AMG AllMovie Guide:

Ennio Morricone

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Biography

A lifelong Rome resident and classically trained musician, Ennio Morricone began studying at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia at age 12. Advised to study composition, Morricone also specialized in playing trumpet and supported himself by playing in a jazz band and working as an arranger for Italian radio and TV after he graduated. Morricone subsequently became a top studio arranger at RCA, working with such stars as Mario Lanza, Chet Baker, and the Beatles. Well-versed in a variety of musical idioms from his RCA experience, Morricone began composing film scores in the early '60s. Though his first films were undistinguished, Morricone's arrangement of an American folk song intrigued director (and former schoolmate) Sergio Leone. Leone hired Morricone and together they created a distinctive score to accompany Leone's different version of the Western, A Fistful of Dollars (1964). Rather than orchestral arrangements of Western standards à la John Ford, Morricone used gunshots, cracking whips, voices, Sicilian folk instruments, trumpets, and the new Fender electric guitar to punctuate and comically tweak the action, cluing in the audience to the taciturn man's ironic stance. Morricone's name became almost as well-known as Leone's when his more ambitious score for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) yielded a Top Ten hit.

Even more so than in the first two Dollars films, Morricone's scores for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Leone's epic Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) elevated the action to operatic heights. Reaching crescendos in The Good's famous graveyard shootout and West's showdown between Charles Bronson's Harmonica and Henry Fonda's Frank Booth, Morricone and Leone created set pieces that were as powerful musically as visually, placing music on a par with the image rather than subordinating it. Morricone's scores were so integral to Leone's Westerns that he had Morricone write and record Once Upon a Time in the West's main themes, and then played them during shooting so that the actors could move to the score's rhythms. Morricone and Leone repeated this for their equally effective collaboration on the gangster saga Once Upon a Time in America (1984).

Even as he was permanently changing the landscape of Western scores, the breadth of Morricone's talent became apparent as he took on more overtly "art" film projects. Morricone's music lent drama to Gillo Pontecorvo's highly regarded, documentary-style war film The Battle of Algiers (1966); that of Algiers and his score for Pontecorvo's Queimada! (1969) were two of Morricone's outstanding, non-Leone 1960s works. Morricone also delved into the remnants of Italian cinema's postwar heritage with Marco Bellochio's unsung, late neorealist film Fist in His Pocket (1965), Bernardo Bertolucci's neo-neorealist second film Before the Revolution (1964), and Pier Paolo Pasolini's parable/farewell to that legacy, Hawks and Sparrows (1966). Keeping pace with Bertolucci's and Pasolini's evolving styles and concerns, Morricone continued to collaborate with the directors into the 1970s. From the Godard-ian Partner (1968) to the coming of age story Luna (1979) and hostage drama Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man (1980), Morricone enhanced the emotion and drama of Bertolucci's increasingly stylized imagery, reaching an apex with the somber, grand, and celebratory compositions for Bertolucci's epic 1900 (1976).

Staying close to his genre film roots even as he advanced in art cinema, Morricone provided psychedelic accompaniment for Mario Bava's superhero romp Danger: Diabolik (1968), and crafted a series of evocative scores for Dario Argento's stylized thrillers, including The Bird With the Crystal Plumage (1969), The Cat O'Nine Tails (1971), and Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1974). Enhancing his international reputation from the 1970s onward, Morricone continued to compose for movies across the artistic spectrum as well as collaborating with an international constellation of directors and stars. Morricone finally received his first Oscar nomination for his magical, pastoral score for Terrence Malick's spectacularly beautiful Days of Heaven (1978).

Constantly working and easily shaking off such lows as a Razzie nomination for John Carpenter's remake of The Thing (1982), and the troubled fates of Sam Fuller's provocative race drama White Dog (1982) and Leone's Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Morricone hit another career peak in the mid-'80s with directors Roland Joffe and Brian DePalma. Merging Brazilian folk and European liturgical traditions through drums, flutes, oboes, chants, and arrangements of "Ave Maria" and "Te Deum," Morricone's majestic score for Joffe's award-winning epic The Mission (1986) garnered another Oscar nomination and became a soundtrack hit. One of Morricone's personal favorites (along with The Exorcist II), he has said of The Mission that it "represents me nearly completely." Morricone earned another Oscar nod the following year for his lushly orchestral, yet edgy, percussion-driven score for De Palma's popular big screen version of The Untouchables (1987). As with his durable associations with Leone, Bertolucci, and Pasolini, Morricone went on to score Joffe's Fat Man and Little Boy (1989), City of Joy (1992), and Vatel (2000), and De Palma's Casualties of War (1989) and Mission to Mars (2000).

Morricone entered into yet another fecund creative partnership in the late '80s with Giuseppe Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso (1988). A favorite of movie music fans, but not one of his Oscar nominations, Morricone's score struck the perfect balance of sentimental, bittersweet nostalgia to accompany Tornatore's paean to cinema. Morricone also scored Tornatore's more downbeat Everybody's Fine (1990), cinema love letter The Star Maker (1995), and earned kudos for his imaginative music for The Legend of 1900 (1998). His work on Tornatore's Malena (2000) earned Morricone his fifth Oscar nomination.



After excursions into Shakespeare with Franco Zeffirelli's version of Hamlet (1990) and the dark side of desire with Pedro Almodóvar's sex comedy Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990), Morricone garnered his fourth Oscar nod for his moody, period-tinged score for Barry Levinson's Bugsy (1991). As prolific in the 1990s as ever, Morricone had a happy reunion with Eastwood for the summer hit In the Line of Fire (1993), provided the violins for Bugsy star Warren Beatty's glossy remake of Love Affair (1994), brought out the horror and romance in Mike Nichols' Wolf (1994), ditto for Adrian Lyne's adaptation of Lolita (1997), and scored a docudrama about his erstwhile murdered collaborator Who Killed Pasolini? (1995). Working again with Beatty, Morricone neatly sent up political platitudes with martial horns, drums, and fifes and hauntingly paid tribute to the senator's spirit with soaring yet funereal strings in Beatty's incisive satire Bulworth (1998), earning a Grammy nomination for his work.

