Ennio Morricone
Encyclopedia
Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI
, ˈɛnnjo moɾiˈkoːne, (born November 10, 1928) is an Italian composer
and conductor
, who wrote music to more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years. 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).
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.
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 Award
s, 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.
, the son of Libera and Mario Morricone, a jazz
trumpeter. Morricone wrote his first compositions when he was six years old and was encouraged to develop his natural talents. 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). 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
.
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.
(1964).
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. 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. Morricone was initially billed on the film as Dan Savio.
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).
'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). 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) as well as Brian De Palma
's war drama Casualties of War (1989).
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". 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.
, 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.
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.
in 2006.
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. 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
. The album features new songs written by Morricone, as well as some of his best known film compositions of the last 50 years. Hayley recorded the album with Morricone's orchestra in Rome
during the summer of 2010.
band and arranging
pop songs for the Italian broadcasting service RAI
. 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
. A particular success was one of his own songs, "Se telefonando".
Performed by Mina
, it was a standout track of Studio Uno 66
, the fifth-biggest-selling album of the year 1966 in Italy. 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.
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). 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. Throughout the '60s Morricone composed songs for other artists including Milva
, Gianni Morandi
, Paul Anka
, Amii Stewart
, and Mireille Mathieu
.
(Andrew), and Giovanni (a filmmaker who lives in New York City).
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 Muse
. He even has his own tribute band, a large group which started in Australia, touring as The Ennio Morricone Experience
.
Morricone is mentioned by Myles, a musician/scorer (played by Jack Black in "The Holiday" [2006 film]), 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
.. The band has recently started playing the song "Man With A Harmonica" live played by Chris Wolstenholme, as an intro to "Knights of Cydonia".
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.
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.
nomination in 1979, for the score to Days of Heaven
(Terrence Malick
, 1978). He was later nominated for a further two awards; in 1986 for The Mission and in 1987 for The Untouchables. 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. 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. Though nominated five times, he had not previously received an Oscar. 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. 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.
Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
The Order of Merit of the Italian Republic was founded as the senior order of knighthood by the second President of the Italian Republic, Luigi Einaudi in 1951...
, ˈɛnnjo moɾiˈkoːne, (born November 10, 1928) is an Italian composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
, who wrote music to more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years. 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
Sergio Leone
Sergio Leone was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter most associated with the "Spaghetti Western" genre.Leone's film-making style includes juxtaposing extreme close-up shots with lengthy long shots...
, including A Fistful of Dollars
A Fistful of Dollars
A Fistful of Dollars is a 1964 Italian Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood alongside Gian Maria Volonté, Marianne Koch, Wolfgang Lukschy, Sieghardt Rupp, José Calvo, Antonio Prieto, and Joseph Egger. Released in Italy in 1964 then in the United States in...
(1964), For a Few Dollars More
For a Few Dollars More
For a Few Dollars More is a 1965 Italian spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Gian Maria Volonté. German actor Klaus Kinski also plays a supporting role as a secondary villain...
(1965), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a 1966 Italian epic spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone, starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach in the title roles. The screenplay was written by Age & Scarpelli, Luciano Vincenzoni and Leone, based on a story by Vincenzoni and Leone...
(1966), and Once Upon a Time in the West
Once Upon a Time in the West
Once Upon a Time in the West is a 1968 Italian epic spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone for Paramount Pictures. It stars Henry Fonda cast against type as the villain, Charles Bronson as his nemesis, Jason Robards as a bandit, and Claudia Cardinale as a newly widowed homesteader with a...
(1968).
Born in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
Morricone took up the trumpet as a child and attended the National Academy of Santa Cecilia
Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, based in Italy.It is based at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, and was founded by the papal bull, Ratione congruit, issued by Sixtus V in 1585, which invoked two saints prominent in Western...
to take lessons on the instrument at the age of nine. He formally entered a conservatory
Music school
The term music school refers to an educational institution specialized in the study, training and research of music.Different terms refer to this concept such as school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department or conservatory.Music instruction can be provided...
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.
In the 1950s he received the "Diploma in Instrumentation for Band" (fanfare) where he won a diploma in Composition under the composer Goffredo Petrassi
Goffredo Petrassi
Goffredo Petrassi 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.-Life:...
. 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
Once Upon a Time in America
Once Upon a Time in America is a 1984 Italian epic crime film co-written and directed by Sergio Leone and starring Robert De Niro and James Woods. The story chronicles the lives of Jewish ghetto youths who rise to prominence in New York City's world of organized crime...
(1984) He also composed the music to Joffé
Roland Joffé
Roland Joffé is an English-French film director who is known for his Oscar nominated movies, The Killing Fields and The Mission. He began his career in television. His early television credits included episodes of Coronation Street and an adaptation of The Stars Look Down for Granada...
's The Mission (1986), De Palma
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission:...
's The Untouchables
The Untouchables (1987 film)
The Untouchables is a 1987 American crime-drama film directed by Brian De Palma and written by David Mamet. Based on the book The Untouchables, the film stars Kevin Costner as government agent Eliot Ness. It also stars Robert De Niro as gang leader Al Capone and Sean Connery as Irish-American...
(1987) and Tornatore
Giuseppe Tornatore
-Life and career:Born in Bagheria near Palermo, Tornatore developed an interest in acting and the theatre from at least the age of 16 and put on works by Luigi Pirandello and Eduardo De Filippo.He worked initially as a freelance photographer...
's Cinema Paradiso (1988). His more recent compositions include the scores for Malèna
Malèna
Malèna is a 2000 Italian romantic drama film starring Monica Bellucci and Giuseppe Sulfaro. It was directed and written by Giuseppe Tornatore from a story by Luciano Vincenzoni.-Plot:...
(2000), Fateless
Fateless (film)
Fateless is a film directed by Lajos Koltai, released in 2005. It was based on the semi-autobiographical novel Fatelessness by the Nobel Prize-winner Imre Kertész, who wrote the screenplay. It is the story of a teenage boy who is sent to concentration camps at Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Zeitz.Its...
(2005), and Baaria - La porta del vento
Baarìa - La porta del vento
Baarìa is a 2009 Italian film directed by Giuseppe Tornatore. It was the opening film of the 66th Venice International Film Festival in September 2009.-Plot:...
(2009).
Morricone has received two Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
s, two Golden Globes, five BAFTAs during 1979–1992, seven David di Donatello
David di Donatello
David di Donatello, named after Donatello's David, is a movie award assigned each year for cinematic performances and production by Ente David di Donatello, part of Accademia del Cinema Italiano. It is the Italian equivalent to the Academy Award. There are 24 categories as of 2006.- History :The...
, eight Nastro d'Argento
Nastro d'Argento
The Nastro d'Argento is a movie award assigned each year, since 1946, for cinematic performances and production by Sindacato Nazionale dei Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani, the association of Italian film critics...
, and the Polar Music Prize
Polar Music Prize
The Polar Music Prize is a Swedish international music award founded in 1989 by Stig Anderson, possibly best known to be the manager of the Swedish pop group ABBA, with a donation to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music....
in 2010. In 2007, he received the Academy Honorary Award
Academy Honorary Award
The Academy Honorary Award, instituted in 1948 for the 21st Academy Awards , is given by the discretion of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to celebrate motion picture achievements that are not covered by existing Academy Awards, although prior winners of...
"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.
