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| Morricone at Cannes, 2012. |
Such a sadness yesterday when I heard the news that Ennio Morricone
had died. In fact, sheer gratitude and delight are what I
normally, formerly, felt at the sound of his name. He was not a
classical musician, orchestrator or composer in the way of the greats
in the past, like Beethoven or Mozart but he was worthy of equal
adoration and renown and many classical musicians were ardent admirers of his work. His fame was world-wide and inspired a huge
devotion in the world of film/cinema, theatre, radio. I do wonder if,
in fact, young people have even heard his name? Probably not but all
anyone needs to do is just go on Wikipedia with an hour to spare to
read all the biographical information available, and familiar names
associated in particular with the film world, will bubble up and some recognition take place.
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| Goffredo Petrassi, composer and teacher. |
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| Ennio Morricone and Sergio Leone 1973 |
Morricone, born in Rome, attended the Conservatory there from the age
of 12 and studied trumpet, composition and choral music under the
tutelage of Goffredo Petrassi. His instruments became the trumpet and
the piano. He was a total musician eventually becoming world famous
for his distinctive, manifold compositions, creating highly poignant,
melodic and emotional music. Friends observed that he did not sit at
the piano to compose but that entire compositions arrived, finished,
in his head. His fame burst into the wider public in 1964 after
Sergio Leone, the Italian film producer and early fellow student,,
appointed him to write the score for the first of his Spaghetti
Westerns,
A Fistful of Dollars, The great success of
this film spawned two more by Leone,
A Few Dollars More,
1965 and
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, 1966. All
three so-called
Dollars Trilogy starred Clint Eastwood and relied on
Morricone for his highly individual, memorable scores. For Leone, the
music was not background; it was integral to setting the mood,
establishing the character, heightening the tension, calming the
clamour. On 14 August 1968 Morricone was awarded a
Golden Record for over 500,000 copies sold in the U.S. alone. The U.S. was an important market for Morricone but, in keeping with his refusal to learn English, he always resisted Hollywood and cared little for his standing in America, preferring to spend his life based in his beloved Rome. He
subsequently composed the music for Leone’s
Once Upon A Time
in The West, 1968, and
A Fistful of
Dynamite in 1971. A stunningly fertile partnership.
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| Ennio and Sergio at school together, 1937. |
"Most of the time, people experience the music in a film as a subconscious suggestion. In other words, music manages to show what is not visible, to work against the dialogue or, even more, tell a story that the images do not reveal." Morricone wrote in 2019.
I n fact, though Morricone won huge fame and prestige through his
Spaghetti Western compositions, he composed for a wide variety of film
including horror films and comedies plus, for example, my all-time favourite film, Cinema Paradiso. Oh, those swelling heartstrings! His repertoire of over 500 scores captivated countless listeners with its emotional fascination. He was also prolific in the
number of concerts he gave. Certainly, when no longer young, in 2001
alone, he gave 250 concerts during a world tour with Orchestra Roma
Sinfonietta. His 75th birthday concert was at the
Barbican, in London. During 2003-2004, Morricone appeared in concert
in Paris, Vienna, Tokyo, Munich but I saw him in April or May 2005
when he appeared in Firenze before a crowd of at least 2000. I
happened to be living there [and almost ready to leave that June] and
couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the poster! The concert was one of the high spots of my life!
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Ennio Morricone with his only Oscar, at 87
in 2016! |
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Clint Eastwood in
The Man With No Name. |
When one reads of all that Morricone did and achieved in his 91
years, one is overwhelmed, almost, with admiration. He seems to have
possessed enough energy and creativity for several men, and the music
which remains as testament to genius, is sublime.
