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City Lights: Ennio Morricone
by Andira Vitale
He is a legend. His sensational and emphatic pieces and ability to write music for almost any genre are why he is regarded as one of the greatest film composers ever.
Ennio Moriccone is an Italian Composer and Orchestrator. His repertoire consists of music for over five hundred movies and songs. Morricone was born in Rome, Italy, on November 10, 1928. Born under fascist rule, Ennio’s talent was first discovered by his father. His father was a jazz trumpet player, and he gave the young Moriccone his first music lessons. Ennio started writing compositions at six after his father noticed his talent. Under the guidance of Umberto Semproni, he attended the National Academy of Saint Cecilia to take trumpet lessons.
At twelve, Morricone joined the Saint Cecilia Conservatory to study harmony, where he completed a four-year program in two years. Morricone continued studying at the conservatory until 1952, obtaining diplomas in Composition and Band Arrangement, among many others. In addition to entering the academy in 1940, when he was only 12, he proved his musical intelligence by completing the conservatory’s four-year adaptation program in six months.
He studied trumpet, composition, and choral music with his teacher, Goffredo Petrassi, who significantly influenced his art. Since then, he has dedicated all his concert pieces to him. He received his trumpet diploma in 1946.
At school, his classmates included Leone – with whom he would later form one of the great director/composer partnerships. “We weren’t friends; we were schoolmates,” Morricone once said. “We were seven years old, so we played together, but you can’t call that friendship.”
Later, his first love was scoring classical pieces, but he began composing background music for radio drama to make a living. He later turned his hand to film scores, but none made much impact until his old school friend asked him to write the soundtrack for Per Un Pugno di Dollari (A Fistful of Dollars).
Upon graduation, Morricone first wrote film scores as a ghostwriter for other composers. The RAI television network also hired him to arrange this. He continued his studies in classical composition and arrangement.
After graduation, he played the trumpet in jazz bands, composed music for radio programs, worked as a studio arranger for RCA Records, and produced works as a “ghost writer” in cinema and theatre.
In 1959, he conducted and co-wrote the score for Mario Nascimbene’s “Morte Di Un Amico.” His first credited score was for Luciano Salce’s 1961 movie “II Federale.” Moriccone also wrote the score for Salce’s “La Voglia Matta” in 1962.
Forum Music Village
Forum Music Village, formerly known as Ortophonic Recording Studio and located under the Sacro Cuore di Maria in Rome, was founded in 1969 by Ennio Morricone, Armando Trovajoli, Luis Bacalov, Piero Piccioni and Enrico De Melis. Morricone contributed significantly to establishing this comprehensive music studio and has produced his music here for 40 years. Forum Music Village also hosts directors such as Brian De Palma, Oliver Stone and Barry Levinson, who worked with the maestro. The studio creates a haven for unique composers and directors to work on music and hosts the likes of Cher, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Quincy Jones.
Absolute Music
Ennio Morricone defines his compositions, apart from film scores, as “absolute music”. We understand that 150 “absolute music” compositions are ready to be staged, most of which have an avant-garde aesthetic. Morricone, who married his partner Maria Travia in 1956, explained his passion for these compositions by giving an example: “We have been married for 60 years. When I was 40, I told Maria I wanted to stop composing film scores and devote all my time to ‘absolute music’. I said the same thing at 50, 60, 70 and 80. Maybe I’ll stop doing this when I’m 90.”
In 1963, Morricone wrote his first score for a Western movie titled “Gunfight at Red Sands”. He then reunited with his schoolmate Sergio Leone, an aspiring director. He wrote the soundtrack for the famous “Dollars Trilogy” with Leone. This soundtrack was one of Moriccone’s most famous; it included the beautiful composition “The Ecstasy of Gold”, which became Moriccone’s most famous tune. Morricone followed his marvellous success with soundtracks for “Once Upon a Time in the West” and “A Fistful of Dynamite”. He also wrote scores for director Sergio Corbucci’s western films, including “Navajo Joe”, “The Hellbenders”, and “The Great Silence”.
When the Dollar’s Trilogy premiered in the United States in 1967, Moriccone’s career expanded to Hollywood. There, he composed film scores for Academy Award-winning films, including “The Untouchables”, “Days of Heaven”, “The Mission”, “Bugsy”, and “Cinema Paradiso”. Directors for whom Morricone wrote music included John Carpenter, Barry Levinson, Mike Nichols and Brian De Palma. Morricone also composed music for many popular television series, including “Moses the Lawgiver”, “The Secret of the Sahara”, “Marco Polo”, and “La Piovra”.
From 1964 to 1980, Moriccone was a part of the G.I.N.C, a band which was colloquially named “The Group”. Morricone released seven albums with the avant-garde group, which was created to promote improvisation and new musical techniques. During his career, Morricone collaborated with world-famous artists, including Paul Anka, Chet Baker, Mina, Alberto Lionello, Rita Pavone, Luigi Tenco, and Rosy Armen. His partnership with Anka Paul resulted in the composition “Ogni Volta”, a single that sold over three million copies worldwide.
Ennio Morricone’s legendary skills in composing and orchestrating led him to conduct some of the world’s leading orchestras. As of 2001, he has conducted over two hundred concerts, including concerts for the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, and mainly for the Orchestra Roma Sinfonietta. Among his fifty-six awards, he won an Honorary Academy Award in 2007 for “his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music.” He is also the winner of three Grammy Awards and two Golden Globes. Despite his Hollywood success, he remained true to his roots, composing many scores for Italian cinema.
We have selected the most unforgettable film scores of Italian Ennio Morricone, one of the most well-known film musicians of the 20th century!