Early career
Ennio Morricone was born in RomeRome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, the son of Libera and Mario Morricone, a jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
trumpeter. Morricone wrote his first compositions when he was six years old and was encouraged to develop his natural talents. Compelled to take up the trumpet, he attended the National Academy of Santa Cecilia
Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, based in Italy.It is based at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, and was founded by the papal bull, Ratione congruit, issued by Sixtus V in 1585, which invoked two saints prominent in Western...
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). He studied the trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
, composition, choral music, and choral direction under Goffredo Petrassi
Goffredo Petrassi
Goffredo Petrassi 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.-Life:...
, who deeply influenced him and to whom Morricone has dedicated concert pieces.
These were the difficult years of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
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
Giacomo Leopardi
Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi was an Italian poet, essayist, philosopher, and philologist...
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
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
on a text by Ranieri Gnoli, "Verrà la Morte" for contralto and piano on a text by Cesare Pavese
Cesare Pavese
Cesare Pavese was an Italian poet, novelist, literary critic and translator; he is widely considered among the major authors of the 20th century in his home country.- Early life and education :...
, "Oboe Sommerso" for baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
and five instruments on a text by Salvatore Quasimodo
Salvatore Quasimodo
Salvatore Quasimodo was an Italian author and poet. In 1959 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature "for his lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own times". Along with Giuseppe Ungaretti and Eugenio Montale, he is one of the foremost Italian poets...
.
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
Goffredo Petrassi
Goffredo Petrassi 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.-Life:...
. 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
Mauro Maur
- Biography :First Trumpet for the Orchestra of the Opera House in Rome from 1985 to 2009, Mauro Maur has appeared on several popular television shows such as:...
, 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
Gruppo di Improvvisazione di Nuova Consonanza
Gruppo di Improvvisazione di Nuova Consonanza was an Avant-garde Free improvisation group considered the first experimental composers collective.-History:The collective was formed by Italian composer Franco Evangelisti in Rome in 1964...
, 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. 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 DollarsA Fistful of Dollars
A Fistful of Dollars is a 1964 Italian Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood alongside Gian Maria Volonté, Marianne Koch, Wolfgang Lukschy, Sieghardt Rupp, José Calvo, Antonio Prieto, and Joseph Egger. Released in Italy in 1964 then in the United States in...
(1964).
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
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
. Morricone used his special effects to punctuate and comically tweak the action—cluing in the audience to the taciturn man's ironic stance. 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. Morricone was initially billed on the film as Dan Savio.
Morricone composed music for over 40 Westerns
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
(the last was North Star (1996)), most of them Spaghetti Westerns. He scored Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns, from A Fistful of Dollars
A Fistful of Dollars
A Fistful of Dollars is a 1964 Italian Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood alongside Gian Maria Volonté, Marianne Koch, Wolfgang Lukschy, Sieghardt Rupp, José Calvo, Antonio Prieto, and Joseph Egger. Released in Italy in 1964 then in the United States in...
(1964) and including For a Few Dollars More
For a Few Dollars More
For a Few Dollars More is a 1965 Italian spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Gian Maria Volonté. German actor Klaus Kinski also plays a supporting role as a secondary villain...
(1965), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a 1966 Italian epic spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone, starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach in the title roles. The screenplay was written by Age & Scarpelli, Luciano Vincenzoni and Leone, based on a story by Vincenzoni and Leone...
(1966), and Once Upon a Time in the West
Once Upon a Time in the West
Once Upon a Time in the West is a 1968 Italian epic spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone for Paramount Pictures. It stars Henry Fonda cast against type as the villain, Charles Bronson as his nemesis, Jason Robards as a bandit, and Claudia Cardinale as a newly widowed homesteader with a...
(1968), as well as later films such as A Fistful of Dynamite
A Fistful of Dynamite
Duck, You Sucker! , also known as A Fistful of Dynamite and Once Upon a Time… the Revolution, is a 1971 Zapata Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Rod Steiger and James Coburn....
(1971), My Name Is Nobody
My Name Is Nobody
My Name is Nobody is a 1973 Spaghetti Western comedy film. The film was directed by Tonino Valerii and, in some scenes, by Sergio Leone. It was written by Leone, Fulvio Morsella and Ernesto Gastaldi. Leone was also the uncredited executive producer...
(1973), and A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe
A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe
A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe is a 1975 spaghetti western comedy film directed by Damiano Damiani and, in the opening scene, Sergio Leone. It is notable for being the last western that Leone worked on.-Plot:...
(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
A Fistful of Dollars
A Fistful of Dollars is a 1964 Italian Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood alongside Gian Maria Volonté, Marianne Koch, Wolfgang Lukschy, Sieghardt Rupp, José Calvo, Antonio Prieto, and Joseph Egger. Released in Italy in 1964 then in the United States in...
, Morricone began his 10-year collaboration with his childhood friend Alessandro Alessandroni
Alessandro Alessandroni
Alessandro Alessandroni is an Italian musician. He plays multipleinstruments, including the guitar, mandolin, mandolincello, sitar, accordion, and piano, and has composed over 40 film scores and countless library music....
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
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
of the group, Edda Dell'Orso
Edda Dell'Orso
Edda Dell'Orso is an Italian singer, especially known for her collaboration with composer Ennio Morricone for which she provided wordless vocals to a large number of his film scores...
, 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
A Pistol for Ringo
A Pistol for 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 year....
(1965), The Return of Ringo
The Return of Ringo
# Il ritorno di Ringo - Main Titles # The Disguise # Mariachi #1 # Violence # Sheriff Carson # The Fuentes # Mariachi #2 # Main Titles Instrumental...
(1965), Navajo Joe
Navajo Joe
Navajo Joe is a 1966 Italian/Spanish Spaghetti Western, directed by Sergio Corbucci. It was filmed in Spain.Navajo Joe stars Burt Reynolds in his second leading role in a feature film, as the titular character, a Navajo Indian opposing a group of bandits responsible for killing his tribe.The film's...
(1966), The Big Gundown
The Big Gundown
The Big Gundown is a 1966 spaghetti western directed by Sergio Sollima and starring Lee Van Cleef and Tomas Milian...
, (1966), Face to Face (1967), Death Rides a Horse
Death Rides a Horse
Death Rides a Horse is a 1967 spaghetti western directed by Giulio Petroni, written by Luciano Vincenzoni, and starring Lee Van Cleef and John Phillip Law. Bill Meceita, a boy whose family was murdered in front of him by a gang, sets out 15 years later to exact revenge...
(1967), The Hellbenders
The Hellbenders
The Hellbenders is a Spaghetti Western directed by Sergio Corbucci in 1966.-Plot:...
(1967), A Bullet for the General
A Bullet for the General
A Bullet for the General , is a 1966 film which stars Gian Maria Volonté, Klaus Kinski, Lou Castel and Martine Beswick. Originally entitled El Chucho, quién sabe?, it is the story of El Chucho, the bandit, and Bill Tate who is a counter-revolutionary in Mexico...
(1967), The Mercenary
The Mercenary (film)
The Mercenary , also known as A Professional Gun, is a 1968 spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Corbucci. The film stars Franco Nero, Jack Palance, Tony Musante and Giovanna Ralli, and features a musical score by Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai...
(1968), Tepepa (1968), The Great Silence
The Great Silence
The Great Silence , or The Big Silence, is an Italian spaghetti western. It is widely considered by critics as the masterpiece of director Sergio Corbucci and is one of his better known movies, along with Django...
