Qui" with lyrics by Italian singer Elisa (Italian singer), Elisa for Tarantino's ''Django Unchained
''Django Unchained'' () is a 2012 American revisionist Western film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson, with Walton Goggins, Dennis Ch ...
'', a track that appeared together with three existing music tracks composed by Morricone on the Django Unchained (soundtrack), soundtrack. "Ancora Qui" was one of the contenders for an Academy Award nomination in the Best Original Song category, but eventually the song was not nominated. On 4 January 2013 Morricone presented Tarantino with a Life Achievement Award at a special ceremony being cast as a continuation of the Rome Film Festival, International Rome Film Festival. In 2014, Morricone was misquoted as claiming that he would "never work" with Tarantino again, and later agreed to write an original film score for Tarantino's ''The Hateful Eight
''The Hateful Eight'' (sometimes marketed as ''The H8ful Eight'' or ''The Hateful 8'') is a 2015 American Western mystery thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leig ...
'', which won him an Academy Award in 2016 in the Best Original Score category. His nomination for this film marked him at that time as the second oldest nominee in Academy history, behind Gloria Stuart. Morricone's win marked his first competitive Oscar, and at the age of 87, he became the oldest person at the time to win a competitive Oscar.
Composer for Giuseppe Tornatore
In 1988, Morricone started an ongoing and very successful collaboration with Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore. His first score for Tornatore was for the drama film ''Cinema Paradiso''. The international version of the film won the Grand Prix (Cannes Film Festival), Special Jury Prize at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival and the 1989 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Best Foreign Language Film Academy Awards, Oscar. Morricone received a BAFTA award with his son Andrea Morricone, Andrea, and a David di Donatello for his score. In 2002, the director's cut 173-minute version was released (known in the US as ''Cinema Paradiso: The New Version''). After the success of ''Cinema Paradiso'', the composer wrote the music for all subsequent films by Tornatore: the drama film ''Everybody's Fine (1990 film), Everybody's Fine'' (Stanno Tutti Bene, 1990), ''A Pure Formality'' (1994) starring Gérard Depardieu and Roman Polanski, ''The Star Maker (1995 film), The Star Maker'' (1995), ''The Legend of 1900'' (1998) starring Tim Roth, the 2000 romantic drama ''Malèna (soundtrack), Malèna'' (which featured Monica Bellucci) and the psychological thriller mystery film ''La sconosciuta'' (2006). Morricone also composed the scores for ''Baarìa (film), Baarìa'' (2009), ''The Best Offer'' (2013) starring Geoffrey Rush, Jim Sturgess and Donald Sutherland and the romantic drama ''The Correspondence'' (2015)Charlie BrigdenEnnio Morricone: 1928–2020
rogerebert.com & July 2020 The composer won several music awards for his scores in Tornatore's movies. Morricone received a fifth Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe nomination for ''Malèna''. For ''Legend of 1900'', he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score.Bizio, Silvio
In Memoriam: Ennio Morricone, Golden Globe Winner, 1928–2020
goldenglobes.com 6 July 2020 In September 2021 Tornatore presented out of competition at the 78th Venice International Film Festival a documentary film about Morricone, ''Ennio (film), Ennio''.
Television series and last works
Morricone wrote the score for Sicilian Mafia, the Mafia television series '' La piovra'' seasons 2 to 10 from 1985 to 2001, including the themes "Droga e sangue" ("Drugs and Blood"), "La Morale", and "L'Immorale". Morricone worked as the conductor of seasons 3 to 5 of the series. He also worked as the music supervisor for the television project ''La bibbia'' ("The Bible").
In the late 1990s, he collaborated with his son Andrea on the ''Ultimo'' crime dramas, resulting in ''Ultimo'' (1998), ''Ultimo 2 – La sfida'' (1999), ''Ultimo 3 – L'infiltrato'' (2004) and ''Ultimo 4 – L'occhio del falco'' (2013). For ''Canone inverso'' (2000) based on the music-themed novel of the same name by the Paolo Maurensig, directed by Ricky Tognazzi and starring Hans Matheson, Morricone won Best Score awards in the David di Donatello, David di Donatello Awards and Silver Ribbons.
