Ennio Morricone

Ennio Morricone (born November 10, 1928) is an Italian composer, especially noted for his film scores. He has composed the scores of more than 500 films and TV series, and only 30 of them are Western films. However it is for his Western film scores that he is best known, and his sparse style of composition for the genre is particularly exemplified by the soundtrack for the classic film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966). Becoming as well-known in recent years is his haunting score for The Mission (Roland Joffé, 1986).

Biography

Morricone was born in Rome and was educated at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in the trumpet and composition under Goffredo Petrassi, and choral music and choral direction. In the beginning he regarded himself to be destined to compose modern classical music, but this changed when he was invited to write arrangements for popular Italian songs, at which he was completely unfamiliar at that time. A particular success was the song Se telefonando sung by Mina.

Related Topics:
Rome - Conservatory of Santa Cecilia - Trumpet - Goffredo Petrassi - Choral music - Mina

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In 1956 he married Maria Travia. He began writing music for films in 1962 but continued to work in classical composition and arrangement. In 1964 he began his famous collaboration with Sergio Leone and Bernardo Bertolucci. For Leone he wrote the score for A Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone, 1964) and continued with a number of other Spaghetti Western films. By 1968 he was reducing his work outside of film, in the same year he wrote twenty scores for films. Although he is most famous for writing the scores of all but one of Leone's films, he was more at ease with directors such as Giuliano Montaldo and Gillo Pontecorvo.

Related Topics:
1956 - 1962 - 1964 - Bernardo Bertolucci - A Fistful of Dollars - Sergio Leone - Spaghetti Western - 1968 - Giuliano Montaldo - Gillo Pontecorvo

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He received his first Nastro d'Argento in 1970 for the music in Metti, una Sera a Cena (Giuseppe Patroni-Griffi, 1969) and his second only a year later for Sacco and Vanzetti (Guiliano Montaldo, 1971). He received his first nomination for an Academy Award in 1979 for the score to Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978) and another in 1986 for The Mission, 1987 for The Untouchables (Brian De Palma, 1987), 1991 for Bugsy (Barry Levinson, 1991) and 2001 for Malèna (Giuseppe Tornatore, 2000).

Related Topics:
Nastro d'Argento - 1970 - Giuseppe Patroni-Griffi - 1969 - Sacco and Vanzetti - 1971 - Academy Award - 1979 - Days of Heaven - Terrence Malick - 1978 - 1986 - The Mission - 1987 - The Untouchables - Brian De Palma - 1991 - Bugsy - Barry Levinson - 2001 - Malèna - Giuseppe Tornatore - 2000

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He composed over two dozen scores for the Italian Mafia TV series La Piovra. See La Piovra 2 (soundtrack), La Piovra 3 (soundtrack), La Piovra 4 (soundtrack), La Piovra 5 (soundtrack).

Related Topics:
Mafia - La Piovra - La Piovra 2 (soundtrack) - La Piovra 3 (soundtrack) - La Piovra 4 (soundtrack) - La Piovra 5 (soundtrack)

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Morricone's film music has been recorded by other artists on a number of occasions: Hugo Montenegro had a hit with a version of the theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in both the UK and the US and followed it up with an album of Morricone's music in 1968, and John Zorn recorded an album of Morricone's music, The Big Gundown, in the mid-1980s. More recently, in 2004, virtuoso cellist Yo-Yo Ma recorded an album of Morricone classics with the Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra and Morricone himself conducting. The metal band Metallica uses Morricone's Ecstasy of Gold as an intro at their concerts. The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra also played it on the symphonic Metallica album S&M. Theme from A Fistful Of Dollars is also used as a concert intro by The Mars Volta.

Related Topics:
Hugo Montenegro - John Zorn - Virtuoso - Yo-Yo Ma - Metallica - San Francisco Symphony Orchestra - The Mars Volta

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In 2003 he scored the Japanese Taiga drama about Miyamoto Musashi, Japan's legendary warrior.

Related Topics:
2003 - Taiga drama - Miyamoto Musashi

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In 2005 he is currently on a world tour with the Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra, touring from cities like New York, Bilbao, Bratislava and Tokyo.

Related Topics:
2005 - Bilbao - Bratislava

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