The Spaghetti Western Orchestra, formerly the Ennio Morricone Experience, were a

quintet A quintet is a group containing five members. It is commonly associated with musical groups, such as a string quintet, or a group of five singers, but can be applied to any situation where five similar or related objects are considered a single ...

of musicians who perform music from

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 ...

s, especially the music of

Ennio Morricone Ennio Morricone (; 10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and trumpeter who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 scores for cinema and television, as well as more than 100 classic ...

. As the ''Ennio Morricone Experience'', they performed at venues such as The Studio in Sydney. John Shand, reviewing their act in 2004, praised its inventive humour, saying that their "versatility is a constant surprise and regular source of laughs." They premiered their current act at the

Montreal Jazz Festival The Festival International de Jazz de Montréal ( en, Montreal International Jazz Festival) is an annual jazz festival held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Montreal Jazz Fest holds the 2004 Guinness World Record as the world's largest jazz fes ...

in 2007, were successful at the

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...

, and have toured the world with this show in which they re-enact the music and incidents of famous Spaghetti Westerns, such as ''

For a Few Dollars More ''For a Few Dollars More'' ( it, Per qualche dollaro in più) is a 1965 Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone. It stars Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef as bounty hunters and Gian Maria Volonté as the primary villain. German ac ...

'' and ''

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 Leon ...

'', using a variety of unusual musical instruments such as the

theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone/etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named afte ...

and

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sound effects such as a

duck call A duck call may be either the sound- imitation process used in waterfowl hunting, by which a hunter lures waterfowl, or the actual tool which the person uses to do so. Early duck call tools were basic woodwind instruments, while later innovatio ...

. John Lewis of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' reviewed their performance at the

Queen Elizabeth Hall The Queen Elizabeth Hall (QEH) is a music venue on the South Bank in London, England, that hosts classical, jazz, and avant-garde music, talks and dance performances. It was opened in 1967, with a concert conducted by Benjamin Britten. The Q ...

in October 2009, saying that, while the storyline and comedy didn't work perfectly, their musicianship and the strong

theme Theme or themes may refer to: * Theme (arts), the unifying subject or idea of the type of visual work * Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos * Theme (computing), a custom graphical ...

made this "an endearing, impressive show". They performed at the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...

in the 2011 season of the

BBC Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Ha ...

on 14 August. Hugo Shirley, reviewing for the '' Daily Telegraph'', praised their "imaginative exuberance" and observed that they were more successful in engaging the audience than the

BBC Concert Orchestra The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British concert orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five BBC orchestras which is not a full-scale symp ...

, which had performed Spaghetti Western music as an encore in their earlier prom performance of film music that day. It was announced on their ''

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...

'' page on 1 September 2014 that the group had come to the decision to no longer tour "for the foreseeable future".

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Australian comedy musical groups Musical groups established in 2004 Tribute bands Ennio Morricone