In the 2000s, Morricone continued to compose music for successful television series such as ''Il Cuore nel Pozzo'' (2005), ''Karol: A Man Who Became Pope'' (2005), ''La provinciale'' (2006), ''Giovanni Falcone'' (2007), ''Pane e libertà'' (2009) and ''Come Un Delfino 1–2'' (2011–2013).
Morricone provided the string arrangements on Morrissey's "Dear God Please Help Me" from the album ''Ringleader of the Tormentors'' in 2006.
In 2008, the composer recorded music for a Lancia commercial, featuring Richard Gere and directed by Harald Zwart (known for directing ''The Pink Panther 2'').
In spring and summer 2010, Morricone worked with Hayley Westenra for a collaboration on her album ''Paradiso (Hayley Westenra album), Paradiso''. The album features new songs written by Morricone, as well as some of his best-known film compositions of the last 50 years. Westenra recorded the album with Morricone's orchestra in Rome during the summer of 2010.
Since 1995, he composed the music for several advertising campaigns of Dolce & Gabbana. The commercials were directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.
In 2013, Morricone collaborated with Italian singer-songwriter Laura Pausini on a new version of her hit single "La solitudine" for her 20 years anniversary greatest hits album ''20 – The Greatest Hits (Laura Pausini album), 20 – The Greatest Hits''.
Morricone composed the music for ''The Best Offer'' (2013) by Giuseppe Tornatore.
He wrote the score for Christian Carion's '' En mai, fais ce qu'il te plait'' (2015) and the most recent movie by Tornatore: ''The Correspondence'' (2016), featuring Jeremy Irons and Olga Kurylenko. In July 2015, Quentin Tarantino announced after the screening of footage of his movie ''The Hateful Eight'' at the San Diego Comic-Con International that Morricone would score the film, the first Western that Morricone scored since 1981. The score was critically acclaimed and won several awards including the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and the Academy Award for Best Original Score.
In June 2015, Morricone premiered his ''Missa Papae Francisci (Mass for Pope Francis)'' at Rome's Chiesa del Gesù with the Orchestra Roma Sinfonietta and choruses from the Accademia Santa Cecilia and the Rome Opera Theater.
Live performances
Before receiving his diplomas in trumpet, composition and instrumentation from the conservatory, Morricone was already active as a trumpet player, often performing in an orchestra that specialised in music written for films. After completing his education at Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Saint Cecilia, the composer honed his orchestration skills as an arranger for Italian radio and television. In order to support himself, he moved to RCA in the early sixties and entered the front ranks of the Italian recording industry. Since 1964, Morricone was also a founding member of the Rome-based avant-garde ensemble Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza. During the existence of the group (until 1978), Morricone performed several times with the group as trumpet player.
To ready his music for live performance, he joined smaller pieces of music together into longer Suite (music), suites. Rather than single pieces, which would require the audience to applaud every few minutes, Morricone thought the best idea was to create a series of suites lasting from 15 to 20 minutes, which form a sort of symphony in various Movement (music), movements – alternating successful pieces with personal favourites. In concert, Morricone normally had 180 to 200 musicians and vocalists under his baton, performing multiple genre-crossing collections of music. Rock, symphonic and ethnic instruments share the stage.
On 20 September 1984 Morricone conducted the Orchestre national des Pays de la Loire at ''Cinésymphonie '84'' ("Première nuit de la musique de film/First night of film music") in the French concert hall Salle Pleyel in Paris. He performed some of his best-known compositions such as ''Metti una sera a cena
''Metti, una sera a cena'' (a.k.a. "Love Circle", literally "Let's Say, an Evening for Dinner") is a 1969 Italian drama film directed by Giuseppe Patroni Griffi. It was entered into the 1969 Cannes Film Festival.
Plot
Michel (Jean-Louis Trintig ...
'', ''1900 (film), Novecento'' and ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly''. Michel Legrand and Georges Delerue performed on the same evening.