Even as he began to collect lifetime achievement awards, including a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1995, Morricone continued going strong into the new millennium. Maintaining his presence in European and American cinema through his work with Joffe, De Palma, and Tornatore, Morricone also revisited another past creative relationship when he reunited with The Cannibals (1971) director Liliana Cavani for her adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's Ripley's Game (2002). As the 21st century rolled forward, Morricone remained as prolific as ever, though shifted his focus somewhat to focus more on telemovies, such as Karol - The Pope, The Man (2006), Memories of Anne Frank (2009), and Napoli milionaria (2011). Around the same time, he also began to score a considerable number of film shorts for the first time in his career. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Ennio Morricone

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Filmography:

Ennio Morricone

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Everybody's Fine

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Time to Kill

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Cinema Paradiso: The New Version

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Ripley's Game

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Mission to Mars

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Vatel

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Malena

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Bulworth

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The Phantom of the Opera

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The Legend of 1900

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Lolita

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U-Turn

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The Stendhal Syndrome

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Moses

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Nostromo

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The Star Maker

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Wolf

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Love Affair

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The Night and the Moment

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Disclosure

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Genesis: The Creation and The Flood

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A Pure Formality

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Jacob

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In the Line of Fire

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Beyond Justice

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City of Joy

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Mio caro dottor Grasler

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Bugsy

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La Villa del Venerdi

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Crossing the Line

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Hamlet

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State of Grace

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Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

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Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair

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Casualties of War

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The Endless Game

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Fat Man & Little Boy

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Dimenticare Palermo

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Cinema Paradiso

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Fair Game

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Frantic

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A Time of Destiny

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C.A.T. Squad: Python Wolf

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Control

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Rampage

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The Untouchables

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The Mission

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C.A.T. Squad

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La Gabbia

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Dario Argento's World of Horror

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Red Sonja

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La Cage Aux Folles 3: The Wedding

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Once Upon a Time in America

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Sahara

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The Scarlet and the Black

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A Time to Die

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Hundra

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Blood Link

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Nana

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The Thing

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Treasure of the Four Crowns

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Butterfly

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So Fine

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The Island

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La Cage Aux Folles II

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Lovers and Liars

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Bloodline

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The Chosen

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Days of Heaven

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La Cage aux Folles

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Corrupt

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Orca

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Exorcist II: The Heretic

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1900

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Divina Creatura

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The Inheritance

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Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom

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Moses

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Revolver

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The Arabian Nights

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Autopsy

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My Name is Nobody

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Fatti Di Gente Perbene

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Rappresaglia

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Night Flight from Moscow

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Bluebeard

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The Master Touch

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J. and S. - storia criminale del far west

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Giù la Testa

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The Master and Margaret

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What Have You Done to Solange?

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The Cat o' Nine Tails

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Cold Eyes of Fear

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When Women Lost Their Tails

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Violent City

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Hornet's Nest

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Two Mules for Sister Sara

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Quando le Donne Avevano la Coda

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Companeros

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The Bird with the Crystal Plumage

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Queimada!

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The Red Tent

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Death Rides a Horse

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La Bataille de San Sebastian

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Danger: Diabolik

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Dalle Ardenne All'Inferno

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Once Upon a Time in the West

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Partner

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Teorema

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A Bullet for the General

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Un Dollaro a Testa

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The Rover

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The Battle of Algiers

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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

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The Hawks and the Sparrows

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Prima della rivoluzione

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For a Few Dollars More

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Una Pistola per Ringo

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A Fistful of Dollars

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Ennio Morricone

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Film composer



Ennio Morricone is one of the most eclectic and prolific film composers in the entire history of the genre. He began composing scores for Italian westerns (often called "spaghetti westerns") in the 1960s, and over the course of his career has created soundtracks for over 400 films and television productions released in English, Italian, German, and French. In addition to westerns, he has composed highly melodic scores for mystery thrillers, romantic dramas, comedies, and epics, including The Untouchables, La Cage aux Folles, The Mission, and Disclosure.

In an interview with Fred Karlin, author of Listening to Movies, Morricone discussed his humble 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."

Yet these "simple musical scores" were inherently ingenious, immediately setting Morricone apart from his contemporaries. The compositions were marked by a blend of rock, jazz, folk, blues, classical music, and "found" sounds—birdcalls, gunshots, footsteps, the lash of a whip, rolling baby carriages, animal noises, and, most notably, the human whistle. Writing for the Village Voice in 1986, Peter Watrous remarked, "[Morricone] has an acute sense for sound, and if it means using lower-class instruments—electric guitars, cheezo keyboards—to gain a specific effect, he'll do it." Morricone's work with director Sergio Leone on the classic 1960s "man with no name" trilogy vaulted both Morricone and actor Clint Eastwood to instant cult stardom. In scores for A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Morricone mirrored the violence, irony, and campy humor pervading the classic Eastwood westerns.

Though westerns established Morricone as a "name" in the film-score business, his work with major directors such as Franco Zeffirelli, Federico Fellini, Roman Polanski, and Roland Joffe put him on par with composers like John Williams, the man who dominated film music in the 1980s with the memorable themes to Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Star Wars.

In the 1990s, roughly a quarter-century after he first attained prominence, moviegoers would be moved by Morricone's dramatic swells in big-screen epics such as City of Joy, and startled by his jagged strings in thrillers like Wolf. "Morricone, in short, is a postmodernist," wrote Harlan Kennedy in a 1991 interview in American Film. "Every acoustic gewgaw is grist for his mill; every period of musical history may be ransacked for inspiration. No wonder that in the 1990s, at the peak of his form, he's become the musical general in the Italian invasion of American cinema." Still, Morricone is loath to define himself in any category of film composers. He said in American Film, "I can't classify myself. Others must do it. Others, if they wish, can analyze my works."

Born in Rome in 1928, Morricone started writing music at the age of six. He holds diplomas in composition, trombone, and orchestra direction from the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, and he long played trombone there with a local music group called Nuova Consonanza. Along with his classical compositions, he has composed a ballet (Requiem for Destiny) but little other non-film music. His first full-length film composition was for Luciano Salce's Il federale (The Fascist) in 1961, though his fame was not established until Leone's mid-1960s trilogy and 1968's Once upon a Time in the West, perhaps Morricone's best-known score.

Morricone has often described his music as being about the pain inside a character. He told American Film contributor Kennedy that the screams, whistles, bells, and whips used in the "man with no name" trilogy were essential because they underlined the quirks of the character played by Eastwood. "I do only what I think is correct," he said. "A composer has the obligation to 'invent and capture' noises, the musical sounds of life."