(1968), Guns for San Sebastian (1968), …And for a Roof a Sky Full of Stars (1968), The Five Man Army
The Five Man Army
The Five Man Army is an Italian zapata spaghetti western film taking place during the Mexican Revolution.The film was directed by Don Taylor and featured a script by a young Dario Argento. Starring as a group of five men enlisted to rob a train containing a shipment of gold were Peter Graves,...
(1969), Queimada!
Burn!
Burn! is a 1969 film directed by Gillo Pontecorvo; starring Marlon Brando. The plot is loosely based on events in the history of Guadeloupe.The main character is named after William Walker, the famous American filibuster...
(1969), Vamos a matar, compañeros (1970), Two Mules for Sister Sara
Two Mules for Sister Sara
Two Mules for Sister Sara is an American-Mexican western film starring Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine set during the French intervention in Mexico. The film was released in 1970 and directed by Don Siegel. It was to have been the first in a five-year exclusive association between Universal...
(1970), Sonny and Jed
La Banda J.S.: Cronaca criminale del Far West
La Banda J.S.: Cronaca criminale del Far West is a 1972 Italian Spaghetti Western about a sheriff's relentless effort to stop a robber and his girlfriend...
(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 BavaMario Bava
Mario Bava was an Italian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer remembered as one of the greatest names from the "golden age" of Italian horror films.-Biography:Mario Bava was born in San Remo, Liguria, Italy...
's superhero romp Danger: Diabolik
Danger: Diabolik
Danger: Diabolik is a 1968 feature film from Italian filmmaker Mario Bava based on the Italian comic character Diabolik.- About the film :...
(1968). The next year marked the start of a series of evocative scores for Dario Argento
Dario Argento
Dario Argento is an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in the horror film genre, particularly in the subgenre known as giallo, and for his influence on modern horror and slasher movies....
's stylized thrillers, including The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is a 1970 giallo suspense thriller directed by Dario Argento . The film is considered a landmark in the Italian giallo genre...
(1969), The Cat o' Nine Tails
The Cat o' Nine Tails
The Cat o' Nine Tails is a 1971 Italian giallo thriller film written and directed by Dario Argento; it was his second film as director....
(1971), and Four Flies on Grey Velvet
Four Flies on Grey Velvet
Four Flies on Grey Velvet is a 1971 Italian mystery thriller film, directed by Dario Argento. The screenplay is also by Argento, from a story by him, Luigi Cozzi, Mario Foglietti and Bryan Edgar Wallace .-Plot:...
(1974). In 1970, Morricone wrote the score for Violent City. That same year, he received his first Nastro d'Argento
Nastro d'Argento
The Nastro d'Argento is a movie award assigned each year, since 1946, for cinematic performances and production by Sindacato Nazionale dei Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani, the association of Italian film critics...
for the music in Metti una sera a cena (Giuseppe Patroni Griffi
Giuseppe Patroni Griffi
Giuseppe Patroni Griffi 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 his professional life there...
, 1969) and his second only a year later for Sacco e Vanzetti
Sacco e Vanzetti
Sacco e Vanzetti is an Italian docudrama, made in 1971. It was written and directed by Giuliano Montaldo. The film presents a dramatization of the events surrounding the trial of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti...
(Giuliano Montaldo
Giuliano Montaldo
Giuliano Montaldo is an Italian film director.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!...
, 1971), in which he had made a memorable collaboration with the legendary American folk singer and activist Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
. In 1973, he scored a theme for the crime film Revolver
Revolver (1973 film)
Revolver is a poliziottesco film directed by Sergio Sollima and released in 1973. It stars Oliver Reed and Fabio Testi and the film's theme "Un Amico" which was scored by Ennio Morricone was also featured in Quentin Tarantino movie Inglorious Basterds - Plot :An Italian official's wife is...
(1973). Morricone composed the score for John Carpenter
John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...
's science-fiction/horror movie The Thing (1982) as well as Brian De Palma
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission:...
's war drama Casualties of War (1989).
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
The Virginian (TV series)
The Virginian is an American Western television series starring James Drury and Doug McClure, which aired on NBC from 1962 to 1971 for a total of 249 episodes. Filmed in color, The Virginian became television's first 90-minute western series...
(1970), Moses (1974) and Marco Polo (1982). One notable composition, "Chi Mai
Chi Mai
"Chi Mai" is a composition by Ennio Morricone that was used in the films, Maddalena and Le Professionnel , as well as the TV series, An Englishman's Castle and The Life and Times of David Lloyd George...
" was used in the films, Maddalena (1971) and Le Professionnel
Le Professionnel
Le Professionnel is a 1981 French action thriller film directed by French director Georges Lautner, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Desailly and Robert Hossein, based on the award-winning 1976 novel Death of a Thin-Skinned Animal by Patrick Alexander.The music is composed by Ennio Morricone and...
(1981) as well as the TV series The Life and Times of David Lloyd George
The Life and Times of David Lloyd George
The Life and Times of David Lloyd George is a BBC Wales drama serial broadcast in 1981 on the BBC1 network which starred Philip Madoc, Elizabeth Miles, Kika Markham and David Markham....
(1981). It was a surprise hit in the UK, almost topping the charts. He wrote the score for the Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
television series La piovra
La Piovra
La Piovra is an acclaimed Italian Television drama miniseries about the Mafia.The story was by Sandro Petraglia. The production was designed by Luigi Perelli...
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. Their collaboration yielded the BAFTA-winning Nuovo cinema Paradiso
Nuovo Cinema Paradiso
Nuovo cinema Paradiso , internationally released as Cinema Paradiso, is a 1988 Italian drama film written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore...
. In 2003, Ennio Morricone scored another epic, for Japanese television, called Musashi and was the Taiga drama
Taiga drama
is the name NHK gives to the annual, year-long historical fiction television series it broadcasts in Japan. Beginning in 1963 with the black-and-white Hana no Shōgai, starring kabuki actor Onoe Shōroku and Takarazuka star Awashima Chikage, the network has hired a producer, director, writer, music...
about Miyamoto Musashi
Miyamoto Musashi
, also known as Shinmen Takezō, Miyamoto Bennosuke or, by his Buddhist name, Niten Dōraku, was a Japanese swordsman and rōnin. Musashi, as he was often simply known, became renowned through stories of his excellent swordsmanship in numerous duels, even from a very young age...
, Japan's legendary warrior
Warrior
A warrior is a person skilled in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based society that recognizes a separate warrior class.-Warrior classes in tribal culture:...
. 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 ArmaniGiorgio Armani
Giorgio Armani is an Italian fashion designer, particularly noted for his menswear. He is known today for his clean, tailored lines. He formed his company, Armani, in 1975, and by 2001 was acclaimed as the most successful designer to come out of Italy, with an annual turnover of $1.6 billion and a...
, with the Orchestra Roma Sinfonietta, touring London (Barbican 2001; 75th birthday Concerto, Royal Albert Hall 2003), Paris, Verona
Verona
Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of 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.
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
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in New York City's Rockefeller Center. Its nickname is the Showplace of the Nation, and it was for a time the leading tourist destination in the city...
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
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
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
Wiener Stadthalle
Wiener Stadthalle is an indoor arena, located in the 15th district of Vienna, Austria. It was designed by Austrian architect Roland Rainer and built from 1953–1958...
in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, 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
Belfast Festival at Queen's
The Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen's is an annual arts festival held in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The 49th Festival will take place from 14 to 31 October 2011.-History:...