On 15 October 1987 Morricone gave a concert in front of 12,000 people in the Sportpaleis in Antwerp, Belgium, with the Dutch Metropole Orchestra and the Italian operatic soprano Alide Maria Salvetta. A live-album with a recording of this concert was released in the same year.
On 9 June 2000 Morricone went to the Flanders International Film Festival Ghent to conduct his music together with the National Orchestra of Belgium. During the concert's first part, the screening of ''Richard III (play), The Life and Death of King Richard III'' (1912) was accompanied with live music by Morricone. It was the very first time that the score was performed live in Europe. The second part of the evening consisted of an anthology of the composer's work. The event took place on the eve of Euro 2000, the European Football Championship in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Morricone performed over 250 concerts as of 2001."Ennio Morricone soon in Florence"theflorencenewspaper.com, 12 October 2012 The composer started a world tour in 2001, the latter part sponsored by Giorgio Armani, with the Orchestra Roma Sinfonietta, touring London (Barbican 2001; 75th birthday ''Concerto'', Royal Albert Hall 2003), Paris, Verona, and Tokyo. Morricone performed his classic film scores at the Gasteig in Munich in 2004.
He made his North American concert debut on 3 February 2007 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The previous evening, Morricone had already presented at the United Nations a concert comprising some of his film themes, as well as the cantata ''Voci dal silenzio'' to welcome the new Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. A ''Los Angeles Times'' review bemoaned the poor acoustics and opined of Morricone: "His stick technique is adequate, but his charisma as a conductor is zero."
On 22 December 2012 Morricone conducted the 85-piece Belgian orchestra "Orkest der Lage Landen" and a 100-piece choir during a two-hour concert in the Sportpaleis in Antwerp.
In November 2013 Morricone began a world tour to coincide with the 50th anniversary of his film music career and performed in locations such as the Crocus City Hall in Moscow, Santiago, Chile, Berlin, Germany (Mercedes-Benz Arena (Berlin), O2 World, Germany), Budapest, Hungary, and Vienna (Stadhalle). Back in June 2014, Morricone had to cancel a US tour in New York (Barclays Center) and Los Angeles (Microsoft Theater, Nokia Theatre LA Live) due to a back procedure on 20 February. Morricone postponed the rest of his world tour.
In November 2014 Morricone stated that he would resume his European tour starting from February 2015.
Personal life and death
On 13 October 1956, Morricone married Maria Travia (born 31 December 1932), whom he had met in 1950. Travia wrote lyrics to complement her husband's pieces. Her works include the Latin texts for ''The Mission''. Together, they had four children: Marco (b. 1957), Alessandra (b. 1961), conductor and film composer Andrea Morricone, Andrea (b. 1964) and Giovanni (b. 1966), a filmmaker who lives in New York City. They remained married for 63 years until his death. Morricone lived in Italy his entire life and never desired to live in Hollywood. He was among hundreds of artists whose material was destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire. Morricone described himself as a Christian leftist, stating that he voted for the Christian Democracy (Italy), Christian Democracy (DC) for more than 40 years and then, after its dissolution in 1994, he approached the Centre-left coalition (Italy), centre-left coalition. Morricone loved chess, having learned the game when he was 11. Before his musical career took off, he played in club tournaments in Rome in the mid-1950s. His first official tournament was in 1964, where he won a prize in the third category for amateurs. He was even coached by 12-time Italian champion FIDE titles#International Master (IM), IM Stefano Tatai for a while. Soon he got too busy for chess, but he would always keep a keen interest in the game and estimated his peak Elo rating to be nearly 1700.Ennio Morricone Plays Chess''www.theparisreview.org'', accessed 9 September 2020 Over the years, Morricone played chess with many big names including GMs Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, Judit Polgar, and Peter Leko. He once held GM Boris Spassky to a draw in a simultaneous competition with 27 players, where Morricone was the last one standing. On 6 July 2020, Morricone died at the Università Campus Bio-Medico in Rome, aged 91, as a result of injuries sustained to his femur during a fall. Following a private funeral in the hospital's chapel, he was entombed in Cimitero Laurentino.