Perhaps Morricone's most famous single "invention" was the theme song for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, which topped the American charts after it was borrowed and slightly altered by Hugo Montenegro—a slight that still irritates the composer. And though he writes almost exclusively for events onscreen, Morricone's soundtracks have endured on their own when released separately, often topping album charts.

Director Leone once told Kennedy that in the beginning of their collaboration, he would invite Morricone to his house and have him work on a piano that was out of tune, because "if a score is good, it must rise above a bad instrument." For the most part, Morricone begins his work on a film score by consulting the director about problem spots in the film and suggesting musical solutions. Only after this collaboration takes place does Morricone begin his work with an orchestra. Watrous explained of Morricone's signature style, "Where Morricone comments on the action, it's wildly imaginative kitsch.... Even without the visuals, the soundtracks are perfectly formed, if small, bits of music reeking sleaze." This down-and-dirty aspect of his work has attracted a devoted following among other musicians, including experimentalist John Zorn, who made his own "cover" versions of some of Morricone's work in the 1980s.

Despite the suggestion that Morricone's music needs no visual accompaniment, the composer told Listening to Movies author Karlin, "Actually, people are little concerned with the musical element if they are watching a film, except when the music is ... particularly emphasized." In fact, Morricone is usually brought in only after a film is completed. Because at this point it is effectively too late to alter the look of the film, some directors rely on the score to smooth over any weak points in the drama. Many films depend heavily on music to establish suspense, for example. Ultimately, the composer is confronted with having his score cut to fit precise moments of the film. (To counter this, Morricone has become active in the release of his works as they were initially conceived, personally overseeing the musical selection and arrangements.)

Musically enhanced cinematic moments, nonetheless, can carry a film. In a 1992 review of the movie Bugsy, an Entertainment Weekly reviewer stated, "Morricone achieves something here that [very few] even try: music that's as integral to the movie's very conception as the dialogue, camera work, and performances." In American Film, Morricone supported this statement by insisting that music in a film add depth to the story and characters; it must "say all that the dialogue, images, effects, etc., cannot say."

If Morricone has a weakness, it is his incredible productivity, which inevitably leads to the occasionally listless score; this was the critical consensus about his work on the generally forgettable films So Fine, Butterfly, and The Thing. Writing for Melody Maker, Frank Owen found the soundtrack to The Mission "just plain dull."

Rising at five every morning, Morricone locks himself in his room to keep from becoming distracted by the hubbub of his Italian household. Alluding to Morricone's massive body of work, Kennedy asked the composer, who often publishes music under the pseudonym Loe Nichols or Nicola Piovanti, if he ever grows weary of scoring film after film. To this Morricone responded, "I'm not tired of writing music. It's the only thing that I know how to do."

Indeed, Morricone hardly slowed down at all as he entered his eighth decade of life, remaining active on both sides of the Atlantic in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He showed his range by writing the score for actor-director Warren Beatty's film Bulworth, and also rejoined Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore in 1998 for The Legend of 1900. Morricone's score for Tornatore's 1988 film Cinema Paradiso has remained one of his most beloved, and the new score was hailed for its musical-historical accuracy and for the research its composer had put into the enterprise.

Tornatore and Morricone teamed up once more in 2000 for the Italian melodrama Malena, whose score brought Morricone his fifth Academy Award nomination to go with a host of other cinematic awards. The first four were for Days of Heaven (1978), The Mission (1986), The Untouchables (1987), and Bugsy (1991). To go with these formal accolades, Morricone notched a more modern kind of honor in 2002 when a group of dance music DJs issued an album, Morricone RMX, devoted to remixes of music from his film scores. A similar effort, Ennio Morricone Remixes, appeared on the German label Compost the following year. "I am honored and surprised that this happens," Morricone told London's Independent newspaper.

Morricone continued writing classical music as well, although it was more often heard in Europe than in the United States. Major validation of his music came from the classical world in 2004, when best-selling cellist Yo-Yo Ma recorded an album of arrangements of Morricone's film music. The 76-year-old composer arranged and conducted the music for the album himself. Asked by the London Sunday Telegraph to look back on his career, Morricone pronounced himself "satisfied with what I've done. But I still think I can improve. You can always do better, you know."

Selected discography
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, EMI, 1966.
Once upon a Time in the West, RCA, 1968.
Sacco and Vanzetti, Omega, 1971.
Sahara, Intrada, 1983.
The Untouchables, A&M, 1987.
Hamlet, Virgin, 1990.
State of Grace, MCA, 1990.
Bugsy, Epic, 1991.
City of Joy, Epic, 1992.
In the Line of Fire, Epic, 1993.
Movie Music, Sony Music Italy, 1993.
Wolf, Sony, 1994.
Disclosure, Virgin, 1995.
A Fistful of Film Music: The Ennio Morricone Anthology, Rhino, 1995.
Film Music, Vol. 1, Virgin.
Film Music Vol. 2, Virgin.
Ennio Morricone: His Greatest Themes, Accord.
Legendary Italian Westerns, RCA.
Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone, Sony, 2004.

Selected compositions
Selected scores (Italian titles translated into English)
The Fascist, 1961.

Crazy Desire, 1962.

The Little Nuns, 1963.

A Fistful of Dollars, 1964.



Before the Revolution, 1964.

Nightmare Castle, 1965.

Fist in his Pocket, 1965.

For a Few Dollars More, 1965.

The Hawks and the Sparrows, 1966.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, 1966.

The Battle of Algiers, 1966.

The Hills Run Red, 1966.

Navajo Joe, 1966.

Wake Up and Die, 1966.

The Witches, 1967.

The Girl and the General, 1967.

Death Rides a Horse, 1967.

The Big Gundown, 1967.

Dirty Heroes, 1968.

Come Play with Me, 1968.

A Fine Pair, 1968.

Once upon a Time in the West, 1968.

The Mercenary, 1968.

Dirty Angels, 1968.

Brief Season, 1969.

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, 1969.

Hornet's Nest, 1970.

Two Mules for Sister Sara, 1970.

Lulu the Tool, 1971.

The Burglars, 1971.

Duck You Sucker, 1971.

Devil in the Brain, 1972.

Far West Story, 1972.

Hearts and Minds, 1973.

Revolver, 1973.

The Devil Is a Woman, 1974.

Night Caller, 1974.

A Thousand and One Nights, 1974.

Space 1999, 1974.

The End of the Game, 1975.