, in the Waterfront Hall
Waterfront Hall
The Waterfront Hall is a multi-purpose facility, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, designed by local architects' firm Robinson McIlwaine. Practice partner Peter McGukin was the project architect....
on October 17 and 18, 2008.
Morricone and Roma Sinfonietta also held a concert at the Belgrade Arena
Belgrade Arena
The Belgrade Arena is an indoor arena located in Novi Beograd, Belgrade. It is designed as a universal hall for sport, cultural events and other programs. With a total space that covers 48,000 square metres, and an official total capacity of 19,982 seats , it is one of the largest indoor arenas in...
(Belgrade, Serbia) on February 14, 2009.
On April 10, 2010, Morricone conducted a concert at the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
in London with the Roma Sinfonietta and (as in all of his previous London concerts) the Crouch End Festival Chorus
Crouch End Festival Chorus
Crouch End Festival Chorus is a symphonic choir based in Crouch End, a northern suburb of London. CEFC was formed in 1984 by John Gregson and David Temple, who remains the choir's conductor...
. On August 27, 2010, he conducted a concert in Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
. Two other concerts took place in Verona
Verona
Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
and Sofia (Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
) on 11 and 17 September 2010.
Recent works
Morricone provided the string arrangements on Morrissey's "Dear God Please Help Me" from the album Ringleader of the TormentorsRingleader of the Tormentors
-The Band:* Morrissey – vocals* Alain Whyte – guitars and backing vocals* Boz Boorer – guitars* Jesse Tobias – guitars* Gary Day – bass guitar* Matt Chamberlain – drums* Michael Farrell – piano, organ, keyboards, trumpet, trombone and percussion...
in 2006.
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
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. Tarantino did use several Morricone tracks from previous films in the soundtrack
Inglourious Basterds (soundtrack)
Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds: Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack to Quentin Tarantino's motion picture Inglourious Basterds. It was originally released on August 18, 2009. The soundtrack uses a variety of music genres, including spaghetti western soundtrack excerpts, R&B and...
.
Morricone instead wrote the music for Baaria - La porta del vento
Baarìa - La porta del vento
Baarìa is a 2009 Italian film directed by Giuseppe Tornatore. It was the opening film of the 66th Venice International Film Festival in September 2009.-Plot:...
, the most recent movie by Giuseppe Tornatore
Giuseppe Tornatore
-Life and career:Born in Bagheria near Palermo, Tornatore developed an interest in acting and the theatre from at least the age of 16 and put on works by Luigi Pirandello and Eduardo De Filippo.He worked initially as a freelance photographer...
. The composer is also writing music for Tornatore's upcoming movie Leningrad.
In spring and summer 2010, Morricone worked with Hayley Westenra
Hayley Westenra
Hayley Dee Westenra is a New Zealand soprano, classical crossover artist, songwriter and UNICEF Ambassador. Her first internationally released album, Pure, reached No. 1 on the UK classical charts in 2003 and has sold more than two million copies worldwide...
for a collaboration on her album Paradiso
Paradiso (Hayley Westenra album)
Paradiso is an international album by Christchurch, New Zealand soprano Hayley Westenra, in collaboration with Italian maestro Ennio Morricone. It was released worldwide beginning 18 April 2011 in New Zealand....
. The album features new songs written by Morricone, as well as some of his best known film compositions of the last 50 years. Hayley recorded the album with Morricone's orchestra in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
during the summer of 2010.
Public reputation
In 1956, Morricone started to support his family by playing in a jazzJazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
band and arranging
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
pop songs for the Italian broadcasting service RAI
RAI
RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...
. 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
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
, working with Renato Rascel
Renato Rascel
Renato Ranucci, in art Renato Rascel was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 50 films between 1942 and 1972...
, Rita Pavone
Rita Pavone
Rita Pavone is an Italian ballad and rock singer who enjoyed success through the 1960s. Pavone is also an actress.-Singing career:...
, and Mario Lanza
Mario Lanza
right|thumb|[[MGM]] still, circa 1949Mario Lanza was an American tenor and Hollywood movie star of the late 1940s and the 1950s. The son of Italian emigrants, he began studying to be a professional singer at the age of 16....
. A particular success was one of his own songs, "Se telefonando".
Performed by Mina
Mina (singer)
Anna Maria Quaini, Grand Officer , known as Mina, is an Italian pop singer. She was a staple of Italian television variety shows and a dominant figure in Italian pop music from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s known for her three-octave vocal range, the agility of her soprano voice, and her image as an...
, it was a standout track of Studio Uno 66
Studio Uno 66
Studio Uno 66 is an album by Italian singer Mina.The album was released in the spring of 1966, topping the charts and yielding three top ten singles - "Ta-ra-ta-ta", "Una casa al cima al mondo" and "Se telefonando"....
, the fifth-biggest-selling album of the year 1966 in Italy. Morricone's sophisticated arrangement of "Se telefonando" was a combination of melodic trumpet lines, Hal Blaine
Hal Blaine
Hal Blaine is an American drummer and session musician. He is most known for his work with the Wrecking Crew in California. Blaine played on numerous hits by popular groups, including Elvis Presley, John Denver, the Ronettes, Simon & Garfunkel, the Carpenters, the Beach Boys, Nancy Sinatra, and...
–style drumming, a string set, a '60s Europop
Europop
Europop refers to a style of pop music that first developed in today's form in Europe, throughout the late 1970s. Europop topped the charts throughout the 1980s and ’90s...
female choir
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
, and intensive subsonic-sounding trombones. The Italian Hitparade #7 song had eight transitions of tonality
Tonality
Tonality is a system of music in which specific hierarchical pitch relationships are based on a key "center", or tonic. The term tonalité originated with Alexandre-Étienne Choron and was borrowed by François-Joseph Fétis in 1840...
building tension throughout the chorus.
During the following decades, the song was covered by several performers in Italy and abroad—most notably by Françoise Hardy
Françoise Hardy
Françoise Madeleine Hardy is a French singer, actress and astrologer. Hardy is an iconic figure in fashion, music and style. She is married to the singer and movie actor Jacques Dutronc.-Biography:...
and Iva Zanicchi
Iva Zanicchi
Iva Zanicchi is an Italian pop singer.Iva Zanicchi's career began in 1962 at the Castrocaro Festival of New Voices, where she gained third place. She won the Sanremo song festival in 1967 with Non pensare a me, in 1969 with Zingara and again in 1974 with Ciao cara, come stai?...
(1966), Delta V (2005), Vanessa and the O's
Vanessa and the O's
Vanessa and the O's formed in 2003/2004 when Vanessa Contenay-Quinones got together with Swedes Andreas Mattson and Niclas Frisk later joining up with James Iha in New York.They recorded the album La Ballade d'O over the next 18 months...
(2007), and Neil Hannon
Neil Hannon
Neil Hannon is a Northern Irish singer and songwriter, best known as the creator and frontman of the chamber pop group The Divine Comedy. The band's official website even goes so far as to say, "The Divine Comedy is Neil Hannon," and Hannon is quoted in an interview as saying, "The Divine Comedy...