Influence
Ennio Morricone influenced many artists from other styles and genres, including Danger Mouse,Dire Straits
Dire Straits were a British rock band formed in London in 1977 by Mark Knopfler (lead vocals and lead guitar), David Knopfler (rhythm guitar and backing vocals), John Illsley (bass guitar and backing vocals) and Pick Withers (drums and percuss ...
, Muse
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...
, Metallica, Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...
and Hans Zimmer
Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Academy Awards, Oscars and four Grammy Awards, Grammys, and has been nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards, Emmys and a Tony Awar ...
.
* Morricone's influence extends into the realm of pop music. Hugo Montenegro
Hugo Mario Montenegro (September 2, 1925 – February 6, 1981) was an American orchestra leader and composer of film soundtracks. His best-known work is interpretations of the music from Spaghetti Westerns, especially his cover version of Ennio M ...
had a hit with a version of the The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (theme), main theme from ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'' in both the United Kingdom and the United States. This was followed by his album of Morricone's music in 1968.
* Morricone's film music was also recorded by many artists. John Zorn
John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conductor, saxophonist, arranger and producer who "deliberately resists category". Zorn's avant-garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation are inclusive of jaz ...
recorded an album of Morricone's music, ''The Big Gundown (album), The Big Gundown'', with Keith Rosenberg in the mid-1980s.
* Morricone's ''Sergio Leone Suite'' of haunting melodies from the scores he composed for several of the films by Sergio Leone, Leone, and performed by Morricone, Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra, and Yo-Yo Ma on cello, was recorded by CBS/Sony (93456) and is featured on Classical radio stations such as WSMR (FM), WSMR, a Sarasota, Florida radio station.
* Morricone collaborated with world music artists, such as Portuguese fado singer Dulce Pontes (in 2003 with ''Focus'', an album praised by Paulo Coelho and where his songbook can be sampled) and virtuoso cellist Yo-Yo Ma (in 2004), who both recorded albums of Morricone classics with the Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra and Morricone himself conducting. The album '' Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone'' sold more than 130,000 copies in 2004.
* Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...
uses Morricone's "The Ecstasy of Gold
"The Ecstasy of Gold" ( it, L'estasi dell'oro) is a musical composition by Ennio Morricone, part of his score for the 1966 Sergio Leone film ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly''. It is played while Tuco (Eli Wallach) is frantically searching a ce ...
" as an intro at their concerts (shock jocks ''Opie and Anthony'' also used the song at the start of their XM Satellite Radio and CBS Radio shows.) The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra also played it on Metallica's live albums '' S&M'' and ''S&M2''. The theme from ''A Fistful of Dollars'' is also used as a concert intro by The Mars Volta.
* Morricone inspired the namesake of Morricone Youth, a New York band dedicated to playing music from film and television, founded by musician and radio host Devon E. Levins in 1999. In addition to composers like Lalo Schifrin and Jerry Goldsmith, the band has performed music from a large spectrum of Morricone's film career, ranging from his work in the spaghetti westerns to The Exorcist II, as well as original Morricone-inspired pieces.
* The Spaghetti Western Orchestra is an Australian tribute band started in 2004.
* Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...
drew inspiration from the recording style of Morricone for their 1997 album ''OK Computer''.
* Singer and composer Mike Patton was heavily influenced by Morricone's more experimental oeuvre and in 2005 he commissioned a compilation album, ''Crime and Dissonance'', of the lesser-known soundtracks by "E Maestro" that was released on his own Ipecac Recordings label.
* Gnarls Barkley's hit single "Crazy (Gnarls Barkley song), Crazy" (2006) was musically inspired by Morricone.
* Muse
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...
cites Morricone as an influence for the songs "City of Delusion", "Hoodoo", and "Knights of Cydonia" on their 2006 album ''Black Holes and Revelations''. The band went on to perform the song "Man with a Harmonica" live played by Chris Wolstenholme, as an intro to "Knights of Cydonia".
* In 2007, the tribute album ''We All Love Ennio Morricone
''We All Love Ennio Morricone'' is a 2007 tribute album honoring noted film composer Ennio Morricone. It features a diverse lineup of artists including Andrea Bocelli, Metallica, Bruce Springsteen, Roger Waters, and Celine Dion. Also, indus ...