Salo–the 120 Days of Sodom, 1975.

The Sunday Woman, 1975.

1900, 1976.

The Inheritance, 1976.

Down the Ancient Stairs, 1976.

Exorcist II, 1977.

The Heretic, 1977.

Orca–Killer Whale, 1977.

La Cage aux Folles, 1978.

Days of Heaven, 1978.

Bloodline, 1979.

The Meadow, 1979.

The Thief, 1979.

Windows, 1979.

So Fine, 1980.

The Island, 1980.

So Fine, 1980.

The True Story of Camille, 1980.

The Professional, 1981.

The Thing, 1982.

Butterfly, 1983.

The Scarlet and the Black, 1983.

Order of Death (Cop Killer), 1983.

A Time to Die, 1983.

Once upon a Time in America, 1984.

The Seven, 1984.

The Trap, 1985.

Red Sonja, 1985.

Fred and Ginger, 1986.

Good Morning Babylon, 1986.

The Untouchables, 1987.

Frantic, 1987.

Cinema Paradiso, 1988.

Casualties of War, 1989.

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, 1989.

State of Grace, 1990.

Hamlet, 1990.

Voices of the Moon, 1990.

Money, 1991.

Bugsy, 1991.

City of Joy, 1992.

In the Line of Fire, 1993.

Wolf, 1994.

Disclosure, 1994.

A Pure Formality, 1995.

Samson and Delilah, 1996.

Lolita, 1997.

Bulworth, 1998.

The Legend of 1900, 1998.

Malena, 2000.

Mission to Mars, 2000.

Ripley's Game, 2002.

Sources
Books
Karlin, Fred, Listening to Movies, Schirmer, 1994.

Periodicals
American Film, February 1994.
Billboard, April 4, 1993.
Chicago Sun-Times, February 16, 2001.
Daily Telegraph (London, England), March 6, 2001, p. 24; November 2, 2003, p. 5.
Entertainment Weekly, February 7, 1992; July 21, 1995; March 23, 2001, p. 52.
Film Review, September 1976.
Independent (London, England), March 11, 2004, p. 11.
Independent on Sunday (London, England), November 9, 2003, p. Features-7; November 23, 2003, p. Features-15.
Melody Maker, November 8, 1986.
Newsweek, July 2, 1993.
Notes, June 2002, p. 906.
Star Tribune, (Minneapolis, MN), October 10, 2004, p. F3.
Village Voice, November 18, 1986.

Online
"Ennio Morricone," All Movie Guide, http://www.allmovie.com (December 19, 2004).
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  • Genres: Soundtrack

Biography

Ennio Morricone is probably the most famous film composer of the 20th century. He is also one of the most prolific composers working in any medium. No exact figure is available, but he's scored several hundred films over the past several decades, perhaps as many as 500. While these have been in almost every imaginable musical style (and for almost every imaginable kind of movie), he is most identified with the "spaghetti Western" style of soundtracks, which he pioneered when providing the musical backdrop for the films of director Sergio Leone. Morricone's palette is extraordinarily diverse, drawing from classical, jazz, pop, rock, electronic, avant-garde, and Italian music, among other styles. Esteemed by such important figures in modern music as John Zorn (not to mention contemporary directors like Martin Scorsese), he is increasingly placed among not just the finest soundtrack composers, but the most important contemporary composers of any sort.

Morricone began studying music at Rome's Conservatory of Santa Cecilia at the age of 12. Urged to concentrate on composition by his instructors, he supported himself by playing trumpet in jazz bands, and then worked for Italy's national radio network after graduating from the conservatory. He didn't begin scoring films until the early '60s, and didn't begin attracting international notice until he began collaborating with Leone, starting with A Fistful of Dollars in the mid-'60s. (Morricone had previously worked on other Italian Westerns with other directors.)

The spaghetti Westerns only comprised a phase of Morricone's career, but for many his work in this field remains his best and most innovative. Morricone amplified the film's plots and drama through ingenious use of diverse arrangements and instrumentation. Jew's harps, dissonant harmonicas, dancing piccolos, bombastic church organs, eerie whistling, thundering trumpets, oddly sung gunfighter ballads, and ghostly vocal choruses -- all became trademarks of the Morricone-Leone productions, then of the spaghetti Western genre as a whole. The influence of rock & roll was felt in the low, ominous twanging guitars, which reflected (intentionally or unintentionally) the sound of contemporary recordings by the Ventures, Duane Eddy, the Shadows, and John Barry. Morricone's most famous composition, the theme to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, made number two in the U.S. when it was covered by Hugo Montenegro.

Even while he was busy with collaborations with Leone, Morricone found time for various other film projects, such as the agitprop classic Battle of Algiers and Burn! By the 1970s, Morricone was winding down his involvement with both Leone and the spaghetti Western, working with numerous other directors all over the world. Grand orchestration and memorable motifs were commonplace in Morricone's work; Warren Beatty, for instance, once told the Los Angeles Times that "there's nobody better than Ennio to create a haunting theme." His scores also began to utilize more contemporary electronic influences, with mixed results.

Age has not slowed Morricone in the least. In fact, the 1980s, '90s, and 2000s saw his commercial success and widespread recognition at an all-time peak. He garnered an Academy Award nomination for The Mission in 1986. Since then he's worked for such top directors as Pedro Almodovar, Brian DePalma, Roman Polanski, Mike Nichols, Oliver Stone, and Barry Levinson. Cinema Paradiso is probably the most renowned of his recent scores.

With such an abundance of recordings, collecting Morricone remains a daunting proposition. It's doubtful that anyone will collect all of his soundtracks under one roof; after all, the composer himself doesn't even remember how many films he's worked on. RCA's The Legendary Italian Westerns, Virgin's two Film Music volumes, and Rhino's Anthology are useful collections, and the DRG label has reissued other noteworthy compilations of his work. ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi
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Ennio Morricone

Morricone at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival
Background information
Also known as Maestro
Born (1928-11-10) November 10, 1928 (age 83)
Origin Rome, Italy
Genres Film music, classical music, pop music, jazz, lounge music, easy listening
Occupations Composer, orchestrator, music director, conductor, trumpeter
Years active 1946–present
Associated acts Bruno Nicolai, Alessandro Alessandroni, Mina, Yo-Yo Ma, Mireille Mathieu, Joan Baez, Andrea Bocelli, Roger Waters, Sarah Brightman, Amii Stewart, Paul Anka, Milva, Gianni Morandi, Dalida, Catherine Spaak, Pet Shop Boys, Hayley Westenra, and others
Website http://www.enniomorricone.it

Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, Italian pronunciation: [ˈɛnnjo morriˈkoːne], (born November 10, 1928) is an Italian composer and conductor, who has written music for more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years.[1] His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces. Morricone is most famous for his work in the Spaghetti Westerns directed by his friend Sergio Leone, including A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) but his career includes a wide range of composition genres making him one of the film world's most versatile artists. He is considered as one of the most influential film music composers of the 20th century.