(2008). In the reader's poll conducted by the la Repubblica
La Repubblica
la Repubblica is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. Founded in 1976 in Rome by the journalist Eugenio Scalfari, as of 2008 is the second largest circulation newspaper, behind the Corriere della Sera.-Foundation:...
newspaper to celebrate Mina's 70th anniversary in 2010, 30,000 voters picked the track as the best song ever recorded by Mina. Throughout the '60s Morricone composed songs for other artists including Milva
Milva
Maria Ilva Biolcati , known as Milva, is an Italian singer, actress and television personality. She is also known as 'La Rossa', , due to the colour of her hair, and additionally as the 'Panther of Goro', which stems from the Italian press having nicknamed the three most popular Italian female...
, Gianni Morandi
Gianni Morandi
Gianni Morandi is an Italian pop singer and entertainer.He made his debut in 1962 and quickly placed high at or won a number of Italian popular song festivals, including the Canzonissima festival in 1969. In 1970, he represented Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest with "Occhi di ragazza"...
, Paul Anka
Paul Anka
Paul Albert Anka, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and actor.Anka first became famous as a teen idol in the late 1950s and 1960s with hit songs like "Diana'", "Lonely Boy", and "Put Your Head on My Shoulder"...
, Amii Stewart
Amii Stewart
Amy 'Amii' Paulette Stewart is an American contemporary R&B/disco/dance-pop singer, dancer and actress most famous for her hit disco record "Knock on Wood". Stewart is the stepsister of actress-singer Miquel Brown and aunt to Brown's actress-singer daughter Sinitta.-Career:Amy Stewart was the...
, and Mireille Mathieu
Mireille Mathieu
Mireille Mathieu is a French chanteuse, and pop singer. Hailed in the French press as the successor to Édith Piaf, she has achieved great commercial success, recording over 1200 songs in nine different languages, with more than 120 million records sold worldwide.-Childhood to early...
.
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 AndreaAndrea Morricone
Andrea Morricone is an Italian composer and conductor, known for his film scores. He is the son of composer Ennio Morricone. He composed the film scores for the American films Capturing the Friedmans and Liberty Heights. He collaborated with his father on the famous score for Cinema Paradiso,...
(Andrew), and Giovanni (a filmmaker who lives in New York City).
Influence and modern references
Morricone's influence also extends into the realm of pop music. Hugo MontenegroHugo Montenegro
Hugo Montenegro was an American orchestra leader and composer of film soundtracks. His best known work is derived from interpretations of the music from Spaghetti westerns, especially his cover version of the main theme from the 1966 film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...
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
Jay-Z
Shawn Corey Carter , better known by his stage name Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is one of the most financially successful hip hop artists and entrepreneurs in America, having a net worth of over $450 million as of 2010...
) to electronic outfits (the Orb
The Orb
Throughout 1989, the Orb, along with Martin Glover, developed the musical genre of ambient house through the use of a diverse array of samples and recordings. The culmination of its musical work came toward the end of the year when the group recorded a session for John Peel on BBC Radio 1...
), Morricone wrote "Se Telefonando", which became Italy's fifth biggest-selling record of 1966 and has since been re-recorded by Françoise Hardy
Françoise Hardy
Françoise Madeleine Hardy is a French singer, actress and astrologer. Hardy is an iconic figure in fashion, music and style. She is married to the singer and movie actor Jacques Dutronc.-Biography:...
, among many others, and scored the strings for "Dear God, Please Help Me" on Morrissey
Morrissey
Steven Patrick Morrissey , known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career,...
's 2006 "Ringleader of the Tormentors" album.
Morricone's film music was also recorded by many artists. John Zorn
John Zorn
John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...
recorded an album of Morricone's music, The Big Gundown
The Big Gundown (album)
The Big Gundown is an album by American composer and saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist John Zorn. It comprises radically reworked covers of tracks by the Italian film composer Ennio Morricone....
, 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
Fado
Fado is a music genre which can be traced to the 1820s in Portugal, but probably with much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar, Rui Vieira Nery, states that "the only reliable information on the history of Fado was orally transmitted and goes back to the 1820s and 1830s at best...
singer Dulce Pontes
Dulce Pontes
Dulce José Silva Pontes is a Portuguese songwriter and singer who performs in many musical styles, including pop, folk and classical music. She is usually defined as a world music artist...
(in 2003 with Focus, an album praised by Paulo Coelho
Paulo Coelho
Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist.-Biography:Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He attended a Jesuit school. As a teenager, Coelho wanted to become a writer. Upon telling his mother this, she responded with "My dear, your father is an engineer. He's a logical,...
and where his songbook can be sampled) and virtuoso
Virtuoso
A virtuoso is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability in the fine arts, at singing or playing a musical instrument. The plural form is either virtuosi or the Anglicisation, virtuosos, and the feminine form sometimes used is virtuosa...
cellist Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma is an American cellist, virtuoso, and orchestral composer. He has received multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011...
(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
Amii Stewart
Amy 'Amii' Paulette Stewart is an American contemporary R&B/disco/dance-pop singer, dancer and actress most famous for her hit disco record "Knock on Wood". Stewart is the stepsister of actress-singer Miquel Brown and aunt to Brown's actress-singer daughter Sinitta.-Career:Amy Stewart was the...
, best known for the 1979 disco hit "Knock On Wood", recorded a tribute album entitled Pearls - Amii Stewart Sings Ennio Morricone
Pearls - Amii Stewart Sings Ennio Morricone
Pearls – Amii Stewart Sings Ennio Morricone is a studio album by Amii Stewart released in 1990. The album which covers many of film composer Ennio Morricone's best known songs was recorded with Rome's Philharmonic Orchestra....
for the RCA
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
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
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
film Kill Bill
Kill Bill
Kill Bill Volume 1 is a 2003 action thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It is the first of two volumes that were theatrically released several months apart, the second volume being Kill Bill Volume 2....
Volumes 1 & 2 makes extensive use of several Morricone pieces from several 1960s film scores. The 2009 film Inglourious Basterds
Inglourious Basterds (soundtrack)
Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds: Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack to Quentin Tarantino's motion picture Inglourious Basterds. It was originally released on August 18, 2009. The soundtrack uses a variety of music genres, including spaghetti western soundtrack excerpts, R&B and...
also uses many Morricone pieces, as well as sharing "Il Mercenario (Ripresa)" with Kill Bill.
Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
uses Morricone's The Ecstasy of Gold
The Ecstasy of Gold
"The Ecstasy of Gold" is a musical composition by Ennio Morricone, part of his score for the Sergio Leone film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...
as an intro at their concerts (shock jocks Opie and Anthony
Opie and Anthony
Opie and Anthony are the hosts of The Opie & Anthony Show, a talk radio program airing in the United States and Canada on XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. Since the merger of the two satellite companies, this is now called Sirius/XM...
also use the song at the start of their XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio is one of two satellite radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Radio. It provides pay-for-service radio, analogous to cable television. Its service includes 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional...
and CBS Radio
CBS Radio
CBS Radio, Inc., formerly known as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States, third behind main rival Clear Channel Communications and Cumulus Media. CBS Radio owns around 130 radio stations across the country...
shows.) The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra also played it on Metallica's Symphonic rock
Symphonic rock
Symphonic rock is a sub-genre of progressive rock. Since early in progressive rock's history, the term has been used sometimes to distinguish more classically influenced progressive rock from the more psychedelic and experimental forms of progressive rock....
album S&M
S&M (album)
-Video release:Metallica also filmed and released the concert in DVD and VHS with direction by Wayne Isham. The VHS set has only the concert video, while the double DVD set has 5.1 sound , 41 minute documentary about the concert, and two "No Leaf Clover" music videos: "Slice & Dice" version and the...
