Ennio Morricone was one of the most prolific and distinctive of film composers. His work on the “Spaghetti Westerns” of the 1960s, in particular, revolutionised the way in which movie scores could be written. He composed music for more than 350 movies, and seemed equally comfortable writing for comedy, romance, and contemporary drama as for the Westerns that first brought him fame.
Morricone was born in Rome on October 11, 1928. After studying trumpet and composition he became a professional composer, producing works for radio, stage, TV, and the concert hall. In the 1950s he arranged and wrote songs for the popular Italian vocalist Gianni Morandi. In 1961 Morricone was commissioned to write his first film score, for the comedy Il Federate, and three years later he arranged Paul Anka’s Italian hit, “Ogni Volta.”
It was the satirical westerns of Sergio Leone, however, that brought Morricone to prominence. These comprise the “Dollars” trilogy, starring Clint Eastwood: A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1967), as well as the epic, Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). All are highly stylised and sophisticated homages to the American Western, combining cynical brutality with knowing humour. From the start, Morricone threw out the film-score rulebook. In A Fistful of Dollars he dispensed with the usual folk tune-based score to create a soundtrack featuring shouts, cries, and a haunting whistled phrase. Other striking motifs for Leone’s movies include the tinkling pocket-watch tune that always preludes killing in For a Few Dollars More, and the harmonica phrase that identifies the avenging Charles Bronson character in Once Upon a Time in the West. He also contrasted heroic choral music with the electric guitar, which had never before been attempted.
Morricone’s work for Leone led to collaborations with other European, then American, directors. A list of some of the directors and movies that feature his music shows his extraordinary versatility: Pier Paolo Pasolini’s The Decameron (1970), Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1900 (1977), John Boorman’s Exorcist II (1977), Terrence Malik’s Days of Heaven (1978), Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables (1987), Roman Polanski’s Frantic (1988), and Barry Levinson’s Bugsy (1991). He continued writing Italian film music throughout the 1990s.
The score for Days of Heaven opens with music from Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns, which matches the film’s ethereal, dream-like mood. Morricone reworks Saint-Saëns in much of his writing for the film. In his outstanding score for Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America (1984), on the other hand, the inspiration is Gustav MAHLER, and the quiet, peaceful music acts as an effective foil to the violent action of the film. Morricone reached another creative peak with his music for Roland Joffe’s The Mission (1986), particularly in the beautiful phrases for the oboe, in his evocation of South American flutes, and in his intriguing interweaving of ethnic and classical themes. Morricone himself described the score as “contemporary music written in an ancient language.” Other influences range from early American cowboy movies to the choral works of Carl ORFF. But once these diverse ingredients were mixed in his creative melting pot, the results were Morricone’s own.
Morricone’s status as one of film’s premier composers is unquestionable. Some of his most famous soundtracks, such as The Mission, Days of Heaven, The Untouchables, and Bugsy, are testaments to his extraordinary versatility as a composer and his acute understanding of the medium of film.
Richard Trombley
SEE ALSO:
FILM MUSIC; ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
Gorbman, Claudia. Unheard Melodies (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1987).
Casualties of War, Chamber Music; Days of Heaven; Film Hits; The Mission; Once Upon a Time in America.