Born in Rome, Italy, Morricone took up the trumpet as a child and attended the National Academy of Santa Cecilia to take lessons on the instrument at the age of nine. He formally entered a conservatory at the age of 12, enrolling in a four-year harmony programme. He received his trumpet diploma in 1946 and started working professionally, composing the music to "Il Mattino" ("The Morning"). Morricone soon gained popularity by writing his first background music for radio dramas and quickly moved into film.[2]

In the 1950s he received the "Diploma in Instrumentation for Band" (fanfare) where he won a diploma in Composition under the composer Goffredo Petrassi. In 1955, Morricone started to ghost write and arrange music for other, already established film composers. Morricone soon came to the attention of his former school friend Sergio Leone, who hired Morricone to compose the music to some of his best known films. Together they created a distinctive score to accompany Leone's different version of the Western, A Fistful of Dollars.

In the 80s and 90s, Morricone continued to write the music for Leone's later films, including Once Upon a Time in America (1984). He also composed the music to Joffé's The Mission (1986), De Palma's The Untouchables (1987) and Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso (1988). His more recent compositions include the scores for Malèna (2000), Fateless (2005), and Baaria - La porta del vento (2009).

Morricone has received two Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, five BAFTAs during 1979–1992, seven David di Donatello, eight Nastro d'Argento, and the Polar Music Prize in 2010. In 2007, he received the Academy Honorary Award "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music" and has been nominated for a further five Oscars in the category of Best Original Score during 1979–2001, but has never won competitively.

Contents

Biography

Early career

Ennio Morricone was born in Rome, the son of Libera and Mario Morricone, a jazz trumpeter.[3] Morricone wrote his first compositions when he was six years old and was encouraged to develop his natural talents.[4] Compelled to take up the trumpet, he attended the National Academy of Santa Cecilia to take lessons on the instrument at the age of nine. Morricone formally entered the conservatory in 1940 at the age of 12, enrolling in a four-year harmony program. According to various reports, he completed it in either two years or six months (date approximate).[5] He studied the trumpet, composition, choral music, and choral direction under Goffredo Petrassi, who deeply influenced him and to whom Morricone has dedicated concert pieces.

These were the difficult years of World War II in the heavily bombed "open city"; the composer remarked that what he mostly remembered of those years was the hunger. His wartime experiences influenced many of his scores for films set in that period.

After he graduated, he continued to work in classical composition and arrangement. In 1946, Morricone received his trumpet diploma and in the same year he composed "Il Mattino" ("The Morning") for voice and piano on a text by Fukuko, first in a group of 7 "youth" Lieder. Other serious compositions are "Imitazione" (1947) for voice and piano on a text by Giacomo Leopardi and "Intimità" for voice and piano on a text by Olinto Dini.

In the early 1950s, Morricone began writing his first background music for radio dramas. Nonetheless he continued composing classical pieces as "Distacco I e Distacco II" for voice and piano on a text by Ranieri Gnoli, "Verrà la Morte" for contralto and piano on a text by Cesare Pavese, "Oboe Sommerso" for baritone and five instruments on a text by Salvatore Quasimodo.[6]

Although the composer had received the "Diploma in Instrumentation for Band" (fanfare) in 1952, his studies concluded in 1954, obtaining a diploma in Composition under the composer Goffredo Petrassi. In 1955, Morricone started to write or arrange music for films credited to other already well-known composers (ghost writing). He occasionally adopted Anglicized pseudonyms, such as Dan Savio and Leo Nichols.

Morricone wrote more works in the climate of the Italian avant-garde. A few of these compositions have been made available on CD, such as "Ut", his trumpet concerto dedicated to the soloist Mauro Maur, one of his favorite musicians; some have yet to be premiered. From the mid-sixties and onwards, he was part of Gruppo di Improvvisazione di Nuova Consonanza, a group of composers who performed and recorded avant garde free improvisations, even scoring a few films during the 1970s.

Leone film scores

Well-versed in a variety of musical idioms from his RCA experience, Morricone began composing film scores in the early 1960s.[5] Though his first films were undistinguished, Morricone's arrangement of an American folk song intrigued director and former schoolmate Sergio Leone. Leone hired Morricone, and together they created a distinctive score to accompany Leone's different version of the Western, A Fistful of Dollars (1964).[5] As budget strictures limited Morricone's access to a full orchestra, he used gunshots, cracking whips, whistle, voices, guimbarde (jaw harp), trumpets, and the new Fender electric guitar, instead of orchestral arrangements of Western standards à la John Ford. Morricone used his special effects to punctuate and comically tweak the action—cluing in the audience to the taciturn man's ironic stance.[5] Though sonically bizarre for a movie score, Morricone's music was viscerally true to Leone's vision.

As memorable as Leone's close-ups, harsh violence, and black comedy, Morricone's work helped to expand the musical possibilities of film scoring.[5] Morricone was initially billed on the film as Dan Savio.[5]

Morricone composed music for over 40 Westerns (the last was North Star (1996)), most of them Spaghetti Westerns. He scored Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns, from A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and including For a Few Dollars More (1965), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), as well as later films such as A Fistful of Dynamite (1971), My Name Is Nobody (1973), and A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe (1975). The collaboration with Leone is considered one of the exemplary collaborations between a director and a composer.

With the score of A Fistful of Dollars, Morricone began his 10-year collaboration with his childhood friend Alessandro Alessandroni 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 specifically exploited the solo soprano of the group, Edda Dell'Orso, at the height of her powers—"an extraordinary voice at my disposal".