. Ramones
Ramones
The Ramones were an American rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first punk rock group...
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
The Mars Volta
The Mars Volta is a Grammy award winning American progressive rock band from El Paso, Texas. Founded in 2001 by guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López and vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala, the band incorporates various influences including progressive rock, krautrock, jazz fusion, Latin American music, and...
.
His influence extends from Michael Nyman
Michael Nyman
Michael Laurence Nyman, CBE is an English composer of minimalist music, pianist, librettist and musicologist, known for the many film scores he wrote during his lengthy collaboration with the filmmaker Peter Greenaway, and his multi-platinum soundtrack album to Jane Campion's The Piano...
to Muse
Muse (band)
Muse are an English alternative rock band from Teignmouth, Devon, formed in 1994. The band consists of school friends Matthew Bellamy , Christopher Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard...
. He even has his own tribute band, a large group which started in Australia, touring as The Ennio Morricone Experience
Spaghetti Western Orchestra
The Spaghetti Western Orchestra, formerly the Ennio Morricone Experience, are a quintet of musicians who perform music from spaghetti westerns, especially the music of Ennio Morricone....
.
Morricone is mentioned by Myles, a musician/scorer (played by Jack Black in "The Holiday" [2006 film]), 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
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...
was released. It features performances by various artists, including Sarah Brightman
Sarah Brightman
Sarah Brightman is an English classical crossover soprano, actress, songwriter and dancer. She is famous for possessing a vocal range of over 3 octaves and singing in the whistle register...
, Andrea Bocelli
Andrea Bocelli
Andrea Bocelli, is an Italian tenor, multi-instrumentalist and classical crossover artist. Born with poor eyesight, he became blind at the age of twelve following a soccer accident....
, Celine Dion
Celine Dion
Céline Marie Claudette Dion, , , is a Canadian singer. Born to a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record...
, Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
and Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
.
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
Muse (band)
Muse are an English alternative rock band from Teignmouth, Devon, formed in 1994. The band consists of school friends Matthew Bellamy , Christopher Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard...
cites Morricone as an influence for the songs "City of Delusion", "Hoodoo", and "Knights of Cydonia
Knights of Cydonia
"Knights of Cydonia" is a song by English alternative rock band Muse and is the closing track on the British release of their 2006 album Black Holes and Revelations. The song's title comes in part from the region of Mars named Cydonia, famous for the "face on mars"...
" on their album Black Holes and Revelations
Black Holes and Revelations
Black Holes and Revelations is the fourth studio album by English alternative rock band Muse, released on 3 July 2006. Recording was split between New York and France, and it was the first time Muse had taken a more active role in the album's production...
.. The band has recently started playing the song "Man With A Harmonica" live played by Chris Wolstenholme, as an intro to "Knights of Cydonia".
In January 2010, tenor Donald Braswell II
Donald Braswell II
Donald Braswell II is an American actor, classical crossover tenor and composer. Braswell was on a fast track to become an internationally acclaimed opera singer when he suffered a car accident in 1995 that made him unable to speak for almost two years...
released his album "We Fall and We Rise Again
We Fall and We Rise Again
We Fall and We Rise Again is the second studio album from American actor, composer and tenor Donald Braswell II. The album was released on January, 2010. This album follows his 2007 release New Chapter and is the first to feature his own compositions....
" on which he presented his tribute to Ennio Morricone with his original composition entitled "Ennio".
The score for The Thing 2011 prequel film
The Thing (2011 film)
The Thing is a 2011 science fiction horror film directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., and written by Eric Heisserer. It is a prequel to the 1982 film of the same name by John Carpenter, the plot taking place immediately prior to the events of that film...
composed by Marco Beltrami
Marco Beltrami
Marco Beltrami is an American film composer.-Life and career:Beltrami was born in Long Island, New York of Italian and Greek descent...
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, including 6.5 million copies in France and more than two million albums in Korea.Top worldwide film grosses
Ennio Morricone has been involved with eight movies grossing over $25 million at the box office:| Year | |Director | Gross | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 | The Good, The Bad & The Ugly | Sergio Leone Sergio Leone Sergio Leone was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter most associated with the "Spaghetti Western" genre.Leone's film-making style includes juxtaposing extreme close-up shots with lengthy long shots... |
$25,100,000 |
| 1977 | Exorcist II: The Heretic Exorcist II: The Heretic Exorcist II: The Heretic is a 1977 American horror film and the sequel to The Exorcist , directed by John Boorman from a screenplay by William Goodhart and starring Linda Blair, Richard Burton, Louise Fletcher, Max von Sydow, James Earl Jones, Ned Beatty and Kitty Winn... |
John Boorman John Boorman John Boorman is a British filmmaker who is a long time resident of Ireland and is best known for his feature films such as Point Blank, Deliverance, Zardoz, Excalibur, The Emerald Forest, Hope and Glory, The General and The Tailor of Panama.-Early life:Boorman was born in Shepperton, Surrey,... |
$30,749,142 |
| 1987 | The Untouchables The Untouchables (1987 film) The Untouchables is a 1987 American crime-drama film directed by Brian De Palma and written by David Mamet. Based on the book The Untouchables, the film stars Kevin Costner as government agent Eliot Ness. It also stars Robert De Niro as gang leader Al Capone and Sean Connery as Irish-American... |
Brian De Palma Brian De Palma Brian Russell De Palma is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission:... |
$76,270,454 |
| 1991 | Bugsy Bugsy Bugsy is a 1991 American crime-drama film which tells the story of mobster Bugsy Siegel. It stars Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Harvey Keitel, Ben Kingsley, Elliott Gould, Joe Mantegna, Bebe Neuwirth, and Bill Graham.... |
Barry Levinson Barry Levinson Barry Levinson is an American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer of film and television. His films include Good Morning, Vietnam, Sleepers and Rain Man.-Early life:... |
$49,114,016 |
| 1993 | In the Line of Fire In the Line of Fire In the Line of Fire is a 1993 American thriller film about a disillusioned and obsessed former CIA agent who attempts to assassinate the President of the United States and the Secret Service agent who tracks him... |
Wolfgang Petersen Wolfgang Petersen Wolfgang Petersen is a German film director and screenwriter. His films include The NeverEnding Story, Enemy Mine, Outbreak, In the Line of Fire, Air Force One, The Perfect Storm, Troy, and Poseidon... |
$176,997,168 |
| 1994 | Wolf Wolf (film) Wolf is a 1994 American horror film directed by Mike Nichols and written by Jim Harrison, Wesley Strick, and an uncredited Elaine May, with music by Ennio Morricone and cinematography by Giuseppe Rotunno.... |
Mike Nichols Mike Nichols Mike Nichols is a German-born American television, stage and film director, writer, producer and comedian. He began his career in the 1950s as one half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with Elaine May. In 1968 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate... |
$131,002,597 |
| 1994 | Disclosure Disclosure (film) Disclosure is a 1994 thriller directed by Barry Levinson, starring Michael Douglas and Demi Moore. It is based on Michael Crichton's novel of the same name.The cast also includes Donald Sutherland, Rosemary Forsyth and Dennis Miller... |
Barry Levinson Barry Levinson Barry Levinson is an American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer of film and television. His films include Good Morning, Vietnam, Sleepers and Rain Man.-Early life:... |
$214,015,089 |
| 2000 | Mission to Mars Mission to Mars Mission to Mars is a 2000 science fiction film directed by Brian De Palma from an original screenplay written by Jim Thomas, John Thomas, and Graham Yost. The film's story details a fictional portrayal of a manned Mars exploration mission gone awry in the year 2020... |
Brian De Palma Brian De Palma Brian Russell De Palma is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission:... |
$110,983,407 |
Other successful movies with Morricone's work are Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2
Kill Bill
Kill Bill Volume 1 is a 2003 action thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It is the first of two volumes that were theatrically released several months apart, the second volume being Kill Bill Volume 2....