'' was released, featuring performances by various artists, including Sarah Brightman, Andrea Bocelli
Andrea Bocelli (; born 22 September 1958) is an Italian tenor and multi-instrumentalist. He was born visually impaired, with congenital glaucoma, and at the age of 12, Bocelli became completely blind, following a brain hemorrhage resulting fr ...
, Celine Dion, Bruce Springsteen and Metallica.
* Alex Turner (musician), Alex Turner has noted Morricone's influence on his writing, in particular on The Last Shadow Puppets album ''The Age of the Understatement'' of 2008.
* "Lovers on the Sun", a song released in 2014 by French music producer David Guetta, is influenced by Morricone's western scores.
* The Prodigy repurposed Morricone's score from 1966's La Resa Dei Conti (Seconda Caccia) for "The Big Gundown
''The Big Gundown'' ( it, La resa dei conti, lit=The Settling of Scores) is a 1966 Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Sollima, and starring Lee Van Cleef and Tomas Milian.
Plot
Possessing a reputation for bringing criminals to justice, ...
" on 2009's ''Invaders Must Die''.
* Anna Calvi has cited Morricone as an influence.
* Sea Girls' song "Homesick (Sea Girls album), Lonely" was written on the day of Morricone's death and is influenced by his music, particularly on the film ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly''. It was released as a single in February 2022.
* ''Ennio (film), Ennio'', a 156-minute documentary by Giuseppe Tornatore was released on 22 April 2022 in cinemas and on digital platforms.
Discography
Morricone sold well over 70 million records worldwide during his career that spanned over seven decades, including 6.5 million albums and singles in France, over three million in the United States and more than two million albums in South Korea. In 1971, the composer received his first golden record (disco d'oro) for the sale of 1,000,000 records in Italy and a "Targa d'Oro" (:it:Targa d'oro, it) for the worldwide sales of 22 million. Selected long-time collaborations with directorsPrizes and awards
Morricone received his first Academy Awards, Academy Award nomination in 1979 for the score to ''Days of Heaven'' (Terrence Malick, 1978).The Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences, accessed September 2011. He received his second Oscar nomination for '' The Mission''. He also received Oscar nominations for his scores to ''
The Untouchables
Untouchables or The Untouchables may refer to:
American history
* Untouchables (law enforcement), a 1930s American law enforcement unit led by Eliot Ness
* ''The Untouchables'' (book), an autobiography by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley
* ''The U ...
'' (1987), '' Bugsy'' (1991), ''Malèna (film), Malèna'' (2000), and ''The Hateful Eight
''The Hateful Eight'' (sometimes marketed as ''The H8ful Eight'' or ''The Hateful 8'') is a 2015 American Western mystery thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leig ...
'' (2016). In February 2016, Morricone won his first competitive Academy Award for his score to ''The Hateful Eight
''The Hateful Eight'' (sometimes marketed as ''The H8ful Eight'' or ''The Hateful 8'') is a 2015 American Western mystery thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leig ...
''. Morricone and Alex North are the only composers to receive the Academy Honorary Award
The Academy Honorary Award – instituted in 1950 for the 23rd Academy Awards (previously called the Special Award, which was first presented at the 1st Academy Awards in 1929) – is given annually by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Moti ...
since its introduction in 1928. He received the award in February 2007, "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music." In 2005, four film scores by Ennio Morricone were nominated by the American Film Institute for an honoured place in the AFI's AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores, Top 25 of Best American Film Scores of All Time. His score for ''The Mission'' was ranked 23rd in the Top 25 list. Morricone was nominated seven times for a Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
. In 2009 The Recording Academy inducted his score for ''The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly'' (1966) into the Grammy Hall of Fame
The Grammy Hall of Fame is a hall of fame to honor musical recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance. Inductees are selected annually by a special member committee of eminent and knowledgeable professionals from all branches of ...
. In 2010 Ennio Morricone and Icelandic singer Björk have won the Polar Music Prize
The Polar Music Prize is a Swedish international award founded in 1989 by Stig Anderson, best known as the manager of the Swedish band ABBA, with a donation to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. The award is annually given to one contemporary ...