In addition, Morricone composed music for many other, not so popular Spaghetti Westerns, including Duello nel Texas (1963), Le pistole non discutono (1964), A Pistol for Ringo (1965), The Return of Ringo (1965), Navajo Joe (1966), The Big Gundown, (1966), Face to Face (1967), Death Rides a Horse (1967), The Hellbenders (1967), A Bullet for the General (1967), The Mercenary (1968), Tepepa (1968), The Great Silence (1968), Guns for San Sebastian (1968), …And for a Roof a Sky Full of Stars (1968), The Five Man Army (1969), Queimada! (1969), Vamos a matar, compañeros (1970), Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), Sonny and Jed (1972), and Buddy Goes West (1981).

Notable film scores

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), The Battle of Algiers (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's superhero romp Danger: Diabolik (1968). The next year marked the start of a series of evocative scores for Dario Argento's stylized thrillers, including The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1969), The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971), and Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1974).[5] In 1970, Morricone wrote the score for Violent City. That same year, he received his first Nastro d'Argento for the music in Metti una sera a cena (Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, 1969) and his second only a year later for Sacco e Vanzetti (Giuliano Montaldo, 1971), in which he had made a memorable collaboration with the legendary American folk singer and activist Joan Baez. In 1973, he scored a theme for the crime film Revolver (1973). Morricone composed the score for John Carpenter's science-fiction/horror movie The Thing (1982)[7] as well as Brian De Palma's war drama Casualties of War (1989).[8]

Morricone has worked for television, from a single title piece to variety shows and documentaries to TV series, including the US TV Western The Men From Shiloh (1970), Moses (1974) and Marco Polo (1982). One notable composition, "Chi Mai" was used in the films, Maddalena (1971) and Le Professionnel (1981) as well as the TV series The Life and Times of David Lloyd George (1981). It was a surprise hit in the UK, almost topping the charts. He wrote the score for 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".[9] 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. Their collaboration yielded the BAFTA-winning Nuovo cinema Paradiso. In 2003, Ennio Morricone scored another epic, for Japanese television, called Musashi and was the Taiga drama about Miyamoto Musashi, Japan's legendary warrior. A part of his "applied music" is now applied to Italian television films.

Concerts and live orchestrations

Since 2001, Morricone has been on a world tour, 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 Munich Philharmonie in 2005 and Hammersmith Apollo Theatre in London, UK, on 2006-12-01 and 2006-12-02.

Ennio Morricone at the United Nations Headquarters

He made his North American concert debut on January 29, 2007 Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City and four days later 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." Morricone, though, has said: "Conducting has never been important to me. If the audience comes for my gestures, they had better stay outside."

On December 12, 2007, Morricone conducted the Roma Sinfonietta at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, presenting a selection of his own works. Together with the Roma Sinfonietta and the Belfast Philharmonic Choir, Morricone performed at the Opening Concerts of the Belfast Festival at Queen's, in the Waterfront Hall on October 17 and 18, 2008. Morricone and Roma Sinfonietta also held a concert at the Belgrade Arena (Belgrade, Serbia) on February 14, 2009.

On April 10, 2010, Morricone conducted a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London with the Roma Sinfonietta and (as in all of his previous London concerts) the Crouch End Festival Chorus. On August 27, 2010, he conducted a concert in Hungary. Two other concerts took place in Verona and Sofia (Bulgaria) on 11 and 17 September 2010.[10]

Recent works

Morricone provided the string arrangements on Morrissey's "Dear God Please Help Me" from the album Ringleader of the Tormentors in 2006.[11]

Quentin Tarantino originally wanted Morricone to compose the soundtrack for his most recent film, Inglourious Basterds. However, Morricone refused because of the sped-up production schedule of the film.[12][13][14] Tarantino did use several Morricone tracks from previous films in the soundtrack.

Morricone instead wrote the music for Baaria - La porta del vento, the most recent movie by Giuseppe Tornatore. The composer is also writing music for Tornatore's upcoming movie Leningrad.

In spring and summer 2010, Morricone worked with Hayley Westenra for a collaboration on her album Paradiso.[15] The album features new songs written by Morricone, as well as some of his best known film compositions of the last 50 years.[16][17] Hayley recorded the album with Morricone's orchestra in Rome during the summer of 2010.[18][19][20]

Public reputation

In 1956, Morricone started to support his family by playing in a jazz band and arranging pop songs for the Italian broadcasting service RAI.[5] He was hired by RAI 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, working with Renato Rascel, Rita Pavone, and Mario Lanza.[5] A particular success was one of his own songs, "Se telefonando".[21][22]

Performed by Mina, it was a standout track of Studio Uno 66, the fifth-biggest-selling album of the year 1966 in Italy.[23] Morricone's sophisticated arrangement of "Se telefonando" was a combination of melodic trumpet lines, Hal Blaine–style drumming, a string set, a '60s Europop female choir, and intensive subsonic-sounding trombones. The Italian Hitparade #7 song had eight transitions of tonality building tension throughout the chorus.[21][22]

During the following decades, the song was covered by several performers in Italy and abroad—most notably by Françoise Hardy and Iva Zanicchi (1966), Delta V (2005), Vanessa and the O's (2007), and Neil Hannon (2008).[24] In the reader's poll conducted by the la Repubblica newspaper to celebrate Mina's 70th anniversary in 2010, 30,000 voters picked the track as the best song ever recorded by Mina.[25] Throughout the '60s Morricone composed songs for other artists including Milva, Gianni Morandi, Paul Anka, Amii Stewart, and Mireille Mathieu.

Personal life

On 13 October 1956, he married Maria Travia and had his first son, Marco, in 1957. Travia has written lyrics to complement her husband's pieces. Her works include the Latin texts for The Mission. They have three sons and a daughter, in order of birth: Marco, Alessandra, the conductor and film composer Andrea (Andrew), and Giovanni (a filmmaker[26] who lives in New York City).

Influence and modern references

Morricone at the 2009 Venice film festival.

Morricone's influence also extends into the realm of pop music. Hugo Montenegro had a hit with a version of the 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.

Aside from his music having been sampled by everyone from rappers (Jay-Z) to electronic outfits (the Orb), Morricone wrote "Se Telefonando", which became Italy's fifth biggest-selling record of 1966 and has since been re-recorded by Françoise Hardy, among many others, and scored the strings for "Dear God, Please Help Me" on Morrissey's 2006 "Ringleader of the Tormentors" album.

Morricone's film music was also recorded by many artists. John Zorn recorded an album of Morricone's music, The Big Gundown, with Keith Rosenberg in the mid-1980s. Lyricists and poets have helped convert some of his melodies into a songbook.

