Ennio Morricone: A tribute to one of the world's most prolific film composers
Read about the man behind over 500 scores
As we reach the first anniversary since we lost Ennio Morricone, we look back at the life of the great Italian composer. With a career spanning across eight decades and over 500 scores to his name, Morricone is one of the most prolific composers of his time.
Join us as we look back at who Ennio Morricone was, and look at what he managed to achieve.
Mark Kermode presents Scala’s weekly movie music show and this weekend he promises an Ennio Morricone special. The great Italian composer died on 6th July 2020 and Mark Kermode has played music by the Maestro on his show every week since.
Morricone composed over 500 scores so Mark has had plenty to choose from, and in this celebration of a unique musical talent and his enduring legacy, Mark will showcase some of his favourite Morricone discoveries. The Red Tent, Exorcist II: The Heretic, Love Affair, Fateless and The Thing will make appearances along with several Spaghetti Westerns you may not have heard before!
Where was Ennio Morricone from?
Ennio was born in Rome, Italy and he lived in the country all his life.
When was Ennio Morricone born?
Ennio was born on 10th November 1928.
When did Morricone compose his first piece of music?
It was clear very early on that Ennio had a talent for music as he wrote his first compositions at just six years old! With his father being a trumpeter himself, Ennio's talents were encouraged and he was given the appropriate training to nurture his gift.
Ennio Morricone: Early work for radio
Ennio started working as an arranger for radio in 1950s. In 1958 he quit his job as an arranger for RAI (an Italian broadcasting service) on his first day after learning that their company policy was to ban playing compositions by their own staff.
Composing for jazz and pop artists
Ennio often composed music for many Italian Jazz and Pop artists including Gianni Morandi, Edoardo Vianello, Jimmy Fontana, and Rita Pavone.
One of his bigger pop successes was 'Se telefonando' which was performed by the singer Mina. The song was subsequently covered by several Italian artists over the years.
What was Morricone's first film score?
Ennio's early work for film after graduation was as an uncredited ghost writer for more well-known composers. He was the conductor on Franco Rossi's Morte di un amico (Death of a Friend) which he did also co-compose the score along with the film's main composer Mario Nascimbene, Ennio wasn't credited for his composition work on this film.
His first actual work as a composer for a film was for Luciano Salce's Il Federale (The Fascist). Ennio continued to work on further projects with Salce including his comedy film, La voglia matta (Crazy Desire).
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
It's fair to argue that Ennio's score for Sergio Leone's 1966 Western epic The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is not only one of the most recognisable works from his extensive back catalogue - it's one of the most well-known film scores in cinematic history.
The film is the final instalment of Leone's Dollars Trilogy, which helped establish the Spaghetti Western subgenre into popularity - the subgenre being an American Western film directed and produced by Europeans.
The film's low budget pushed Ennio to find alternative sounds for the film's score. Instead of the more expensive orchestral sound that John Ford had established for the genre in the 1930s, Ennio opted for whip cracks, gunshots, whistles, voices and an electric guitar which expanded the possibilities of film scoring.
A tribute to Ennio's magnificent work may be that if anyone opts to parody or reference the Western film genre, they will usually opt for the main theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
Other Westerns
Following the success of the Dollars Trilogy Ennio continued to collaborate with Leone for his Once Upon a Time Trilogy with the soundtrack for the trilogy's first instalment, Once Upon a Time in the West being one of the best selling scores in the world.
Throughout the 60s and 70s Ennio worked on plenty of other Western films, collaborating with the likes of Sergio Corbucci and Sergio Sollima working on films such as Navajo Joe, The Great Silence, What Am I Doing in the Middle of the Revolution?, The Big Gundown, and Run, Man, Run.
Ennio's early Hollywood films
The Dollars Trilogy was released in the United States in 1967 and as a result Ennio's work was quickly became popular in the country. His first project with an American director was John Huston's 1966 religious epic, The Bible: In the Beginning....
Despite getting to work on Hollywood films, Ennio continued to live in Rome.
Throughout the 1970s, Ennio worked on several films, continuing with the Western genre with Donsiegel's Two Mules for Sister Sara which starred Hollywood heavyweights Shirley MacLaine and Clint Eastwood. He also continued to score for several other genres such as working on the sequel to The Exorcist, The Exorcist II: The Heretic, as well as Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven which got Ennio his first Oscar nomination.
Ennio Morricone: The Mission
One of Ennio's other best-selling scores was for The Mission which was directed by Roland Joffé and released in 1986. The score won a Golden Globe but controversially didn't get the Oscar (however it was nominated).
Ennio told The Guardian in 2001 that he "should have won for The Mission" and went on to say "Especially when you consider that the Oscar-winner that year was Round Midnight, which was not an original score. It had a very good arrangement by Herbie Hancock, but it used existing pieces. So there could be no comparison with The Mission. There was a theft! But, of course, if it was up to me, every two years I would win an Oscar."
Working with Quentin Tarantino
Tarantino originally wanted to work with Ennio for Inglourious Basterds however Ennio wasn't able to. Their first collaboration would be for Django Unchaned where Ennio composed an original song for the film called 'Ancora Qui' which was sung by the Italian singer Elisa Toffoli.
Ennio worked with Tarantino again for the 2015 film, The Hateful Eight which was the first Western film for Ennio to score in over 30 years. In 2016, Ennio finally won his first Oscar for his work on The Hateful Eight.
Television work
As well as working on feature films, Ennio was no stranger to the world of television, he worked on La Piovra, an Italian series about the Mafia from it's second series onwards from 1985 to 2001.
Ennio continued to work on television series throughout the 2000s including Il Cuore nel Pozzo, Karol: A Man Who Became Pope, and Giovanni Falcone.
Ennio Morricone's death
Ennio Morricone passed away on 6th July 2020 from injuries he sustained after a fall. He was 91 years old.
Listen to Mark Kermode on Scala Radio Saturday afternoons at 1pm.
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