. The Polar Music Prize is Sweden's biggest music award and is typically shared by a pop artist and a classical musician. It was founded by Stig Anderson, manager of Swedish pop group ABBA, in 1989. A ''Variety (magazine), Variety'' poll of 40 top current film composers selected ''The Mission'' as the greatest film score of all time.
General sources
* Morricone, Ennio; De Rosa, Alessandro. ''Ennio Morricone: In His Own Words. Ennio Morricone in conversation with Alessandro De Rosa''. Translated from the Italian by M. Corbella. Oxford University Press (2019–2020). * Horace, B. ''Music from the Movies'', film music journal double issue 45/46, 2005: * Miceli, Sergio. ''Morricone, la musica, il cinema''. Milan: Mucchi/Ricordi, 1994: * Miceli, Sergio. "Morricone, Ennio". ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', 2nd edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (musicologist), John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers. * Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. ''Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 3. Dal 1960 al 1969''. Gremese, 1993: . * Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. ''Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 4. Dal 1970 al 1979* A/L''. Gremese, 1996: . * Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. ''Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 4. Dal 1970 al 1979** M/Z''. Gremese, 1996: . * Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. ''Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 5. Dal 1980 al 1989* A/L''. Gremese, 2000: . * Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. ''Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 5. Dal 1980 al 1989** M/Z''. Gremese, 2000: .Notes
References
Further reading
* Donald Fagen, Fagen, Donald. "A Talk With Ennio Morricone". In: Fagen, Donald: ''Eminent Hipsters''. Penguin Group, 2013. , pp. 59–62. * Morricone, Ennio; De Rosa, Alessandro. "''Ennio Morricone: In His Own Words. Ennio Morricone in conversation with Alessandro De Rosa''". Translated from the Italian by M. Corbella. Oxford University Press (2019–2020). * Lhassa, Anne, and Jean Lhassa: ''Ennio Morricone: biographie''. Les Planches. Lausanne: Favre; [Paris]: [diff. Inter-forum], 1989. . * Sorbo, Lorenzo: 'The Dramatic Functions of Italian Spaghetti Western Soundtracks: A Comparison between Ennio Morricone and Francesco De Masi' In: * Wagner, Thorsten. "Improvisation als 'weiteste Ausdehnung des Begriffs der aleatorischen Musik': Franco Evangelisti und die Improvisationsgruppe Nuova Consonanza". In ''... hin zu einer neuen Welt: Notate zu Franco Evangelisti'', edited by Harald Muenz.48–60, 2002. Saarbrücken: Pfau-Verlag. . * Webb, Michael D. ''Italian 20th Century Music: The Quest for Modernity''. London: Kahn & Averill. . * Wenguang Han''Ennio Morricone Fans Handbook''
2013 (China). * Sorce Keller, Marcello. "The Morricone Paradox: A Film Music Genius Who Missed Writing Symphonies". ''Asian-European Music Research Journal'' (AEMR). 6 (2020): 111–113.
External links
* * *Ennio Morricone
Myspace * *
Streaming audio of Morricone's "The Man with the Harmonica", from his soundtrack to ''Once upon a Time in the West''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morricone, Ennio Ennio Morricone, 1928 births 2020 deaths 20th-century classical composers 20th-century Italian composers 20th-century Italian conductors (music) 20th-century Italian male musicians 21st-century classical composers 21st-century Italian composers 21st-century Italian conductors (music) 21st-century Italian male musicians Academy Honorary Award recipients Accidental deaths in Italy Best Original Music BAFTA Award winners Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners Conservatorio Santa Cecilia alumni David di Donatello winners Accidental deaths from falls European Film Award for Best Composer winners Golden Globe Award-winning musicians Grammy Award winners Italian classical composers Italian film score composers Italian male classical composers Italian male conductors (music) Italian music arrangers Italian male film score composers Male television composers Musicians from Rome Nastro d'Argento winners People of Lazian descent Recipients of the Italian Order of Merit for Culture and Art Spaghetti Western composers Third Man Records artists Virgin Records artists