Morricone collaborated with world music artists, like 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.

In 1990 the American singer Amii Stewart, best known for the 1979 disco hit "Knock On Wood", recorded a tribute album entitled Pearls - Amii Stewart Sings Ennio Morricone for the RCA label, including a selection of the composer's best known songs. Since the mid 1980s Stewart resides in Italy, the Pearls album features Rome's Philharmonic Orchestra and was co-produced by Morricone himself.

The 2003 Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2 makes extensive use of several Morricone pieces from several 1960s film scores. The 2009 film Inglourious Basterds also uses many Morricone pieces, as well as sharing "Il Mercenario (Ripresa)" with Kill Bill.

Metallica uses Morricone's The Ecstasy of Gold as an intro at their concerts (shock jocks Opie and Anthony also use 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 Symphonic rock album S&M. Ramones used the theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as a concert intro. The theme from A Fistful Of Dollars is also used as a concert intro by The Mars Volta.

His influence extends from Michael Nyman to Anna Calvi to Muse.[27] He even has his own tribute band, a large group which started in Australia, touring as The Spaghetti Western Orchestra.

Morricone is mentioned by Myles, a musician/scorer (played by Jack Black in The Holiday), as creator of magical sounds that formed a character as much as lines of music in his films. This played out in a scene at a video rental store between Black and actress Kate Winslett.

In 2007, the tribute album We All Love Ennio Morricone was released. It features performances by various artists, including Sarah Brightman, Andrea Bocelli, Celine Dion, Bruce Springsteen and Metallica.

On their 2008 album "Red of Tooth and Claw" the independent rock band, Murder by Death, composed and included a song as a theme/tribute to Morricone entitled "Theme (for Ennio Morricone)."

British band Muse cites Morricone as an influence for the songs "City of Delusion", "Hoodoo", and "Knights of Cydonia" on their album Black Holes and Revelations.[citation needed]. The band has recently started playing the song "Man With A Harmonica" live played by Chris Wolstenholme, as an intro to "Knights of Cydonia".[28]

In January 2010, tenor Donald Braswell II released his album "We Fall and We Rise Again" on which he presented his tribute to Ennio Morricone with his original composition entitled "Ennio".

The score for The Thing 2011 prequel film composed by Marco Beltrami was inspired and uses several elements from Morricone's original soundtrack from the 1982 film of the same name.

Discography

Ennio Morricone has sold over 50 million records worldwide,[29][30] including 6.5 million copies in France[31] and more than two million albums in Korea.[32]

Top worldwide film grosses

Ennio Morricone has been involved with eight movies grossing over $25 million at the box office:[33]

Year Title Director Gross
1966 The Good, The Bad & The Ugly Sergio Leone $25,100,000
1977 Exorcist II: The Heretic John Boorman $30,749,142
1987 The Untouchables Brian De Palma $76,270,454
1991 Bugsy Barry Levinson $49,114,016
1993 In the Line of Fire Wolfgang Petersen $176,997,168
1994 Wolf Mike Nichols $131,002,597
1994 Disclosure Barry Levinson $214,015,089
2000 Mission to Mars Brian De Palma $110,983,407

Other successful movies with Morricone's work are Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2 (2003, 2004) and Inglourious Basterds (2009), though the tracks used are sampled from older pictures.

Awards

He received his first Academy Award nomination in 1979, for the score to Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978).[34] He was later nominated for a further two awards; in 1986 for The Mission[34] and in 1987 for The Untouchables.[34] He later nominated for the score to Bugsy (Barry Levinson) (1991). His last nomination was for Malèna (2000).

Morricone and Alex North are the only composers to receive the Honorary Oscar since the award's introduction in 1928.[35] North was nominated for fifteen Oscars, but like Morricone, he never won competitively.

Morricone received an honorary Academy Award on February 25, 2007, presented by Clint Eastwood, "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music." With the statuette came a standing ovation. Not only nominated five times, but also he received a lifetime achievement Oscar, five Baftas and two Golden Globes.[36] In conjunction with the honor, Morricone released a tribute album, We All Love Ennio Morricone, that featured as its centerpiece Celine Dion's rendition of "I Knew I Loved You" (based on "Deborah's Theme" from Once Upon a Time in America), which she performed at the ceremony. Behind-the-scenes studio production and recording footage of "I Knew I Loved You" can be viewed in the debut episode of the QuincyJones.com Podcast.[37] The lyric, as with Morricone's Love Affair, had been penned by Oscar-winning husband-and-wife duo Marilyn and Alan Bergman. Morricone's acceptance speech was in his native Italian tongue and was interpreted by Clint Eastwood, who stood to his left. Eastwood and Morricone had in fact met two days earlier—for the first time in 40 years—at a reception.

List of prizes and awards

Sources

  • Horace, B. Music from the Movies, film music journal double issue 45/46, 2005: ISSN 0967-8131
  • Miceli, Sergio. Morricone, la musica, il cinema. Milan: Mucchi/Ricordi, 1994: ISBN 88-7592-398-1
  • Miceli, Sergio. "Morricone, Ennio". The Nesw Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
  • Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 3. Dal 1960 al 1969. Gremese, 1993: ISBN 88-7605-593-2
  • Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 4. Dal 1970 al 1979* A/L. Gremese, 1996: ISBN 88-7605-935-0
  • Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 4. Dal 1970 al 1979** M/Z. Gremese, 1996: ISBN 88-7605-969-5
  • Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 5. Dal 1980 al 1989* A/L. Gremese, 2000: ISBN 88-7742-423-0
  • Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 5. Dal 1980 al 1989** M/Z. Gremese, 2000: ISBN 88-7742-429-X