(2003, 2004) and Inglourious Basterds (2009), though the tracks used are sampled from older pictures.
Awards
He received his first Academy AwardAcademy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
nomination in 1979, for the score to Days of Heaven
Days of Heaven
Days of Heaven is a 1978 American romantic drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick and starring Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard and Linda Manz. Set in the early 20th century, it tells the story of two poor lovers, Bill and Abby, as they travel to the Texas Panhandle to harvest...
(Terrence Malick
Terrence Malick
Terrence Frederick Malick is a U.S. film director, screenwriter, and producer. In a career spanning almost four decades, Malick has directed five feature films....
, 1978). He was later nominated for a further two awards; in 1986 for The Mission and in 1987 for The Untouchables. He later nominated for the score to Bugsy
Bugsy
Bugsy is a 1991 American crime-drama film which tells the story of mobster Bugsy Siegel. It stars Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Harvey Keitel, Ben Kingsley, Elliott Gould, Joe Mantegna, Bebe Neuwirth, and Bill Graham....
(Barry Levinson
Barry Levinson
Barry Levinson is an American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer of film and television. His films include Good Morning, Vietnam, Sleepers and Rain Man.-Early life:...
) (1991). His last nomination was for Malèna
Malèna
Malèna is a 2000 Italian romantic drama film starring Monica Bellucci and Giuseppe Sulfaro. It was directed and written by Giuseppe Tornatore from a story by Luciano Vincenzoni.-Plot:...
(2000).
Morricone and Alex North
Alex North
Alex North was an American composer who wrote the first jazz-based film score and one of the first modernist scores written in Hollywood ....
are the only composers to receive the Honorary Oscar
Academy Honorary Award
The Academy Honorary Award, instituted in 1948 for the 21st Academy Awards , is given by the discretion of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to celebrate motion picture achievements that are not covered by existing Academy Awards, although prior winners of...
since the award's introduction in 1928. 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
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
, "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music." With the statuette came a standing ovation. Though nominated five times, he had not previously received an Oscar. In conjunction with the honor, Morricone released a tribute album, We All Love Ennio Morricone
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...
, that featured as its centerpiece Celine Dion
Celine Dion
Céline Marie Claudette Dion, , , is a Canadian singer. Born to a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record...
's rendition of "I Knew I Loved You" (based on "Deborah's Theme" from Once Upon a Time in America
Once Upon a Time in America
Once Upon a Time in America is a 1984 Italian epic crime film co-written and directed by Sergio Leone and starring Robert De Niro and James Woods. The story chronicles the lives of Jewish ghetto youths who rise to prominence in New York City's world of organized crime...
), 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. The lyric, as with Morricone's Love Affair, had been penned by Oscar-winning husband-and-wife duo Marilyn
Marilyn Bergman
Marilyn Bergman is a composer, songwriter and author.She was born Marilyn Keith in Brooklyn, New York and studied psychology and English at New York University...
and Alan Bergman
Alan Bergman
Alan Bergman is an American lyricist and songwriter.-Life & career:Born in Brooklyn, New York, he studied at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UCLA. His involvement in the entertainment industry began in the early 1950s as a director of children's television shows...
. 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
- 1965 — Nastro d'ArgentoNastro d'ArgentoThe Nastro d'Argento is a movie award assigned each year, since 1946, for cinematic performances and production by Sindacato Nazionale dei Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani, the association of Italian film critics...
for A Fistful of DollarsA Fistful of DollarsA Fistful of Dollars is a 1964 Italian Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood alongside Gian Maria Volonté, Marianne Koch, Wolfgang Lukschy, Sieghardt Rupp, José Calvo, Antonio Prieto, and Joseph Egger. Released in Italy in 1964 then in the United States in... - 1967 — Diapason d'Or
- 1969 — Premio Spoleto Cinema
- 1970 — Nastro d'argento for Metti una sera a cenaMetti una sera a cenaMetti una sera a cena is a 1969 Italian drama film directed by Giuseppe Patroni Griffi. It was entered into the 1969 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Jean-Louis Trintignant - Michele* Lino Capolicchio - Ric* Tony Musante - Max* Florinda Bolkan - Nina...
- 1971 — Nastro d'argento for Sacco e VanzettiSacco e VanzettiSacco e Vanzetti is an Italian docudrama, made in 1971. It was written and directed by Giuliano Montaldo. The film presents a dramatization of the events surrounding the trial of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti...
- 1972 — Cork Film International for La califfaLa califfaLa califfa is a 1970 Italian drama film directed by Alberto Bevilacqua. It was entered into the 1971 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Romy Schneider - Irene Corsini, La Califfa* Ugo Tognazzi - Annibale Doberdò...
- 1979 — Academy Awards nomination for Days of HeavenDays of HeavenDays of Heaven is a 1978 American romantic drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick and starring Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard and Linda Manz. Set in the early 20th century, it tells the story of two poor lovers, Bill and Abby, as they travel to the Texas Panhandle to harvest...
- 1979 — Premio Vittorio de Sica
- 1981 — Premio della critica discografica for Il prato
- 1984 — Premio Zurlini
- 1985 — Nastro d'argento and BAFTA for Once Upon A Time In AmericaOnce Upon a Time in AmericaOnce Upon a Time in America is a 1984 Italian epic crime film co-written and directed by Sergio Leone and starring Robert De Niro and James Woods. The story chronicles the lives of Jewish ghetto youths who rise to prominence in New York City's world of organized crime...
- 1986 — Academy Awards Nomination, BAFTA and Golden Globe Awards for The Mission
- 1986 — Premio Vittorio de Sica
- 1988 — Academy Awards nomination, Nastro d'argento, BAFTA and Grammy Awards for The Untouchables
- 1988 — David di DonatelloDavid di DonatelloDavid di Donatello, named after Donatello's David, is a movie award assigned each year for cinematic performances and production by Ente David di Donatello, part of Accademia del Cinema Italiano. It is the Italian equivalent to the Academy Award. There are 24 categories as of 2006.- History :The...
for Gli occhiali d'oro - 1989 — David di DonatelloDavid di DonatelloDavid di Donatello, named after Donatello's David, is a movie award assigned each year for cinematic performances and production by Ente David di Donatello, part of Accademia del Cinema Italiano. It is the Italian equivalent to the Academy Award. There are 24 categories as of 2006.- History :The...
for Nuovo Cinema ParadisoNuovo Cinema ParadisoNuovo cinema Paradiso , internationally released as Cinema Paradiso, is a 1988 Italian drama film written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore... - 1989 — Ninth Annual Ace Winner for Il Giorno primaIl Giorno prima----Il Giorno prima is a Drama Italy film, starring Burt Lancaster - Ben Gazzara and directed by Giuliano Montaldo- Plot :This story takes place when they experience the dangerous psychological effects of mental fatigue conditions in a shelter. When carrying a dozen people in a nuclear shelter to...