References

  1. ^ Ennio Morricone at the Internet Movie Database
  2. ^ "Ennio Morricone". classicfm.co.uk. http://www.classicfm.co.uk/music/composers/h-m/ennio-morricone/. Retrieved 2012-01-28. 
  3. ^ "Ennio Morricone Biography (1928-)". Filmreference.com. http://www.filmreference.com/film/23/Ennio-Morricone.html. Retrieved 2011-09-13. 
  4. ^ "Ennio Morricone, Critical profile by Sergio Miceli". Esz.it. http://www.esz.it/aut/eng/ennio_morricone/profilo.htm. Retrieved 2011-09-13. 
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i "About Ennio Morricone". fancast.com. http://www.fancast.com/people/Ennio-Morricone/313734/biography. 
  6. ^ "Dante Alighieri, Ennio Morricone biography". Dantealighieri.net. 1911-12-03. http://www.dantealighieri.net/cambridge/Ital_music.html#Ennio%20Morricone. Retrieved 2011-09-13. 
  7. ^ [1] taken from AFI|The American Film Institute accessed September 2011
  8. ^ [2] taken from AFI (The American Film Institute), accessed September 2011
  9. ^ International Movie Data Base
  10. ^ All About Jazz (2010-04-01). "All About Jazz, Ennio Morricone tour 2010". Allaboutjazz.com. http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=52896. Retrieved 2011-09-13. 
  11. ^ Goddard, S. Mozipedia, p.272. Ebury Press, Great Britain, 2009
  12. ^ "AICN". Aintitcool.com. http://www.aintitcool.com/node/39041. Retrieved 2011-09-13. 
  13. ^ IMDB
  14. ^ Barna, Daniel (2009-01-09). "Morricone u Basterd!". JoBlo.com. http://joblo.com/morricone-u-basterd. Retrieved 2011-03-08. 
  15. ^ "E' uscito "Paradiso", l'album di Hayley Westenra ed Ennio Morricone - Cultura - Famiglia Cristiana". Famigliacristiana.it. 2011-09-21. http://www.famigliacristiana.it/costume-e-societa/cultura/ascoltato/articolo/westenra_200911113955.aspx. Retrieved 2012-03-31. 
  16. ^ "Paradiso - Hayley Westenra". Marbecks. 2011-04-18. http://www.marbecks.co.nz/detail/index.lsd?catalogID=621881. Retrieved 2011-09-13. 
  17. ^ "In the studio with Morricone". classicfm.co.uk. 24 Aug 2011. http://www.classicfm.co.uk/shop/classic-fm-magazine/classic-fm-magazine-october-2011/. Retrieved 27 Aug 2011. 
  18. ^ "Decca Records | Classical | Hayley Westenra teams up with Ennio Morricone". Decca.com. http://www.decca.com/articles/hayley-westenra-teams-up-with-ennio-morricone-490. Retrieved 2011-03-08. 
  19. ^ "Message from Ennio Morricone". 18 Jul 2011. http://www.hayleywestenra.com/2011/07/18/a-message-from-ennio-morricone/. Retrieved 27 Aug 2011. 
  20. ^ "Paradiso on iTunes". 29 August 2011. http://itunes.apple.com/gb/preorder/paradiso/id445405933. Retrieved 27 Aug 2011. 
  21. ^ a b "Se telefonando. HitParadeItalia site". http://www.hitparadeitalia.it/schede/s/se_telefonando.htm. 
  22. ^ a b "Sounds: New Digs. Catalog of Cool site. Retrieved on 21 November 2007". Archived from the original on 2008-05-01. http://web.archive.org/web/20080501210836/http://www.catalog-of-cool.com/newdigssounds.html. 
  23. ^ "Top annuali album". HitParadeItalia.it. http://www.hitparadeitalia.it. 
  24. ^ Se telefonando Françoise Hardy - Mon amie la rose site
  25. ^ (Italian) Gino Castaldo (25 March 2010). "E Mamma Mina cestinò i complimenti dei Beatles". La Repubblica. http://www.repubblica.it/spettacoli-e-cultura/2010/03/25/news/mina-pani-2888803/. 
  26. ^ Giovanni Morricone in IMDB
  27. ^ Rebecca Nicholson (2011-02-12). "Anna Calvi: 'Without performing I'd be a nervous wreck' | Music". London: The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/feb/12/anna-calvi-guide-interview. Retrieved 2012-03-31. 
  28. ^ Ryan, Gary (2006-07-07). "City Life, Muse: The matrix meets Clint Eastwood, 7 July 2006". Citylife.co.uk. http://www.citylife.co.uk/music/news/5048_muse__the_matrix_meets_clint_eastwood. Retrieved 2011-09-13. 
  29. ^ "Zammerumaskil, Roma". Zammerumaskil.com. http://www.zammerumaskil.com/rassegna-stampa-cattolica/formazione-e-catechesi/musica-western-si-ma-non-in-chiesa.html. Retrieved 2011-09-13. 
  30. ^ "Fondazione Italiani". Liturgia.diocesifrosinone.com. 2010-04-24. http://liturgia.diocesifrosinone.com/. Retrieved 2011-09-13. 
  31. ^ "EM single sales in France". Infodisc.fr. http://www.infodisc.fr/Artiste_Ventes.php. Retrieved 2011-09-13. 
  32. ^ "Korea Herald, Ennio Morricone comes to Korea, May 12, 2009" (in (Korean)). Koreaherald.co.kr. 2010-03-30. http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/05/12/200905120060.asp. Retrieved 2011-09-13. 
  33. ^ Box Office Morricone
  34. ^ a b c [3] The Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences, accessed September 2011
  35. ^ [4] The Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences, accessed September 2011
  36. ^ "Ennio Morricone to head Rome Film Festival jury". BBC News. 2011-06-01. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13613455. Retrieved 2012-02-18. 
  37. ^ "Quincy Jones". Quincy Jones. http://quincyjones.com/. Retrieved 2011-09-13. 
  38. ^ "Macedonian Information Ageny". Mia.com.mk. http://www.mia.com.mk/default.aspx?mId=1&vId=66096033&lId=2&title=MACEDONIA+-+INTERNAL+AFFAIRS+. Retrieved 2011-09-13. 

Further reading

  • Lhassa, Anne, and Jean Lhassa: Ennio Morricone: biographie. Les Planches. Lausanne: Favre; [Paris]: [diff. Inter-forum], 1989. ISBN 2-8289-0418-0,
  • 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. ISBN 3-89727-177-X.
  • Webb, Michael D. Italian 20th Century Music: The Quest for Modernity. London: Kahn & Averill. ISBN 978-1-871082-89-0

External links

Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Robert Altman
Academy Honorary Award
2007
Succeeded by
Robert F. Boyle

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Mentioned in

L' Istruttoria E'Chiusa: Dimentichi/Il Serpente (1999 Album by Ennio Morricone)
Main Titles, Vol. 3: 1965-1985 (1999 Album by Ennio Morricone)
The Stendhal Syndrome (1999 Album by Ennio Morricone)
Casualties of War (1989 Album by Ennio Morricone)
La Scorta (1993 Thriller Film)