- 1989 — Pardo d'Oro alla carriera Locarno Film Festival
- 1990 — BAFTA, Prix Fondation Sacem del XLIII Cannes Film Festival and David di Donatello for Nuovo Cinema Paradiso
- 1991 — David di DonatelloDavid di DonatelloDavid di Donatello, named after Donatello's David, is a movie award assigned each year for cinematic performances and production by Ente David di Donatello, part of Accademia del Cinema Italiano. It is the Italian equivalent to the Academy Award. There are 24 categories as of 2006.- History :The...
for Stanno tutti beneStanno tutti beneEverybody's Fine is a 1990 Italian drama film directed by Giuseppe Tornatore who co-wrote the screenplay with Tonino Guerra and Massimo De Rita.... - 1992 — Academy Award nomination for BugsyBugsyBugsy is a 1991 American crime-drama film which tells the story of mobster Bugsy Siegel. It stars Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Harvey Keitel, Ben Kingsley, Elliott Gould, Joe Mantegna, Bebe Neuwirth, and Bill Graham....
- 1992 — Pentagramma d'oro
- 1992 — Premio Michelangelo
- 1992 — Grolla d'oro alla carriera (Saint Vincent)
- 1993 — David di DonatelloDavid di DonatelloDavid di Donatello, named after Donatello's David, is a movie award assigned each year for cinematic performances and production by Ente David di Donatello, part of Accademia del Cinema Italiano. It is the Italian equivalent to the Academy Award. There are 24 categories as of 2006.- History :The...
and Efebo d'Argento for Jonas che visse nella balena - 1993 — Globo d'oro Stampa estera in Italia
- 1993 — Gran Premio SACEM audiovisivi
- 1994 — ASCAP Golden Soundtrack Award (Los Angeles)
- 1995 — Premio Rota
- 1995 — Golden Lion Honorary Award by the Venice Film FestivalVenice Film FestivalThe Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
- 1996 — Premio citta' di Roma
- 1996 — Premio Cappelli
- 1996 — Premio Accademia di Santa Cecilia
- 1997 — Premio Flaiano
- 1998 — Columbus Prize
- 1999 — Erich Wolfgang Korngold Internationaler Preis für Film
- 1999 — Exsquibbidles Film Academy lifetime achievement award
- 2000 — Golden Globe for The Legend of 1900 (1998)
- 2000 — David di DonatelloDavid di DonatelloDavid di Donatello, named after Donatello's David, is a movie award assigned each year for cinematic performances and production by Ente David di Donatello, part of Accademia del Cinema Italiano. It is the Italian equivalent to the Academy Award. There are 24 categories as of 2006.- History :The...
and Nastro d'argentoNastro d'ArgentoThe Nastro d'Argento is a movie award assigned each year, since 1946, for cinematic performances and production by Sindacato Nazionale dei Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani, the association of Italian film critics...
for Canone InversoCanone InversoCanone Inverso is a 2000 film directed by Ricky Tognazzi and starring Hans Matheson, Mélanie Thierry, and Lee Williams, and is based on the book Canone Inverso by Italian writer Paolo Maurensig.... - 2000 — Academy Awards nomination for MalènaMalènaMalèna is a 2000 Italian romantic drama film starring Monica Bellucci and Giuseppe Sulfaro. It was directed and written by Giuseppe Tornatore from a story by Luciano Vincenzoni.-Plot:...
- 2000 — Nastro d'argento for MalènaMalènaMalèna is a 2000 Italian romantic drama film starring Monica Bellucci and Giuseppe Sulfaro. It was directed and written by Giuseppe Tornatore from a story by Luciano Vincenzoni.-Plot:...
- 2001 — Mikeldi de Honor at "Zinebi - International Festival of Documentary and Short Films" of Bilbao
- 2002 — Honorary Degree by the "Seconda Università" of Rome
- 2003 — Golden Eagle Award by the Russian National Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences of Russia for 72 Meters (film)
- 2003 — Honorary Senator of the Filmscoring Class of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater MünchenHochschule für Musik und Theater MünchenThe Hochschule für Musik und Theater München is one of the most respected traditional vocational universities in Germany specialising in music and the performing arts. The seat of the Hochschule is the former Führerbau of the NSDAP, located at Arcisstraße 12, on the eastern side of the Königsplatz...
- 2006 — Grand Officer OMRIOmriOmri was a king of Israel, successful military campaigner and first in the line of Omride kings that included Ahab, Ahaziah and Joram.He was "commander of the army" of king Elah when Zimri murdered Elah and made himself king. Instead, the troops at Gibbethon chose Omri as king, and he led them to...
, nominated by Carlo Azeglio CiampiCarlo Azeglio Ciampidr. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is an Italian politician and banker. He was the 73rd Prime Minister of Italy from 1993 to 1994 and was the tenth President of the Italian Republic from 1999 to 2006... - 2007 — Honorary Academy Award for career achievement
- 2007 — The Film & TV Music Award for Lifetime Achievement
- 2007 — David di DonatelloDavid di DonatelloDavid di Donatello, named after Donatello's David, is a movie award assigned each year for cinematic performances and production by Ente David di Donatello, part of Accademia del Cinema Italiano. It is the Italian equivalent to the Academy Award. There are 24 categories as of 2006.- History :The...
and Nastro d'argentoNastro d'ArgentoThe Nastro d'Argento is a movie award assigned each year, since 1946, for cinematic performances and production by Sindacato Nazionale dei Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani, the association of Italian film critics...
for La sconosciutaLa sconosciutaLa sconosciuta also The Unknown Woman or The Other Woman is an enigmatic Italian psychological thriller mystery film, directed by Giuseppe Tornatore that depicts a woman alone in a foreign country, haunted by a horrible past, and in search of a lost daughter.- Plot :Irena , a Ukrainian... - 2008 — Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental, performed by Bruce SpringsteenBruce SpringsteenBruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
- 2008 — Knight of the Legion of Honour
- 2009 — Medal of Merits for Macedonia
- 2009 — America Award of the Italy-USA FoundationItaly-USA FoundationItaly–USA Foundation was established to promote the friendship between Italians and Americans plus American culture in Italy. The foundation is a non-profit organization based in Rome, Italy...
- 2010 — Polar Music PrizePolar Music PrizeThe Polar Music Prize is a Swedish international music award founded in 1989 by Stig Anderson, possibly best known to be the manager of the Swedish pop group ABBA, with a donation to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music....
of the Royal Swedish Academy of the Arts
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 SadieStanley SadieStanley Sadie CBE was a leading British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , which was published as the first edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.Sadie was educated at St Paul's School,...
and John TyrrellJohn Tyrrell (professor of music)John Tyrrell was born in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia in 1942. He studied at the universities of Cape Town, Oxford and Brno. In 2000 he was appointed Research Professor at Cardiff University....
. 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
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
- Ennio Morricone Myspace
- The Ennio Morricone Online Community
- Streaming audio of Morricone's "The Man with the Harmonica," from his soundtrack to Once upon a Time in the West
- TÊTE-À-TÊTE: Ennio Morricone by Nic Harcourt at Los Angeles Times Magazine
- Making It In Hollywood A documentary which filmed the exclusive first meeting in 40 years with Clint Eastwood.